[HN Gopher] Live feed from Iceland erupting volcano [video]
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Live feed from Iceland erupting volcano [video]
        
       Author : lknik
       Score  : 571 points
       Date   : 2021-03-22 08:10 UTC (14 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.ruv.is)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.ruv.is)
        
       | vzaliva wrote:
       | I hope somebody is recording this stream. It could make an
       | amazing time-lapse video later.
        
       | tamaharbor wrote:
       | Learning grade school science (50 years ago) would have been so
       | much easier if they just showed me these videos. Amazing!
        
       | asgeir wrote:
       | And if you want to see the definition of terror, look at the
       | second video on this page when part of the main crater collapsed
       | https://www.ruv.is/frett/2021/03/21/hraunrennsli-dagsins-a-o...
        
         | fantod wrote:
         | The definition of terror is people laughing while trotting out
         | of the way?
        
         | adflux wrote:
         | What in the name of god are these tourists(?) doing there !?
        
           | 4gotunameagain wrote:
           | It's not that dangerous in real time (lava is slooow),
           | especially if you have hills like they do close by to go up
           | on.
        
             | dopeboy wrote:
             | Isn't there a chance a projectile of lava could land on
             | them?
        
             | ngngngng wrote:
             | There have been incidents in Hawaii where people
             | successfully used a garden hose to protect their home from
             | oncoming lava flow.
        
             | asgeir wrote:
             | This is from the webcam at the time.
             | https://www.ruv.is/frett/2021/03/21/gigbarmurinn-gefur-
             | sig-o...
        
       | voisin wrote:
       | Drone footage on Reddit:
       | https://reddit.com/r/BeAmazed/comments/mahr6j/fpv_drone_foot...
        
       | sizzzzlerz wrote:
       | Great video but its amusing to see so many people up close and
       | personal with the erupting lava. Here in the US, our National
       | Park Service closed the entire area surrounding the crater at
       | Kilauea when it started erupting last year. Unless you were a
       | volcanologist, you aren't able to get within several miles of it.
        
         | orobinson wrote:
         | Iceland seems to have a very relaxed approach to health and
         | safety. I visited in 2006 and remember walking around boiling
         | pools of mud on very slippery ground with nothing but a single
         | token piece of rope to prevent tourists from slipping and
         | falling to a slow and painful death.
        
           | sizzzzlerz wrote:
           | That's what has been done at Yellowstone National Park. All
           | the tourist-accessible thermal features have boardwalks built
           | out to and around them for both safety and environmental
           | protection from the millions of vistors. Other features, like
           | Old Faithful geyser, has been surround by cement paths and
           | benches for visitors to view eruptions from. The backcountry,
           | however, has no such facilities and people who visit those
           | are basically on their own and need to use their own
           | discretion. That said, people die in hot springs every year
           | because they're too dumb to recognize the dangers.
        
           | lostlogin wrote:
           | New Zealand is/was similar. Then in 2019 White Island erupted
           | and killed 22 people and injured a similar number. The
           | injuries have been truely horrific. Skin grafts alone came to
           | a quarter of a million square centimetres of skin for
           | victims.
           | 
           | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Whakaari_/_White_Island.
           | ..
           | 
           | https://i.stuff.co.nz/national/health/118741979/whakaari--
           | wh...
        
           | MrDresden wrote:
           | Since the meteoric rise in tourism post financial crisis,
           | more funds have been put into upgrading many of the tourist
           | areas with propper walking paths and cordoning off certain
           | areas.
           | 
           | This has mostly been done to preserve the areas from undue
           | damage from humans, but also for their increased safety.
           | 
           | Our view of health and safety is still vastly different from
           | the US for example. It does help that liability for your own
           | personal health most often lies on your own shoulders instead
           | of somebody else's.
        
           | chrisco255 wrote:
           | Iceland must be less litigious and have less lawyers per
           | capita.
        
             | Moru wrote:
             | I believe at least the lawyer thing is true for most of the
             | world compared to USA.
        
         | MrDresden wrote:
         | Having the police close off the whole area around the eruption
         | is simply not feasible.
         | 
         | The view here in Iceland is more that people should heed the
         | advice given, and use good judgement if they decide to go see
         | the eruption anyway.
         | 
         | Certain areas are closed off though, and the police and SaR
         | teams will interact with those who go there.
        
