The ground shakes, belching fumes and spewing lava, but this has not deterred throngs of thrill-seekers and tourists flocking to see Iceland’s active volcano, at times risking their lives.
“What was most amazing was to hear the rumbling noise,” said an exhilarated Aslaug Gudrunardottir, who said she stood only a few meters from melting lava. “It was like standing on top of an ancient monster down in the ground. It is a sound that is impossible to imagine.”
The Fimmvorduhals volcano in the middle of the Eyjafjallajokull glacier erupted on March 21, the country’s first such volcanic explosion since 2004 and the first in the Eyjafjallajokull area since 1823.
PHOTO: AFP
It forced some 600 people to briefly evacuate their homes in the lightly populated area 125km east of Reykjavik. But it has since turned into a boon for a local hotel and a few bus firms offering twilight tours — and a headache for police and rescue workers.
News from geologists that the eruption may be peaking and could soon “diminish dramatically” sent thousands of visitors rushing to catch a rare glimpse of a real live volcano and the majestic “lava falls,” with red-hot burning lava cascading hundreds of meters down a gorge.
Cars stood bumper to bumper in Fljotshlid, across from the glacier, as hundreds of people made their way up to the smouldering peak by foot, snowmobile, helicopter, even motorcycle. A popular hiking trail, it was reopened last week though police warned anyone taking it they did so at their own risk.
“People do not understand the danger. That is what our rescuers have been saying all weekend,” said Bryndis Harardottir of the Ice-Star rescue service. “It is an eruption, which is dangerous, even if it is majestic and beautiful.”
A number of tourists had wandered into areas that could easily have been cut off by the lava flow, she said.
“People have been going too close to the crater and putting themselves in danger as there can be explosions at any time. They forget that this is a volcano,” she said.
Even without the eruption, trekking the 1,100m to the top of Fimmvorduhals is not child’s play. Last weekend, the wind chill alone sent temperatures down to minus 30°C.
“People have to be in good shape and dressed for the conditions,” which was not always the case this weekend, Harardottir said.
Rescue workers brought down several ill-equipped tourists, including one “dressed in jeans and a leather jacket showing signs of hypothermia.”
Geologists warned that the Fimmvorduhals volcano could set off the nearby and much larger Katla volcano, but so far it has shown no signs of activity.
For some, Fimmvorduhals was not their first volcano.
“This is my fourth eruption,” filmmaker Olafur Rognvaldsson said, staring up at the glowing mountaintop from a safe distance.
“I got very close to Krafla last time it erupted,” he said referring to a volcano in northeast Iceland that exploded in 1984. “We walked up there with a group of tourists on the first day of the eruption, right up to the crater.”
“It was a great tour, but in hindsight it wasn’t a very smart thing to do,” he said.
Despite hindsight, Rognvaldsson still wanted to take a helicopter to get a closer look at the fiery Fimmvorduhals, then get out to explore the ridge of the crater.
“It is a very beautiful sight from a distance, but it is totally different to experience it from up close,” he said.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
POWER ABUSE WORRY: Some people warned that the broad language of the treaty could lead to overreach by authorities and enable the repression of government critics Countries signed their first UN treaty targeting cybercrime in Hanoi yesterday, despite opposition from an unlikely band of tech companies and rights groups warning of expanded state surveillance. The new global legal framework aims to bolster international cooperation to fight digital crimes, from child pornography to transnational cyberscams and money laundering. More than 60 countries signed the declaration, which means it would go into force once ratified by those states. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the signing as an “important milestone,” and that it was “only the beginning.” “Every day, sophisticated scams destroy families, steal migrants and drain billions of dollars from our economy...
RSS