Have you ever been inside an active volcano?
Have you ever imagined what a real active volcano looks like from the inside? Well, we all have our peculiar interests, at least Thomas does. He can not walk past a hole without stopping up to examine it closer. That’s why Nina decided to arrange an excursion to a unique hole that can only be visited on Iceland. We are going into the volcanos magma chamber!!
Normally this would be an impossible expedition because after an eruption the magma chamber of a volcano will be inaccessible due to the solidified lava that would have closed the crater. In addition, the magma in the magma chamber solidifies as well. But this did not happen at Þríhnúkagígur. After the eruption the hot magma drained out of the chamber, leaving this incredible cave.
It is about a three kilometer hike to get from the main road to the volcano. The landscape is barren and consists of volcanic rocks and little else.
It took about six minutes to be lowered down the crater and into the volcano. The volcano is active but dormant, and our guide was confident that future eruptions where predictable. The below video shows our decent, I am sorry that I forgot to hold my phone in landscape view… We speak Norwegian on the video, but the guide speaks english:
Þríhnúkagígurs last eruption was 4000 years ago, so warning or no warning, we figured it would be pretty unlikely for an eruption should happen during the 45 minutes we were spending in the magma chamber. Once at the bottom we were free to explore and take pictures for 30 minutes. It was a breathtaking and totally unreal experience, something to remember for the rest of our lives.
Inside the magma chamber
The magma chamber is huge, with beautiful coloration from sulphur and oxidized iron.
This was our last adventure during the 2019 Iceland expedition, but we have already decided that will go back to Iceland for more adventures here!