       | nanna wrote:
       | It's almost as if the Icelandic Tourism board turned to the
       | Asatruarfelagid for help bringing tourism back. 'Gudmundur,
       | everyone's dreaming of flying towards the equator when they're
       | allowed, not towards us in the Artic circle. What can we do?'
       | 
       | 'WE SHALL SUMMON SURTR'!
        
         | runarberg wrote:
         | There was a huge debate some time ago about Christianity vs.
         | Asatru on Althingi (the Icelandic general assembly). During
         | this debate news broke that an eruption had started in
         | Svinahraun--a few dozen km east of the current Geldingadalur
         | eruption. Allegedly some proponents of Asatru suggested that
         | the eruption was the fault of the gods not liking the fact that
         | this debate was happening. However this argument was quickly
         | dismissed as the debate was already happening on top of an
         | ancient lava field and the debaters couldn't fathom what must
         | have angered the gods that caused it to erupt in the ancient
         | times.
         | 
         | See Kristni Saga (chapter 11)
        
           | nanna wrote:
           | When the Karahnjukar dam was being built the Asatru would
           | visit the construction site and curse it, so Landsvirkjun
           | (Iceland's power company) would send priests down to sprinkle
           | holy water over it, to which the Asatru responded by cursing
           | it, and the priests again sent in... this went on round and
           | round. The Asatru were broadly against the project.
           | 
           | Arguably this had some effect. When a prominent anti-dam
           | farmer from near Egilsstadir was excavating his land to build
           | an extension to his house, strange things kept on happening:
           | His cows treading on their udders, workers falling into the
           | pit and breaking bones. His wife claimed to see two figures
           | when each time one of these happenings occured. An old man
           | and a young. Finally in the pit they came across the central
           | beam of an ancient house, and a magnificent circle made of a
           | spherical stone made of spheres containing crystals - you
           | found individual spheres - I know this is the wrong term
           | sorry - scattered around their farmland. Anyway upon finding
           | these the farmer called to the ghosts and promised that the
           | stone would be taken to the museum in Egilsstadir and the
           | beam would be featured prominantly in their new farmhouse, in
           | exchange for the ghosts leaving them in peace and haunting
           | Karahnjukar instead. It was then in the process of its
           | initial flood.
           | 
           | Soon after very strange things occured at Karahnjukar.
           | Workers were injured, serious technical problems manifested.
           | 
           | If there's anywhere in the world where making pacts with
           | supernatural forces is possible, it's Iceland.
        
       | dang wrote:
       | Related:
       | 
       |  _I captured the Iceland volcano eruption from up close_ -
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26543533 - March 2021 (14
       | comments)
        
       | bondolo wrote:
       | Go back in the live stream a few hours and then watch a timelapse
       | by hitting the "forward 15 seconds" button. There is more motion
       | happening than is obvious watching the real time video.
        
       | simonebrunozzi wrote:
       | I would love to visit Iceland this late Spring, it would be my
       | second visit after my first one in 2008.
       | 
       | I am wondering if anyone knows what the covid-related
       | restrictions are. I would go there primarily to hike, and
       | secondarily to try to meet interesting startups.
        
         | BrentOzar wrote:
         | I'm in Iceland for 6 months on their new teleworker visa. It
         | took a couple of months to get, but it's pretty
         | straightforward: https://ozar.me/2021/01/whew-we-got-iceland-
         | teleworker-visas...
        
         | kd5bjo wrote:
         | https://www.covid.is/sub-categories/visiting-iceland
        
           | StavrosK wrote:
           | So 12 days of quarantine? Sounds expensive.
        
             | meheleventyone wrote:
             | It's only 5-6 days of quarantine as the first test is taken
             | when you arrive.
        
               | StavrosK wrote:
               | Oh, that's better... Still probably prohibitive for a lot
               | of people, I wonder if you can skip that if you're
               | vaccinated (or perhaps will be able to by September).
        
