A video for the volcano lovers out there

James Reynolds

Morning all.

I recently returned from Vanuatu, a string of stunning islands in the tropical south Pacific renowned for their extreme volcanism. I was part of an expedition to Ambrym island to visit Marum volcano, home to one of only 5 lava lakes in the world.

We had 2 climbing experts with us to assist in getting into the giant pit (estimated to be around 500m deep) to film the lava lake up close.

Despite foul weather and clouds of toxic gas this is what I managed to shoot - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtGT-_7XoaI
 
You are a bit too far away. I think you need a VIV (Volcano Intercept Vehicle) or a LLSub (Lava Lake Sub).

Great video! I am sure George is jealous.
 
Bad-ass, James... now I want to see a typhoon intercept there.
 
Good day all,

Wow ... I'll love to see that over any hurricane or typhoon!

Speaking of "looking" into a "hell-hole"!

Great stuff!
 
Haha - actually Vanuatu does get slammed by strong south Pacific cyclones. Being on that island would be seriously unpleasant given all the SO2 in the air. Would be an acidcyclone!

I actually missed a cat. 3 landfall in Taiwan whilst I was down there but was hard to be disappointed given where I was at the time!

Working on design for a VIV now Charles! :p

I'll post a message before I return there so people can give me any rings or Terminators they want disposing of!
 
The guys from the BBC's Top Gear have a VIV type vehicle they ran in Iceland. It has a water system spraying on all 4 tires to cool them off, but in one episode they stayed parked in one place too long and one of the tires caught fire! http://transmission.blogs.topgear.com/2010/06/29/exclusive-james-volcano/

That was a hilarious sketch they did in Iceland! We thought of contacting the Top Gear team and asking if they wanted to throw a caravan into the lava lake! :D
 
Daaaanng!!!
You guys must walk bow-legged to keep from damaging your cantaloupe-size kajones. Hats off to you. Me, I think I'll stick with nice, safe tornadoes.
 

Absolutely beautiful. Interesting how little spatter those fountains give off, relatively. And the magma flux must be extremely low, just the same lava recirculating over and over.
 
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