A podcast INSIDE a volcano? Join Dr Diane for a descent into the Prihnukagigur magma chamber

Could this be the first podcast broadcast from inside a volcano's magma chamber? As Iceland braces itself for another potential eruption, join us for a special episode of the Adventures in Learning podcast. In this episode, we go Inside the Volcano with co-founder Ólafur Þór Júlíusson and Science of Iceland host Steve Spangler. Join us to learn about the Three Peaks Crater, as well as the difference between a tourist eruption and a seriously impactful eruption. If you want to see the video, check out the youtube upload of the podcast episode.

If you are looking for a good children's picture book to support learning about volcanoes, try Sue Fliess' Kid Scientist: Volcano Experts on the Edge or Eruption! The Story of Volcanoes by Anita Ganeri.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_03 0:01

Wonder, Curiosity, Connection. Where will your adventures take you? I'm Dr. Diane, and thank you for joining me on today's episode of Adventures in Learning. All right, you guys, are you ready for the first broadcast from inside a volcano?

SPEAKER_05 0:25

So my name is Oli. That's my nickname, but my full name is Olaver Thor Juliuson.

SPEAKER_02 0:31

And you are the one who runs inside the volcano.

SPEAKER_05 0:34

Yes, I'm one of the co-founders and co-owners of the Inside the Volcano.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

So this is an incredible experience. How on earth did you wind up starting a business where you get to go inside the volcano?

SPEAKER_05 0:46

So we knew about the place and we knew about the area, and uh that's so we hadn't come here. We are like uh we have a background as a rescue squad member. So we came here mostly to practice like the rope, uh to like to descend on the rope and climb back up on the rope. So it was more like a practice than 2010, and we decided to try maybe we put some kind of a lift or elevator to to take travelers inside.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

And the lift in the elevator, that's an incredible feat of engineering. How did you decide that was the way to take people up and down?

SPEAKER_05 1:21

Uh that was uh the the main reason was that we saw that the opening of the crater was quite like a level, so we could put this like a spin from a filting crane on the top of it, and from there we could attach uh a lift, like uh we can say a similar lift to which is used on skyscrapers. So that's how we did it. And it actually means three. So this this word less lecture here, we we call it ful, but it's like a th in English, so we say three nuka giv, and it actually means three peak crater. So we have three volcanoes out there, but of course, only one crater, and as you know, now after the trip, this is the only crater which kept open up till the eruption, and it's like that is still this big mystery.

SPEAKER_03 2:18

So it's a couple of mile hike from the business offices of inside the volcano to Thing Fakir. And on the day that we did our hike, it was raining, it was sleeting, and it was coming in sideways. You can hear the wind as we walk. So the Three Peaks crater has been dormant for 4,000 years. And as you look across the lava fields, you can see that moss and lichen have begun to grow. That's usually the first sign in a lava field of increased life. You're gonna start seeing the moss grow first, and from that, other plant life and vegetation will grow. In Iceland, it takes much longer for the vegetation to grow because of the shorter growing cycle. We made it to the base camp where we'll get fitted up to go descend into the volcano itself. We're gonna be going into the empty magma chamber. And the cool thing about this is it is deep enough, it's 400 feet deep at the point we're going in. You could easily fit the Statue of Liberty into it, just to give you a sense of the size. And this particular volcano, um, it last erupted 4,000 years ago.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 3:35

Um what makes this particular volcano so special?

SPEAKER_05 3:39

So this is the the only open crater which kept open after the eruption, which makes it very special, and no one knows exactly why. So that is still the biggest mystery here. But it seems like instead of filling up at the end of the eruption, it like drained away all the magma. So that is so but it's still a mystery, and no one knows exactly why.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

Mysteries are good, they are, they are so after putting on the appropriate safety gear at the base camp, we prepare to make the descent 400 feet into the earth as part of the inside the volcanoes experience. So we begin our descent into the volcano in what reminds me a lot of a window washing rig. Our expert guide, who you'll get to meet a little bit later, is Haldor Albertson or Dory. But for now, listen to his voice as he helps explain what we're seeing as we make our way to the bottom of the magma chamber.