               | meheleventyone wrote:
               | Yes in May they are looking to open up more to people
               | outside of Schengen with vaccination certificates. My
               | parents are British, vaccinated and looking forward to
               | coming over to visit as we've not seen them since
               | Christmas.
        
               | StavrosK wrote:
               | That'd be fantastic, I've been itching to go back to
               | Iceland for years now!
               | 
               | Assuming I manage to get vaccinated, that is...
        
             | PedroCandeias wrote:
             | No, just 5. You get the results a few hours after each
             | test. I flew in on a Sunday, went into quarantine, got my
             | landing test results same day, did my second test Friday
             | morning (took 2min to enter, get tested and come back out)
             | and got my negative results via app at lunch time, at which
             | point I was done with quarantine.
        
               | StavrosK wrote:
               | That's pretty good, but if you can only afford a week
               | (which is already more than the vast majority of people
               | in my country can afford), it makes it a non-starter...
               | Doesn't help that Iceland is expensive, I guess...
        
               | darkwater wrote:
               | Don't want to sound harsh but, given how isolated Iceland
               | is, anything less than a week is like... wasting money
               | anyway? Obviouvsly if it's a business trip you might go
               | and stay one or two days, but for anything involving
               | leisure, I don't know, adding extra 5 days quarantine is
               | not that a big deal (if you can afford going to Iceland
               | anyway).
        
               | StavrosK wrote:
               | If you go for a week, basically doubling the costs of the
               | trip for a quarantine is anything but a big deal, I'd
               | think. I'm not sure how you figure that paying double for
               | a trip so you can quarantine isn't a big deal...
        
               | Moru wrote:
               | Some countries you get a lot more paid vacation. We have
               | 25 days per year for example.
        
               | darkwater wrote:
               | IDK, it's just that I usually like to go "deep" when
               | traveling an one week for place like Iceland seems too
               | few days.
        
               | spijdar wrote:
               | Some people can only stay a week. I went for a week
               | several years back, and in that time drove up through the
               | highlands, tent camping and inching my way all the way
               | around the island. I ended with a day trip to
               | Vestmannaeyjar before flying back. I might not have been
               | able to add an extra 5 days to said trip, and definitely
               | couldn't now, where I only get a week of paid leave every
               | six months or so.
        
       | baxtr wrote:
       | Is it just my feeling fueled by the news or is there currently an
       | increased / above normal levels volcano activity around the
       | globe?
        
         | pimlottc wrote:
         | Yes, Mount Etna (Italy) and Kilueaua (Hawaii) are also both
         | current erupting. I'm not an expert but this does appear to be
         | an unusually active time.
        
       | m3at wrote:
       | Strikingly beautiful!
       | 
       | It's hard to get a sense of the scale of the scene, anyone happen
       | to know how far away the webcam is from the peak?
        
         | Tepix wrote:
         | Fagradalsfjall is only 385m high.
        
         | Tepix wrote:
         | I see a few rocks in the foreground and a lot of fog.
         | Fagradalsfjall is nowhere in sight as of 08:34 UTC.
         | 
         | Edit: Now 20 minutes later the white smoke is gone. Stunning!
        
           | input_sh wrote:
           | Ashes and sunlight are obstructing the current view, if you
           | go a little back in the stream, you'll see what's happening.
        
         | granra wrote:
         | Not too far I think. This eruption is apparently competing with
         | one other eruption on being the smallest eruption on record in
         | Iceland.
         | 
         | Source: am Icelandic and read it on the news.
        
         | asgeir wrote:
         | Looks to be about half a kilometer. The webcam looks to be at
         | about 63.89045405043735, -22.279054215941507 and the main
         | crater is at about 63.88921695342744, -22.269097856211175
         | 
         | The main crater is only a few tens of meters tall.
        
           | jstanley wrote:
           | About?! The 14th decimal place of latitude is worth ~0.15mm!
        
             | adwn wrote:
             | Although that might have been tongue-in-cheek, the word
             | "about" could refer to the accuracy of the position, not
             | its precision.
             | 
             | Precision != accuracy:
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accuracy_and_precision
        
               | elcomet wrote:
               | But the number of digits should reflect the precision.
        
