Iceland’s 2023 Volcanic Eruption
CLICK THE ‘WATCH ON YOUTUBE’ LOGO BOTTOM LEFT OF THE SCREEN TO WATCH IT IN 4K
If you click on the play button in the middle of the screen, you will watch it in 720p quality which is poor.
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IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Follow these following websites and social media groups for up to date information regarding the eruption and the accessibility of the area
https://safetravel.is/eruption-in-reykjanes
https://www.ruv.is/english
https://www.facebook.com/groups/icelandgeology
ERUPTION WEBCAMS
RÚV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJfiMhqLgTY
RÚV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_q1N4J5oTSE
mbl.is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZGleOgreBY
mbl.is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LykVVU3C6D0
MELVIN NICHOLSON’S SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS
Website: https://melvinnicholsonphotography.co.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MelvinNicholsonPhotography
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melvinnicholsonphotography
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@melvinnicholsonphotography
DAVE NELSON’S SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS (give Dave a follow)
Website: https://davenelsonphotography.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/davenelsonphotography
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davenelsonphoto
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@davenelsonphoto
BLOG HIGHLIGHTS
(for those who do not have time to read the entire blog below)
Friday 7th July 2023: Flew into Iceland, hired a campervan from KuKu Campers
Saturday 8th July 2023: Researched the Fagradalsjfall area for an imminent eruption and walked to the lava from the 2022 Meradalir eruption
Sunday 9th July 2023: Hiked up the mountains of Stóri–Hrútur (355m) via Langihryggur (296m). Spent 12 hours on the mountains. Experienced a 4.2 earthquake
Monday 10th July 2023: New eruption began at 4.40pm northeast of Litli-Hrútur mountain. I hiked 12km round trip to the eruption only to be turned away at the 6km mark due to poisonous toxic gases present which can prove fatal
Tuesday 11th July 2023: Rest day to recover from two very physically draining days
Wednesday 12th July 2023: Returned the campervan to KuKu, hired a Land Rover Discovery from Avis instead. At 6.30pm, I finally hiked to the eruption site with my good friend Dave Nelson. What an incredible experience seeing a live volcanic eruption up close. Just phenomenal. Returned to the car at 3.45am exhausted.
The BIG question I was asking myself was, do I stay home or do I fly to Iceland in the hope of a predicted imminent volcanic eruption taking place and being close by would put me in pole position to capture it on camera.
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CLICK HERE
to see my specially created interactive Google Map below detailing the 2021, 2022 & 2023 eruption locations and the paths to reach them
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Friday 7th July 2023
It was 9.15am, Friday 7th July 2023. I was sat at my computer at home trying to decide if I should head to Iceland or not. I had read online that thousands of earthquakes had taken place in the days before, some with a magnitude of four or higher on the Richter scale, which piqued my interest somewhat. You see, I had missed both the 2021 and 2022 eruptions that took place in the Fagradalsjfall region of Reykjanes Peninsula, and I dearly wished I had made the decision to go, so this was my third and potentially final time.
Having spoken with KuKu Campers in Iceland via a web chat, they confirmed that they had a Renault Traffic campervan available for collection at 3.30pm that same day. I pulled the pin and immediately made the decision to go. I booked my flight with Icelandair, flying at 1.05pm one way only (which allowed me more freedom to decide when to return home), and the taxi to take me to Manchester airport. I had just one hour to pack my suitcase. It was frantic, and I only just made my flight due to congestion on the motorway. By the time I arrived at Manchester airport, I was mostly exhausted with anxiety and stress, but the adrenaline kept me on track. This was a proper, full-on, last-minute experience.
I landed in Iceland at 2.45pm and I immediately felt the heat. Obviously it is summer here and of my previous fifteen visits to Iceland, none of them had take place during the summer months. This was a novelty. The near 24 hours of daylight was not though.
Campervan hired, I spent the rest of the day settling into what would be my new home for the next five nights. Supermarket visited, essentials bought and packed away in the campervan.
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Saturday 8th July 2023
The Saturday was spent researching the area to the east of Grindavik called Fagradalsjfall. This whole area was where both the 2021 and 2022 volcanic eruptions took place and it was highly likely that should a third eruption happen, then it would be in this area. Earthquakes continued to shake the ground and all online activity pointed to the fact that an eruption was imminent. I just did not know exactly where.
During the late afternoon, I made the decision head to Car Park 2 and hike just fifteen minutes to the lava of the 2022 eruption of Meradalir. This car park offered me the shortest distance to any of the lava flows in the area and standing there looking out over the metallic silver looking lava with all its amazing patterns and layers was fantastic. What a wonderful moment to experience.
I met a guy from the UK (Mev) as he was hiking back to his car. We chatted and shared our love for Iceland (he had been a few times before) and before long, we were eating fish and chips in a restaurant in Grindavik and having a laugh while sharing a few stories. This is what travelling is all about for me, discovering unfamiliar places and meeting some fantastic people too.
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Sunday 9th July 2023
Sunday arrived, and I had decided to hike up to the mountain of Stóri-Hrútur (355m) via Langihryggur (296m). I was 30 minutes into the hike when suddenly, I felt the ground shake violently, as though Godzilla had stomped his foot right next to me and I heard the most terrifying ‘thud’ I have ever heard in my life. It was a 4.2 earthquake which left me feeling extremely unnerved, but I pushed on.
This is not a hike to be underestimated. There are gravel paths that are punctuated by rocks but it’s a tough hike up and Stóri-Hrútur in particular had me spend some time deliberating whether or not I should hike up it because the path is extremely steep and very slippery due to the loose gravel, but in the end, I opted to make the effort.