SPEAKER_06 4:40

So basically, all the equipment we're using here, and this is just a custom build for this location. But for the first 45 meters on our way down, we are traveling through all of the layers that were stacked up during the eruption that took place here 4,500 years ago. And then at the depth of 45 meters, we start to travel into what used to be ground double prior to this eruption taking place. Well, then we start to travel into older layers. Over here, notice you can actually see how the crater is layered up. Layer by layer, staff don't hop up each other like bricks. So basically, during the eruption, when magma is flowing up through here and spitting out from the top, in every small explosion, more material is splashed onto the sides and then it solidifies layer by layer, and that's how the crater grows in height during the eruption.

SPEAKER_08 5:42

That's just wrong.

SPEAKER_06 5:48

And now notice how the density of the rock is suddenly increasing. So the line between the layers here, this was ground level 4500 years ago. And this here was just solid ground. Back then, the wall over here was attached to the wall over here. But then, due to increased pressure inside the magma chamber deeper down, then at some point the ground reaches a limit in terms of strain and just rips up open. Starts off as a fissure, and now on your side over here, there is opening up view towards the other end of the fissure. Then you have magma filling up this whole cavity and spitting out from the top. And you can just imagine the energy and the forces involved in something like this taking place.

SPEAKER_04 6:39

Hi, my name is Arkni Thor Laurusun, and uh I've been working here. This is my first summer here in inside the volcano.

SPEAKER_03 6:46

And what you what brought you to this amazing office inside a volcano?

SPEAKER_04 6:51

Well, uh I'm an actor uh and I have many friends that have been working here over the over the years, and they've all always been you know encouraging me to come down here, and I don't regret it. Regretting. It's uh true honor to be able to work here and descend here every week. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 7:11

And as I'm looking around here, what are we seeing?

SPEAKER_04 7:14

Um, for example, if you turn the camera here, uh you are actually looking at mineral and gases that are uh oxidized from this magma chamber. So for example, the yellow here, that is sulfur or sulfur oxide, and the green is copper. And then if you look a bit up here, you can see the red, that is iron or rusted iron. Then you can see the black lines that go all the way down here, that is scorched basof or scorched rock. So the heat from the magma was so intense that it actually burned the rock. For example, here up to the left here, we call it Satan's eye or devil's eye. This was uh formed in a gas bubble explosion. So there was condensed gas that was over there, and when it goes into contact with uh the magma, it exploded into the rock and scorched the rock itself.

SPEAKER_03 8:02

And when was the last time that this volcano erupted?

SPEAKER_04 8:06

4500 years ago.

SPEAKER_03 8:08

So it's been a while. We should be okay today.

SPEAKER_04 8:11

But in uh geological terms, that was yesterday, but not you're completely safe here, yes.

SPEAKER_03 8:17

And how do you get inside a volcano? Like this is amazing.

SPEAKER_04 8:23

Yeah, so well, there was a man here in 1974 called Altony, and he hoisted down in a rope, and um there was no power here, so he went all the way down and he didn't see anything. So it wasn't until 20 years later that that that they went down with a team, and they went down with generators and lights and turned it on, and then they could see this uh incredible chamber and all of the colors inside of it. But now uh we have this lift that you can see that barely it just fits uh in the crater. So um it takes around eight passengers, and it is uh uh well, I call it a glorified window cleaning lift, but it's uh really nice. Something special seeing it come down as well.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

It really is. Well, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_04 9:13

No problem.

SPEAKER_03 9:14

So this is Dr. Diane, and I have to tell you, my impression is we're in here. This is a sacred space, it's so powerful, and truly you can feel the power inside, though, and to see the power that that eruption had behind it, you can see the um the layers of rock, you can feel just the immense power that was in here, and it's absolutely stunning. Okay, so we are inside a volcano, and I am here with the one, the only Dave Spangler.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

I'm here with Dr. Diane. It's the only place in the world you can do this. Seriously, I talk about professional development. It's the only place in the world that you can see and you can feel this. This is an emotional time.