               | airhead969 wrote:
               | Yes. If it's only 5 digits, it should be cut-off to
               | reflect that. Accuracy needs an error estimate.
        
               | Moru wrote:
               | It's hard if you don't know the precision needed to get
               | to the position you want, easier to just copy/paste and
               | be done with it. How many knows how far 0.001 deg is at a
               | specific location on the globe?
        
               | unhammer wrote:
               | When pointing at a map, the thickness of your digits
               | should reflect precision.
        
               | airhead969 wrote:
               | How accurate are your digits?
        
             | airhead969 wrote:
             | The smallest possible resolution of GPS in the horizontal
             | is 10mm (6-7 digits) with local differential corrections.
             | 
             | In general, 4-5 digits is the precision to expect.
        
               | jstanley wrote:
               | Hm, then I think my calculation that the 14th digit is
               | worth 0.15mm must be wildly incorrect.
               | 
               | For a 40km earth circumference, I worked out 10^-14 * 360
               | * 4*10^7 = 0.00014 metres.
        
             | asgeir wrote:
             | I find it hard to estimate the position from the top-down
             | view compared to when I was there, and I just copy-pasted
             | the coordinates from Google Maps
        
         | hr2016 wrote:
         | The camera is located on Fagradalsfjall and the eruption is in
         | Geldingadalir. The exact location of the camera I do not know,
         | but its somewhere in the ~1km range.
        
       | lysp wrote:
       | A photographer took a FPV drone video (literally) over the top.
       | 
       | The shot is amazing:
       | 
       | https://www.facebook.com/steinbekk/posts/10224917280624476
        
         | PUSH_AX wrote:
         | Drone pilot got really lucky with that fly past. Very risky,
         | the reward was a great shot though.
        
         | dageshi wrote:
         | He really went for it didn't he? A bit lower and it'd be toast
        
           | jcims wrote:
           | That and he flew through a shower of molten rock, the
           | smallest little blob would take that drone out.
           | 
           | Some things are with the risk though, turned out amazing!
        
           | gpvos wrote:
           | A bit higher too; there's a lump of lava that ended up above
           | it.
        
         | dessant wrote:
         | Facebook may ask you to log in to view the video, here's a
         | direct link to the video file:
         | 
         | https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t66.36240-6/10000000_...
        
           | airhead969 wrote:
           | I could only think:
           | 
           | TOO LOW - TERRAIN! PULL UP! TOO LOW - TERRAIN! PULL UP!
        
             | HaloZero wrote:
             | haha, I really thought some magma might have hit the drone
             | when the drone went over the cone.
        
           | raverbashing wrote:
           | I am surprised the drone survived (or did it?)
        
             | MrDresden wrote:
             | Perhaps a calculated risk, in case media outlets want to
             | use the footage for anything the royalties might outweigh
             | the cost of the drone. Would be wasteful though.
        
             | yccs27 wrote:
             | The drone might have streamed the video back to the
             | operator, so it's not a given that the drone survived.
             | Since the photographer knew they were going to take a risky
             | shot, it's not even unlikely.
             | 
             | Maybe that's why the footage stops in the middle of the
             | lava spray...
        
           | techdragon wrote:
           | In case anyone doesn't notice this little detail... right in
           | the last few seconds you can see one of the erupting chunks
           | of lava pass out of the frame in the vertical direction. It
           | looks like the drone made a lucky pass _through_ the top of
           | the erupting lava plume, narrowly missing red hot chunks of
           | lava.
           | 
           | To clarify... it _looks_ like that, can anyone more familiar
           | with the original post confirm more details? Because it could
           | obviously just have been a trick of the drone's speed
           | combined with the camera field of view just making it look
           | like it whizzed under a chunk of red hot lava... which is
           | still neat camera work... but it would be so much more
           | awesome if it wasn't just a camera effect and it actually did
           | fly through between erupting chunks of lava.
        
             | csomar wrote:
             | It's not clear if the drone survived. The video is cut
             | right after it should have been hit with the lava.
        
               | PUSH_AX wrote:
               | I'm no expert but I don't know if you could recover the
               | HD version of the footage without the drone coming home,
               | perhaps only the FPV version. Happy to be corrected
               | though.
        
