Thousands flock to Iceland’s erupting volcano

Thousands flock to Iceland’s erupting volcano

FAGRADALSFJALL, Iceland: Thousands of curious onlookers have flocked to an erupting volcano in Iceland to marvel at the hypnotic display of glowing red lava, the bravest of them grilling hot dogs and marshmallows over the smoldering embers. The eruption of a fissure near Mount Fagradalsfjall, which began late Friday, was the first in the same volcanic system in about 900 years. The volcano is located only about 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the capital Reykjavik and can be reached after a 90-minute hike from the nearest road.

"It's absolutely breathtaking,“ says Ulvar Kari Johannsson, a 21-year-old engineer who spent his Sunday visiting the scene. "It smells pretty bad. For me what was surprising was the colors of the orange: much, much deeper than what one would expect,“ he tells AFP. The incandescent lava bubbles and spurts from a small cone in the Geldingadalur valley, piling up in the basin and slowly turning a thick black as it cools.

Some 300,000 cubic meters (10.5 million cubic feet) of lava have poured out of the ground so far, according to experts, although the eruption is considered relatively small and controlled. "For me it's the heat that really surprised me. When we approached the lava