Once up on the summit of Stóri-Hrútur, I noticed two webcams that provide the live feeds on the mbl.is channels on YouTube. But my main interest was the view looking down over the lava of the 2022 Meradalir eruption. I could see in front of me the mountains of Keilir (379m) and Litli-Hrútur (312m) among others and I just sat there for quite some time looking down to see if I could spot any rising steam that might tell me where the next eruption was going to take place.
After a couple of hours, I decided to head off the mountains and back to the campervan. This is not a quick trek as my legs reminded me once I was sat in the back of my campervan drinking tea. I was exhausted I do not mind admitting.
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Monday 10th July 2023
I decided that with no fresh evidence of a new eruption, that I would spend a little time in and around the harbour of Grindavik (9km away from Fagradalsjfall) before moving onto the lighthouse and sea stacks of Reykjanes Peninsula (28km away). I needed some downtime and to capture some images instead of obsessing about a possible new eruption.
Naturally, just as I arrived at the lighthouse, I saw online that a fresh fissure (crack) had opened to the north-east area of the Litli-Hrútur mountain (312m), and that steam was starting to pour out. This was my moment to act. I became so excited to think that a new eruption was about to start, that I drove north to Vogar where I attempted to gain access to a gravel road that would take me to the Keilir car park but unfortunately, the Police had got there first and had closed it off.
So, I was left having to head back south and back to Car Park 2 where the Police and rescue crews were in attendance to manage the upsurge in visitors who had decided to take Path D past Meradalir en-route to the eruption site. It was a 19km return hike plus the distance covered walking around so 20km in total however, at the 6km mark, I, and everyone else were turned around due to the poisonous toxic gases filling the area ahead which can prove fatal. I could not believe it and that 6km hike back to the campervan was soulless, tedious as I was left feeling completely disappointed. One nice moment that I experienced though when being turned around was that I met Ragga from the Lava Show in Reyjavik.
Once back to the campervan, I camped down for the evening.
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Tuesday 11th July 2023
I woke feeling extremely tired and after two big days physically, I decided that I should listen to my body and give myself a rest day despite really, really wanting to head back to the eruption. This proved to be a great decision because I felt a lot better on Wednesday.
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Wednesday 12th July 2023
A friend of mine, Dave Nelson, flew into Iceland at 9am this morning. He was here to see the eruption and after a brief conversation on the phone, it was arranged that we would hike it together setting off around 6.30pm this evening.
I collected Dave around 2.30pm, and we grabbed lunch at a lovely café/bistro called the Library in Keflavik followed by some essentials shopping from the local supermarket (food, fluids etc) and because I was concerned about the amount of smoke and gases that were likely to be around at the site, I purchased a gas mask and some goggles too.
Arriving at Car Park 2 a little after 6pm, I was absolutely amazed to see fields of cars everywhere. It was like Glastonbury. I could not believe the sheer numbers of cars and people all hiking up the trail to the eruption site. I do not mind admitting that hiking 20km round trip did not fill me with glee and in truth, I did think that I would struggle completing it if the tiredness that I had experienced a couple of days before had anything to do with it. However, we set off and arrived at the eruption site at 8.45pm. It took us 2 hours 15 minutes. I was amazed at the brisk time we had achieved however the final 1km over mossy rocks and challenging terrain slowed our progress in reaching the eruption.
When we arrived at the eruption, we had to first navigate through a 10m thick wall of smoke from the numerous grass fires that surrounded us. The gas masks helped but were soon not needed as any toxic gases that were being produced by the eruption were being blown southwards and away from us.
Standing at an 18m high volcano crater while watching molten lava spewing high into the air is sublime and surreal at the same time. The colour of the lava was the brightest, most colourful orange I have ever seen. It almost did not look real, as though we were stood in front of a green screen in a movie studio somewhere while the lava was added as CGI. But there was no doubt that we were stood in front of a volcanic crater because when the lava was exposed in the air, the heat emitted could be felt 150 ft away. It was super intense.
It was windy, with gusts of around 20mph and the DJi Mini 3 Pro drone that I sent up was at its limit in what could be achieved. The wind buffeted the drone around, making it very difficult to manage at times with an unscheduled push of the drone by the wind towards the crater itself setting off high stress levels from me, however after some time, I got the footage that I was wanting and I was so pleased and relieved.
I could not believe how many people were there. I would estimate that at least a few hundred were present and some were fire spinning, some were playing musical instruments, some were laughing and telling stories while others just sat there all quiet and reflective as they too probably could not believe what they were looking at. It was a wonderful atmosphere and for the odd one or two who were foolish enough to venture onto the freshly cooled black lava around the crater, the rescue crews would come over and ask them to step away, which they did. There were no problems at all.
We did have to wait until around 11pm until it went darker (sunset was 11.30pm) to have the eruption look super impressive and at 1am we opted to return to the car. We arrived at the car at 3.45am exhausted but so, so happy that I had finally managed to see a volcanic eruption. It appears the decision to head to Iceland just a few days before on the Friday, was a wise one and I felt so incredibly content in everything coming together beautifully in the end. Dreams it appears do sometimes come true.
THANK YOU Iceland for such a memorable experience on my sixteenth visit to this incredible island. It has been such a blast, quite literally.
SOME IMAGES TAKEN ON MY DJI MINI 3 PRO DRONEÂ
COUPLE OF IMAGES TAKEN ON MY NIKON Z8 CAMERA