               | olex wrote:
               | With DJI FPV, you can get a recording of the HD signal in
               | the goggles. It's not as good as a GoPro/action cam
               | footage recorded on board, but infinitely better than
               | what ground-recorded analog FPV footage looks like.
        
               | phendrenad2 wrote:
               | Also possible for the drone to fall into lava and still
               | transmit for a few seconds, maybe enough to get the
               | higher-quality buffer?
        
               | dheera wrote:
               | Highly unlikely you'd have time to transmit footage.
               | Various chips in the drone would go into thermal shut
               | down at 90 C ish. The lithium battery would probably
               | explode shortly after.
        
               | ccozan wrote:
               | The scene from Terminator II came into my mind!
        
               | toss1 wrote:
               | the appropriate time scale would more likely be
               | milliseconds
        
               | IgorPartola wrote:
               | I would be worried the heat would melt the drone even if
               | nothing hit it.
        
         | _jstreet wrote:
         | Amazing shot - I wonder what a thermal image would look like of
         | the same scene. Must be pretty hot flying over top of that
         | lava.
        
         | scrdhrt wrote:
         | I wonder how the drone looked afterwards
        
           | willis936 wrote:
           | Have you ever burnt a resistor?
           | 
           | It likely looks like a 10 pound burned resistor.
        
         | Zealotux wrote:
         | Woah, it looks like a 3D render, surreal.
        
           | mstade wrote:
           | My first thought was that it could just as well have been a
           | shot from Mustafar in Star Wars. Stunning video!
        
       | hnick wrote:
       | It's all just white to me when I click the video. Not sure if
       | damaged or a bright light is shining at it? Fog maybe?
       | 
       | Edit: nvm it was clouds or fog, moving now!
        
         | MauranKilom wrote:
         | Just fog. Clicking around on the timeline (5h+ by now) allows
         | you to see the various stages.
        
         | vigneshk wrote:
         | It works for me now!
        
       | stewx wrote:
       | Direct YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BA-9QzIcr3c
        
       | royjacobs wrote:
       | This reminds me of the trip I took to Iceland in 2010. Just on
       | the day we were about to fly back home we were instructed to turn
       | on the Hotel TV, which was showing very eerie video footage of
       | Eyjafjallajokull erupting. The stark emergency chyron combined
       | with the vague video footage gave us a very unsettled feeling.
       | 
       | Then we walked into the lobby where some 80s pop was playing, the
       | staff was cheery and asked what we'd like to have for breakfast
       | because we'd probably fly home a few hours delayed. I guess you
       | become unflappable when you literally live on top of volcanoes :)
       | 
       | On the Iceland Air flight home we watched a very interesting
       | documentary about the Eldfell eruptions in 1973. It's really
       | fascinating, although I can't seem to find a link to the docu.
       | See also: https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/01/the-eldfell-
       | erupti...
        
         | mrunseen wrote:
         | Non-paywall version: https://archive.is/ALqHs
        
       | hugi wrote:
       | I went for a hike there on Saturday night, here are a few of the
       | shots I got:
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeFBYeKa30w&list=PLoqbqfn2ku...
       | 
       | Unfortunately, photos and movies don't capture the atmosphere and
       | sheer scale of the thing. What might look like some rocks rolling
       | from the crater is cose to building-sized. Still, it's defined as
       | a small eruption.
       | 
       | Edit: iCloud rate-limited the playlist I originally posted, so
       | changed to YouTube playlist. Original link:
       | https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0OG6XBubGEA3MC
        
         | markdown wrote:
         | "Your browser cannot play this video."
         | 
         | I'm running Chrome v89.0 on MacOS.
        
           | est31 wrote:
           | I think the video might be in H.265 format. Outside of
           | Safari, no browser supports it, not even Chrome.
           | https://caniuse.com/hevc
           | 
           | The video was probably originally in H.265 format and Apple
           | apparently did no attempt at transcoding it to a format
           | that's more widely understood like H.264.
        
             | saagarjha wrote:
             | Does not play in Safari, either :/
        
         | matsemann wrote:
         | It almost looks like the hole is 2 meters in diameter and that
         | you're standing right next to it. But then a person in red coat
         | is really small. How big is the hole really?
        
