Me, Myself, Iceland and the Volcano!

Iceland has always been a country in which I was interested, because of its people and the forces of nature.

Miles of stony deserts, barren and colorful highlands, vast glaciers, and smoking lava fields. But the deepest impression of the forces of nature was left by the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010.  I was very impressed by how small you are as a human being when faced with such immense forces of nature, and by how well the people in Iceland dealt with it all.

So I started to follow the news from Iceland quite closely when there were signs of an imminent volcanic eruption. Bárdabunga, a large volcano under the icecap of mighty Vatnajökull glacier, started to rumble. I was especially interested because our next trip to Iceland was coming up. On the day we arrived, the newspapers were full of articles about a smaller eruption north of Vatnajokull, right between Askja and Bárdabunga at an area called Holuhraun. A one-kilometer-long rift had opened with high lava fountains. Since this was a quite small eruption that did not take place under the ice it was amazing to see the first pictures which were taken by the scientists at the eruption area.

As we arrived some nights later in the Jökulsárlón area, south of Vatnajökull, the aurora forecast indicated a level 3 chance of the Northern Lights. Because of the nearly cloudless sky, I decided to drive to the well-known glacier lagoon to try my luck. The volcano was forgotten at the moment when I was standing at the lagoon, absolutely on my own and watching the first northern lights to appear on the heavens. Right after the first pictures, I was wondering about the fact that every single image had a strange red glow right above the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier. At first I thought that this might be the sun setting, but it was at around one in the morning. Later, the next day, when I was talking to my wife about this glow, the topic of the Holuhraun eruption came up. After taking a look at the map, we were absolutely sure that this reddish glow came all this way over the icecap of Vatnajökull, right from the eruption site. It was reflected in the light cloud cover and the glacier lagoon. A real once-in-a-lifetime experience! In all the other nights in which I stayed at the lagoon, that reddish shine was not visible.

At 9:30 in the morning, our plane left Reykjavik. Large clouds covered the skies, and we were worried that we would not see anything. But the closer we came to the eruption site, the better the weather and visibility became. When we got the first look at the scenery, it was really amazing.

High lava fountains were going up into the sky, 30 to 40 meters high. We were really caught up by this scenery, seeing the bright red shine of the lava flowing and pouring out. Our plane started circling the eruption site, and for me, as a photographer, it felt like a dream becoming reality.

Again and again, the immensely tall lava fountains splashed out from several craters, like in slow motion. To get the chance to see again the manifestation of the power of nature up close was a real gift.

It was incredible to see the untamed power of our earth.

Words and pictures are by Martin Schulz. He is from Germany and has been addicted to Iceland since 2007. Martin has visited Iceland twelve times and explored it from the shore up to the highland interior. Martin works as an audiologist and maintains the IT infrastructure of a medium-sized enterprise.

Martin is an accomplished photographer and focuses on work with filters (grey and graduated grey filters) and long exposure techniques. Martin has done voluntary work with hearing impaired children in Africa (Namibia) and likes beer, Whisky, rock and heavy metal music.

You can explore his photography work on the photography site and his website. I am really grateful for his contribution. This is his second entry on Stuck in Iceland, previously he shared his experience of visiting Brúarfoss waterfall, Thingvellir, Breidamerkursandur beach, and of course Mount Kirkjufell.