Drone Captures Fissure at Iceland’s Fagradalsfjall Erupting

Drones often capture the headlines for their antics one way or the other.

But we also love shining a light on some of the amazing videography and photography that only a drone could make.

If you’ll recall, we reported late last year about the collapse of the Arecibo Observatory, an iconic location whose place in cinematic history was capped off with drone-captured sendoff worthy of Hollywood as it spontaneously collapsed into the ground.

Today’s story might top that one, however, as a fissure called Geldingadalsgos in Iceland, part of the Fagradalsfjall volcano, is erupting and more than a few photographers are taking some amazing shots of nature in action.

According to PetaPixel, Fagradalsfjall is erupting for the first time in 800 years. Drone pilot Bjorn Steinbekk flew his DJI FPV along a trailing river of lava in an epic 15-second video you can view here.

While this is the first eruption in 800 years, it isn’t expected to be a very long one. University of Iceland professor of volcanology, Þor­vald­ur Þórðar­son, commented to press that the eruption could end very soon or last for as long as a month. Crowds that gathered to watch the volcano have since left the site due to an increase in gas emissions Grapevine is reporting.

Interestingly enough, an eruption similar to this some 14,000 years ago is supposed to have lasted hundreds of years but, thankfully, that’s not what is going on here.

“Now, I’m not saying that this is what we’re facing now there at Fagradalsfjall…We’re nowhere near that point. What awaits us now is that this valley, Geldingadalur, needs to fill with lava—and that lava needs to be at least 25 to 30 metres thick—before it pours out of the valley,” Þorvaldur commented to Grapevine.

The video and pictures of this eruption remind us of an article we did earlier this year about Steve Irwin’s son winning a people’s choice award for a photo showing a fire trail in the Australian bush. You can read that article here.

Be sure to check out our other photography news at this link right here.

[PetaPixel]