           | dagurp wrote:
           | The caldera is 30m high
        
           | hugi wrote:
           | I don't have exact measurements. But for some reference,
           | here's a drone shot from the location. I'm the lone guy
           | standing above the SAR team.
           | 
           | https://www.hugi.io/img/crater.jpg
        
             | DyslexicAtheist wrote:
             | holy smokes you're awfully close to the action :D
        
             | jiofih wrote:
             | Whoa that is really close. Isn't it common that lava will
             | be ejected much farther than that? Or does this volcano
             | have a particular known pattern already?
        
               | hugi wrote:
               | The flow is quite steady so magma isn't getting ejected
               | very far. The more immediate danger it that the crater
               | walls can collapse, spilling the ingredients in
               | unexpected directions, or separate craters open up.
        
             | matsemann wrote:
             | thanks, that image provides a nice scale
        
               | hugi wrote:
               | The Met office just released a statement where they said
               | the walls of the main crater are currently about 30
               | meters tall (~100 feet). It's of course gained some
               | height since Saturday.
        
             | jacquesm wrote:
             | I'd hate to own your life insurance policy :) Other than
             | that great shots, please be very careful.
        
         | busymom0 wrote:
         | Your iCloud album is no longer available "due to high demand"
        
           | aargh_aargh wrote:
           | That is ridiculous... Oh, an actual demand for the sharing
           | service? Let's shut it down temporarily until the demand
           | passes. Have they never heard of caching?
        
             | consumer451 wrote:
             | The funny thing is that iCloud integration with Win 10 is
             | excellent, and vastly superior Google's product.
             | 
             | But then you have rate limiting and the fact that Apple
             | doxes you when you share.
        
               | ianai wrote:
               | How do they dox their users in this case?
        
               | casefields wrote:
               | Click the link, you'll see who shared it. They are
               | suggesting that Apple should have an option to withhold
               | that info.
        
               | consumer451 wrote:
               | The only time I have tried it, this happened:
               | 
               | 1) win file explorer, right-click file and choose Share
               | with iCloud link (not at pc, am paraphrasing)
               | 
               | 2) test link in private browser tab
               | 
               | 3) see "this file shared by First Last"
               | 
               | My apologies if I am conflating the way this file was
               | shared versus the way I had shared
        
               | SV_BubbleTime wrote:
               | Yeah, I've only ever shared with people who know my name
               | anyway, but you're right, that's no good.
               | 
               | Don't iCloud share with the internet, got it! Thanks.
        
             | lostlogin wrote:
             | Apple and servers, a classic combination.
             | 
             | Apple's handling of photos so badly needs some effort.
             | Sharing libraries between family members just plain sucks.
             | Why it managing photos so hard in their ecosystem?
        
             | JohnJamesRambo wrote:
             | Have some pity for the company sitting on $195 billion in
             | cash, won't you?
        
         | chrisco255 wrote:
         | Apparently Apple has rate-limited this shared album. I got to
         | see the stunning footage before it was cut off. If you get a
         | chance to upload it to another source, please circle back with
         | a link!
        
           | hugi wrote:
           | I didn't know they did that, thanks for the notification!
           | Moved some of the videos to a YouTube playlist and updated
           | the post.
        
             | drcongo wrote:
             | Amazingly, when the iCloud page did start working for me,
             | the videos wouldn't play and gave the message "This video
             | cannot be played in this browser" - I'm using the latest
             | Safari.
        
         | stoolpigeon wrote:
         | I've never been anywhere near any volcano. If you don't mind -
         | what does it smell like? Could you feel the heat from it? What
         | was the sound like? If you don't have the time I understand but
         | I'd love to hear what the experience was like to be that close.
        
           | hugi wrote:
           | Oh yes, you feel the warmth. The smell that immediately hit
           | me was comforting, like you just lit a nice hardwood
           | barbecue, probably from soil and plant material burning when
           | coming into contact with the magma. The crater is loud and
           | deeply rumbly and makes you feel the raw power of the Earth.
        