SPEAKER_03 10:05

It's absolutely amazing. So, as we're looking around at the different layers, what's the first thing that comes to mind for you?

SPEAKER_01 10:13

Um, so the science in me says uh sulfur and copper and iron oxide and scorched basalt, all those things there, a little silica that's in there. But then as I look around, I see teachers who are speechless. And I think that maybe when they're standing here on their own, they might start thinking about the why once again. Why did I get into this in the first place? Why am I inspired to teach children? Why am I inspired to create experiences? And so our job is to create experiences for teachers to so they'll rejuvenate, so they'll go back into their that classroom and re-inspire their children.

SPEAKER_03 10:48

Well, and you're always finding ways to help make those connections and those experiences. How did you find a volcano? This absolutely tops everything.

SPEAKER_01 10:57

It's only been 11 years that they really have had this open for people. Oli, who you'll meet upstairs, uh, and we saw coming down again, tells the story of descending with a rope and not seeing much until finally it opens up. And it's not until they had lights like this, uh, and and the ability to be able to come down with that window washer rig and bring people back up again that uh that have been able to do it. So what a fantastic place.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Hi, I'm Beth Fest from Denver, Colorado. This is the most amazing place. The colors are striking. That's what has really impressed me. It's just the vibrancy of the colors.

SPEAKER_03 11:41

This is probably the most amazing thing that's happened since I've come to Iceland. I am touching the side of a volcano and not the outside of a volcano. I'm touching the inside of a volcano. All too soon it was time to leave the magma chamber of the volcano and make the six-minute ascent back to the surface. The storm had passed, and we get to reward ourselves with some incredible soup at Basecamp, and you get to meet some of the really cool people behind Inside the Volcano. Start by introducing yourselves.

SPEAKER_07 12:22

My name is uh Jonas, and uh I am a tour guy here at Inside the Volcano.

SPEAKER_06 12:28

My name is Tore, uh, and I'm a lip operat at Inside the Volcano.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

And how long have you worked here? How did you come to be here?

SPEAKER_07 12:37

Seven years. I just went to a job interview and uh didn't get the job. And then uh I tried again the year later and it worked happening.

SPEAKER_06 12:49

Uh I've been here now for eight years. Um I was brought in by a friend as a background in uh you know, mountain rescue and jewel kiting uh prior to that.

SPEAKER_03 13:01

And when we went down um earlier, you told me that you had the best office in the world.

SPEAKER_06 13:06

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

How did you wind up with that beautiful office?

SPEAKER_06 13:10

Um well, yeah, like I said, due to my background sort of in uh in kiting and uh and mountain rescue, the perfect fit into the team here. Um yeah, and you're an engineer as well, you said. I'm a mechanical engineer as well. So my sort of day-to-day job is for a medical device company.

SPEAKER_02 13:31

Okay, what's the best part about working here?

SPEAKER_06 13:35

Definitely the amazing staff that works here, and you're constantly meeting new people, yeah.

SPEAKER_07 13:41

And also you're kind of outside, whatever the weather. So these other jobs they tend to be a lot of inside, sitting, doing uh yeah, nine to five, and but now you're just outside if it's rain, hail, wind, doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_03 13:55

Does going down into the volcano ever get old?

SPEAKER_07 13:59

No.

SPEAKER_03 14:01

What's the best part about doing that?

SPEAKER_07 14:03

No cell reception. No, I think it's well they put a new cell tower at the peak. So if you stand in the middle, you'll get pinged a bit, but if you move to the sides, you don't. Yeah, uh, I would say it's always just a very, very nice calming experience. I mean, it's also nice to give people um a memorable experience as well. It's always uh quite killing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:29

And what do you hope people come out of the volcano remembering?

