Back in July, I told you about an crane system used to lower tourists into the now-empty lava tubes of an extinct volcano. Now, you can travel down into Iceland's Thrihnukagigur volcano yourself — via this fascinating video posted at the NOVA website. While you're probably not getting a view of Thrihnukagigur's magma chamber, you can see the massive tubes that brought that magma to the surface and stare, gawk-eyed, at the tiny scientists scrambling around inside them.

  • http://profiles.google.com/ckriebel Colin Kriebel

    You had me at “lowering tourists into a volcano” and then almost immediately lost me at “extinct”.

  • mikelipino

     Hans Bjelke is not impressed.

  • iCowboy

    Hi Maggie,

    I was at Þhrihnukagigur this summer and if a: you’re in Iceland, b: don’t mind a long hike out to the volcano itself, c: really don’t mind heights (it’s 140m straight down into the chamber), and d: feeling rich (it’s about $350 per person), it is one of the most amazing things you can do in a country full of amazing things to do.

    The colours in the documentary aren’t enhanced at all, it is utterly surreal, very quiet, enormous and very, very beautiful. Even as a cynical old geologist I was grinning like a lunatic being able to see the plumbing of a cinder cone.

    The volcano is only accessible in the summer, so you all have a bit of time to save up. But do go if you get a chance.

  • http://twitter.com/beep54orama B E Pratt

    Er, “an crane system..” ??