             | gojomo wrote:
             | But don't you Icelanders find sulfuric smells - the same
             | that much of the world associates with rotten eggs - kinda
             | comforting, too, because since childhood such smells
             | usually accompany hot bath water from the faucets? :)
        
               | hugi wrote:
               | Haha, well... I'm born and raised in the East fjords
               | where there's little geothermal activity and geothermal
               | heating is thus rare. When I first went to Reykjavik as a
               | kid I nearly vomited when I was introduced with a bathtub
               | full of that sulphuric liquid they called hot water :).
        
             | news_to_me wrote:
             | > The crater is loud and deeply rumbly and makes you feel
             | the raw power of the Earth.
             | 
             | I'm using this in my next Zork clone ;)
        
           | nlh wrote:
           | I'd add one anecdote: I went hiking on one of the Hawaiian
           | volcanos a few years ago and got up close with some active
           | (but extremely slow-moving) lava. Here's a pic of me poking
           | it with a stick:
           | 
           | https://imgur.com/DuwuCg1
           | 
           | What amazed me was the absolute sheer about of heat generated
           | from that one TINY little patch. Like, as intense as standing
           | in front of a pizza oven going at full blast. I could stand
           | about ~15 seconds of it once I exposed the molten part, and
           | then I had to step away. Overall in the area it was warm -
           | mostly because it was Hawaii and hot out! - but also because
           | of general ambient warmth. But it was just that - warmth.
           | 
           | But when I exposed that piece of molten lava - that was HEAT.
        
             | onychomys wrote:
             | I'm sure it was safer than it looked, but holy smokes, I'd
             | worry so much about breaking through the crust there.
        
               | nlh wrote:
               | Me too! But we were with a local guide who walked out on
               | the lava crust every day, so I kinda had to trust him.
               | 
               | Although the soles of my sneakers were semi-melted by the
               | end of the day. I blame my sneakers more than anything
               | (cheap, lowish melting point rubber), but still....
        
           | anonymousDan wrote:
           | I climbed Mt. Etna once (in Sicily). It wasn't erupting at
           | the time but there were active lava flows etc. The scary
           | thing was that even though conditions were relatively benign,
           | a sudden change of wind direction blew a stream of
           | sulphorous-smelling air in the direction of our group and we
           | all had to run back down to the chair lift gasping for air.
        
           | rcpt wrote:
           | I've been up one in Guatemala but the thing that I remember
           | most was how popular lava is with hoardes of tourists
        
           | sjs382 wrote:
           | If your question wasn't specific to _this_ volcano, but _any_
           | volcano, the answer is that every one is different.
           | 
           | A few years ago, I visited the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua.
           | It wasn't one you could get super close to, and the photos
           | are a bit underwhelming, but it was still very impressive to
           | see _in person_. This is what you can expect to see as a
           | tourist: https://hotelplazacolon.com/wp-
           | content/uploads/2017/10/Masay...
           | 
           | The heat coming off of the volcano was significant, but not
           | exactly overwhelming. The sulfur smell was overwhelming
           | (apparently Masaya emits _a lot_ of sulfur dioxide), and
           | there were restrictions as the length of time tourists could
           | stay at the volcano due to the gasses. There were signs all
           | over, posted in English and Spanish warning about the health
           | effects of the gasses emitted.
        
           | no_one_ever wrote:
           | Not been near a volcano, but Iceland also has a very
           | sulphuric smell in general, like eggs almost. It is in
           | everything like the air and the water.
        
             | lastofthemojito wrote:
             | If you've been to Iceland you've probably been near
             | volcanoes, just not necessarily active ones. This volcano
             | that is currently erupting is only about 10 miles from
             | Keflavik Airport (and maybe 5 miles from the Blue Lagoon,
             | if you went there).
        
               | no_one_ever wrote:
               | Haha you would be right then. Only saw some geothermal
               | vents and hot springs but yeah, there is a lot of earth
               | activity going on there.
               | 
               | Definitely exercise caution when parading around Iceland:
               | nobody is going to stop you from walking yourself into
               | something hot/dangerous.
        
