Take 15 seconds of your time to watch a drone fly by an erupting volcano

A volcano in Iceland called Fagradalsfjall had been dormant for 6,000 years. Then it erupted spectacularly in March.

It just so happens that a lot has changed in 6,000 years, such as the fact we humans have drones. So, of course, drone pilots like Bjorn Steinbekk are flying theirs right into the molten lava.

Just watch; it’s worth 15 seconds of your time.

Somehow, the drone survived flying right past chunks of lava spewing into the sky.

Good thing too, because that drone just so happens to be the pricey new DJI FPV. I said that drone looked ‘stupid fun’ in my announcement post, but even this is more than I was expecting quite so soon. I imagine DJI is going to want to use that footage in an ad any minute now.

Have a few more seconds? Here’s some more the-floor-is-actually-lava goodness:

What about four minutes? Here are some stunning overhead flybys set to calming music.

Though Steinbekk says he thought he would never see his drone again after that close call in the first clip, “sometimes you just need to let go and go for it,” he says in the description to one of his other videos. Lucky for us that he did.

Since then, the area has been a hotbed of seismic activity. According to local outlets, there have been some 5,000 earthquakes around Fagradalsfjall over the course of roughly a week this December, with most of them recording a magnitude of 3.0. They are likely being caused by lateral movement of magma.

Via The Verge

Update (December 24, 2021): Included news of earthquakes in the area.