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It is one of those holiday experiences that should
probably be filed under intrepid.
As of next month, visitors to Iceland with a taste for adventure will be
able to sign up for a tour that takes them inside the crater of a
colossal volcano.
This might seem an unwise prospect in a country where, infamously, the
Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted with great force in March 2010, spewing
out a vast cloud of ash and debris that caused myriad complications for
the airline industry in Europe.
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But 3H Travel, the Icelandic travel company behind the tours into the
maw of the Thrihnukagigur volcano, insists that its out-on-a-limb
expedition is entirely safe.
Thrihnukagigur has been dormant for over 4000 years – and is hugely
unusual in that its interior is accessible to those with a penchant for
dropping into dark corners.
In fact, the rock giant can boast three separate magma chambers (its
name translates loosely into English as ‘Three Peaks Crater’).
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In a rare geological occurrence, during its last eruption, the magma in
one of the chambers solidified on the walls inside, rather than cooling
into hard lava on the surface and blocking the ‘entrance’.
‘Thrihnukagigur is unique,’ says Haraldur Sigurdsson, a local
volcanologist.
‘It is like somebody came and pulled the plug, and all the magma ran
down out of it.’
Tours are available during the warmer months of the Icelandic summer,
with four departures on offer every day between June 15 and July 31.
Brave tourists are able to descend 120 metres into this ancient chasm,
using a cable lift, passing into the volcano through the four-metre-by-four-metre
opening in its summit.
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The full magma chamber is equivalent in height to three versions of the
Statue of Liberty stacked one on top of the other, with tunnels
descending to a depth of 200 metres.
Visitors can also expect to witness a spectacular array of colours. The
inside of the chamber could be compared to a cavernous cathedral dome,
daubed in many hues.
Those who opt to take the tour need to be relatively fit, as it involves
a two-mile, 40-minute trek to the lip of the crater (and a return hike
on re-emergence from the chamber).
Tours are priced at 37,000 Icelandic Krona (£180) – via
www.insidethevolcano.com.
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Iceland’s propensity for sudden explosions and subterranean tetchiness
can be explained by its position on the planet. Although the country
appears to be an island, it is actually the highest point of the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a long chain of underwater mountains.
Iceland also sits at a point where the North American and Eurasian
continental plates meet. The two plates are slowly drifting apart,
leading to tearing in the Earth’s crust.
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Almost 150 years ago, the author Jules Verne wrote his classic science
fiction novel Journey to the Centre of the Earth, imagining a group of
adventurers traveling into an extinct Icelandic volcano only to come
across prehistoric animals, stormy seas and mysterious islands.
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