The drone filmed the eruption of the volcano, flying over its vent (2 videos)

Last week Friday IcelandicThe Meteorological Office (IMO) announced the beginning of the eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano, located about 40 km southwest of the capital of the country, Reykjavik. The eruption was preceded by thousands of small earthquakes. A no-fly zone was introduced over the area, however, by Saturday evening the eruption had stopped. According to scientists, the last eruption of Fagradalsfjall took place over 800 years ago.

More than 40,000 earthquakes have occurred in the area over the past four weeks, a huge jump from the 1,000 to 3,000 earthquakes recorded annually since 2014.

Short-term eruption near the capitalIceland did not have catastrophic consequences, but gave residents the opportunity to observe a breathtaking spectacle of red-hot lava spreading over the surface.

Among the observers of Fagradalsfjall wasthe owner of the unmanned vehicle, Bjorn Steinbeck, who was able to use a drone to capture the process directly at the epicenter of the eruption. The unmanned aerial vehicle made a "heroic" flight directly over the mouth of the volcano at the time of the ejection of lava. A video of a flight over magma recorded chunks of incandescent matter flying in the immediate vicinity of the UAV, capable of destroying a fragile drone in an instant.

The Fagradalsfjall eruption is classified assmall. So the length of the crack from which the lava erupted did not exceed 500-700 meters, and the total area of ​​the magma spill did not exceed one square km. During the eruption, no volcanic ash fall was observed, and the population of the Icelandic capital spent the weekend watching the development of the eruption directly in the line of sight. At the same time, the IMO warned residents of the leeward side of the volcano about the need to close the windows to protect against the potential release of gases hazardous to health.