volcano – In Photos dot Org

The blue waters of the Blue Lagoon in Iceland. People are swimming in it, while the surrounding landscape is covered in snow. The Svartsengi Geothermal Power Plant can be seen in the background.

In March 2012, I visited Iceland with my team from work and for our activity day we went to the Blue Lagoon for a swim. It was March and, as illustrated by the photos above, snow blanketed the ground, and it was freezing! The water was lovely and warm, and you’d be fine as long as you kept as much of your body in the water as possible!

I’m revisiting this trip today because of the concerning news from Iceland. There have been numerous earthquakes, and magma is building up, only 800m underground and very close to the Blue Lagoon and the Svartsengi Geothermal Power Plant. The ground has risen by 8cm because the magma is pushing it up. The nearby town of Grindavik has been evacuated as a fissure runs through it. Earthquakes have already caused serious structural damage to buildings there.

Data shows the “magma tunnel is significant, and it is approaching the surface” according to this video. The tunnel is about 15km long. It seems likely there will be an eruption very soon.

Edit on December 19th: it finally erupted. You can see it on this live cam. This video shows the vantage point from a helicopter. The erupting fissure is 3.5km long!

Flames erupting from a volcanic eruption in Iceland.

An erupting volcanic fissure with lava spewing out of it.

Aperture	ƒ/9
Camera	Canon EOS 40D
Focal length	18mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	1/200s

La Cueva de los Verdes is a seven kilometre long volcanic cave on the island of Lanzarote. One kilometre of it is open to the public and it’s amazing to visit. It was formed almost 5,000 years ago by lava that flowed from a volcano to the sea and it’s incredible to think of the forces and temperatures that formed the tunnel. This was my second visit to the cave. The first was with my wife, but this time my son went with me. He loved that he never had to duck down when walking through low passages! I looked forwards to taking this photo the whole day.

What’s really annoying however is tourists who don’t know how to use their cameras. A teenage girl with a DSLR stood next to me taking photos using the flash on her camera. I bet none of her photos captured the beautiful light show as the cavern was quite large and it was very dark. This photo was a 13 second exposure, at f/4.0, ISO 100. Luckily there was a particularly flat rock where I could rest my camera. Unfortunately for her she wasn’t speaking English but as I left I told another photographer to put his camera down in the same place and turn off the flash to get the best shot.

You can find more information on the cave here, here and of course on Wikipedia.

The Cueva de los Verdes stretches underground from the volcano known as “La Corona” through to the sea on the north east coast. The tunnel was blasted through the earth under the effect of exploding lava more than four millenia ago, rather like an enormous exhaust pipe.
Within recent years, the island government and the local authority of Haria have carried out extensive work on the cave, providing illumination, ambient music and safe pathways for the interested visitor. An hour–long guided tour covering more than two kilometres of underground exploration, includes an explanation of the legends of the cave, plus a sound and light show.

If you ever visit Lanzarote it’s definitely worth visiting!

PS. if you know the story behind this scene, keep it to yourself. Don’t spoil it for future visitors who might come by this post! 🙂

Aperture	ƒ/4
Camera	Canon EOS 6D
Focal length	17mm
ISO	100
Shutter speed	13s

Tag Archives: volcano

The Blue Lagoon in Iceland

La Cueva de los Verdes