Drone Footage Shot Over Iceland’s Erupting Volcano is Incredible

While up-close photos taken of Iceland’s erupting volcano are impressive, some footage captured by a drone is equally stunning.

This fissure, named Geldingadalsgos, marks the first time that the volcano Fagradalsfjall has been active in 800 years, but luckily it has been expected for a couple of weeks and there have been no injuries reported.

The video above shows the drone flying smoothly up the river of lava and towards the mouth of the bubbling volcano. The lava seems to come strikingly close to the drone’s camera, but the drone came out unharmed according to DPReview, who spoke with the drone’s pilot Bjorn Steinbekk.

Steinbekk captured the video with the new DJI FPV, a first-person-view drone that is specially-designed to perform fast, acrobatic moves. Combined with the 4K camera, Stenbekk was able to shoot the quick 15-second video.

The video below by Benjamin Hardman is no less spectacular:

Geldingadalsgos isn’t particularly large despite the high-level of activity. Both of the videos above as well as the two below can give an idea of the scale by comparing the size of the lava rivers next to bystanders.

The video below shows how the volcano appeared from what was a quiet landscape days before:

As of this morning, the large crowds of onlookers have been dispersed as the area has been closed to visitors due to higher gas emissions, complicated by worsening weather. Þor­vald­ur Þórðar­son, a professor of volcanology and petrology at the University of Iceland, says that by his estimates, the eruption could be over as soon as tomorrow or continue for as much as a month. However, based on the slowing rate of lava flow, it will likely be sooner rather than later, but that doesn’t mean another fissure won’t appear in the coming months or years.

This particular fissure eruption is one of many in the country’s history, according to Grapevine. The closest one to the current eruption at Fagradalsfjall was Þráinsskjöldur, which erupted about 14,000 years ago and lasted a few hundred years.