Dramatic footage showing lava bubbling and spewing inside a volcano has been released by a drone photographer. Bjorn Steinbekk captured the footage after Iceland's Fagradalsfjall volcano started erupting with a series of dramatic explosions in March 2021.
Magestical blow!
— Bjorn Steinbekk (@BSteinbekk) March 7, 2022
It’s almost a year since the volcano erupted. To celebrate I plan to release some old and never published videos over the next few weeks. Hope you like it! #SharingIsCaring pic.twitter.com/Nch3lsIGux
The video, which he posted to Twitter, showed layers of lava bubbling up from inside the Earth and out of the mouth of the Fagradalsfjall volcano. With each passing second, the lava cools and changes color from bright orange to silver and gray, only to be replaced by more red-hot lava on top of it while the volcano erupts.
"[It was] filmed at the end of April [2021] when the chemicals in the lava created this silver texture on the lava and the crater," Steinbekk told Newsweek. "The reflection of the sun and high clouds helped a lot. I always get into a hypnotic state when flying, filming with the drone. It's the best meditation I can get."
The photographer's footage went viral and was shared on platforms and news sites across the world. Almost a year on from the eruption, Steinbekk said he was sharing footage he had not previously released.
The eruption poured massive amounts of molten lava over the area surrounding the volcano. The Icelandic Met Office (IMO), which monitored the eruption, said the volcano's lava was drawn directly from the Earth's mantle and came from between nine and 12 miles below the Earth's surface.
Fagradalsfjall's eruption was the first on the Reykjanes peninsula for over 800 years. Various new fissures or cracks in the Earth's surface began opening up during the event. The initial fissure stretched between 1,600 to 2,300 feet long, and produced lava reaching estimated temperatures of 2,170 degrees Fahrenheit.
By June 2021 an estimated 68,897,600 cubic yards of lava had been produced, covering a square mile around the site of the volcano. A 13-foot wall of earth was built by Icelandic officials to contain the flow, but the lava breached it before the eruption ended.
The IMO described the area as "extremely dangerous".
The eruption drew hundreds of thousands of tourists, who flocked to the Reykjanes peninsula, around 25 miles south-west of Iceland's capital city Reykjavik. The volcano stopped ejecting lava in September last year according to the IMO.
Steinbekk's footage of the eruption was viewed by people across the globe: "My footage went viral and hundreds of millions of views so it really changed my life, in a way. Having Will Smith give you a shout out and Stephen King telling you off for destroying a drone is quite fun."
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