           | brabel wrote:
           | The first time I saw volcanic activity was in Rotorua[0], in
           | New Zealand... I think the big volcano there is dormant but
           | because it sits on top of a huge caldera, it still has plenty
           | of volcanic activity, including boiling mud and geysers! It's
           | an amazing place to visit. You can feel the warmth of the
           | rocks and near the geyser, there are water ponds nearly as
           | hot as boiling (incredibly clear water too). Seeing the
           | geyser explode is the highlight of the visit, of course...
           | But just seeing the boiling mud (which you can see
           | everytwhere in town, basically) and hearing the noise of
           | boiling liquid under your feet is an amazing feeling.
           | 
           | I was young and stayed in the local backpacker which had a
           | naturally-warm water pool!
           | 
           | As you approach the city, you feel a very strong smell of
           | sulphur (a smell described usually as rotten eggs), but as
           | you stay in the town you more or less get used to the smell
           | and stop feeling it... it's not as bad as it sounds.
           | 
           | Highly recommend a visit if you're around Australia or the
           | South Pacific.
           | 
           | One day I want to visit Iceland as well, it looks amazing.
           | 
           | [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotorua
        
             | lostlogin wrote:
             | You are probably aware since you visited, but Lake Taupo in
             | the middle of the North Island is a collapsed volcano and
             | has had a couple of eruptions are some of the largest on
             | earth. There are Roman and Chinese records of weather
             | events that may be due to Taupo eruptions.
             | 
             | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taupo_Volcano
        
           | sizzzzlerz wrote:
           | The American author, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) wrote "The
           | smell of sulfur is strong, but not unpleasant to a sinner."
           | after visiting Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano in his book "Roughing
           | It".
        
         | srich36 wrote:
         | Awesome videos! Is it not dangerous to get that close? I got
         | apprehensive just watching that
        
           | hugi wrote:
           | When I got back from the hike I heard on the radio that this
           | location was, ahem, not recommended. It was closed off
           | yesterday and a short while later the crater walls collapsed
           | in that direction.
           | 
           | https://youtu.be/eeAf1kZ7_ZE
           | 
           | But there were a few of us at that spot at the time so at
           | least I wouldn't have died alone :).
        
             | ragebol wrote:
             | A bit on the macabre side (but your comments makes me
             | believe you don't mind too much perhaps): what would happen
             | if you'd fall or otherwise get trapped in lava? Gollum
             | melted I think but that seems unlikely (it's a movie after
             | all). Left for future archeologists like in Pompeii?
             | 
             | Please don't test on purpose or accident this btw.
        
               | DyslexicAtheist wrote:
               | it's 1200degC so you burn already before your body even
               | hits the lava. During the Pompeji eruption people got
               | killed by the hot ash (arriving first and travels
               | further) which cooked them alive:
               | 
               |  _> The individuals in the boat houses died relatively
               | quickly: The volcanic ash blocked the entrance to each
               | structure, and the temperature of the air within probably
               | rose to about 400degC--even hotter than a wood-fired
               | oven._ --
               | https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/studies-reveal-
               | grues...
        
               | Tuna-Fish wrote:
               | The lava is substantially denser than you, so you'd
               | probably float on top and bake until you are dry and then
               | burn.
               | 
               | The victims at Pompeii got buried in pyroclastic ash, not
               | lava.
        
               | ragebol wrote:
               | Ah, of course. Should have known. Still terrible.
        
               | the8472 wrote:
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq7DDk8eLs8
        
       | DyslexicAtheist wrote:
       | pretty cool how helpless we are when it comes to predicting
       | anything that goes on within:
       | 
       | > _RUV engineers worked through the night to revive the
       | previously-popular earthquake monitoring webcam and to re-
       | orientate it towards the volcano. It was previously located on
       | Borgarfjall when scientists believed an eruption was most likelt
       | at Natthagi._
        
       | Hard_Space wrote:
       | This brings back memories of the 2003 era Etna eruptions, when I
       | was living in southern Italy. After the regular programming
       | stopped, the RAI channels would just run a live feed of the
       | volcano spewing lava at night, all night long. It was a hell of a
       | screen saver!
        
       | joncrane wrote:
       | I love the juxtaposition of the blowing snow with the superhot
       | lava. Something about the union of extremes.
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2021-03-22 23:00 UTC)