SPEAKER_06 14:35

I mean, this is a natural wander. It's the only volcano in the world that you can enter like this. So it's a truly unique experience. Um it's just amazing being part of that experience with all of these amazing people that come here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:54

The walk back from base camp was sunny and much less windy. The rain had stopped and it gave us time to really appreciate the beauty of the lava fields and the potential trolls who were dwelling in the different rocks. As I was walking, I found myself thinking a lot about the difference between what's known as a tourist eruption, a small minor eruption, and something that would be considered much more significant, like E-15, which happened a few years ago. Lucky for us, Oli was ready to explain the difference.

SPEAKER_05 15:30

And this is what we call a tourist eruption. It's a really, really beautiful eruption, and there are like everyone and the grandmother is going there. So all the tourists in Iceland, they go there, all Icelanders are going there, and they are behaving badly. They are cooking hot dogs and they are climbing on the new lava, and it's amazing that no one dies, but someone gets hurt, and people are like acting like very foolish often. But the reason people want to go there, and then I have another photo of uh the eruption last year, it is like extremely beautiful, and also to hear the sounds it's over like it's it's like someone is really, really angry underneath there, and you can see the idiots here, right? Because this is like this is like a flowing rock. This is a thousand degree flowing magma, and it travels exactly the same as like everything in the nature. The easiest way, if you just pour a water, it flows like the easiest way, exactly like the magma, and you can see how beautiful it is when we have a little bit of a snow and the sun is setting, and of course, people want to see it.

SPEAKER_08 16:55

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 16:56

So, this is what we call like a touristic eruption, and this is very similar to the crater you were seeing like one hour ago or so. So that was also a very small eruption, and this eruption lasted for like two or three weeks, so that is a very, very small one. But we can have another type of eruption, and I'm gonna tell you a little bit about that, and because you are gonna see another volcano, or actually many volcanoes in this tour, not any open ones, of course, this is the only open. Uh, but 2010 we had a really big eruption from one of the central like central volcanoes. Uh, and I don't know if you remember this a yeah, or for many of because it's so hard to say it, it was like it was much easier to say E15, so it's an E and then bunch of 15 other letters. So I think it was C and N who started saying this. So, and I'm gonna show you what eruption like that looks like. That's nothing touristic about that, it's a catastrophic. It can be like 50,000, 20 to 50,000 times bigger than uh like a normal touristic eruption. So, what happens here? There's so much amount of magma coming up, it melts the ice cap, so the ice starts flowing into the crater, that is causing a constant explosion. So we have this like a fine ash going like two or three miles up in the air, and then it travels exactly the same way as the wind. So the wind takes the ash. When this erupted in 2010, we were quite lucky that the wind was mostly blowing from northwest, so they brought the ash over to UK. But instead, the people in UK they hated us a lot because what happens, you everything gets gray, sits on your cars and everything. It is actually a good fertilizer. We we we have noticed that, but it is stopping all like the flight traffic in the area.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 19:14

Because because if it gets into the engines, it's it's like uh it can be a catastrophic. And uh because you have seen uh uh only open one kino crater today, open, I'm gonna show you how the crater here looks like from a satellite photo. This is the crater of E15, 2010, and you can see that it's like something, someone like really, really angry there. And this can be like uh 10 miles long where where the opening is, where the arse and the magma is coming up. So imagine the power and what is going on underneath if we have eruption or like a volcano which is like 20,000 times bigger than we were looking at today. So it's uh so we when when this something like this happened, like all the alarm system in Iceland is like really on car.

SPEAKER_03 20:18

You can is there any other place in the world where you can have an experience like this?

SPEAKER_05 20:23

No, this is actually the only open crater in the whole world we know of.

SPEAKER_03 20:28

And um, what do you hope that the visitors who come here take away?

SPEAKER_05 20:32

What do you hope that actually to uh uh understand a little bit better about volcanoes and the forces of nature and actually how small we are comparing to the universe and like so and of course learn to respect the nature. That is the most important thing to protect and respect the nature.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

You've been listening to the Adventures in Learning podcast with your host, Dr. Diane. If you like what you're hearing, please subscribe, download, and let us know what you think, and please tell a friend. If you want the full show notes and the pictures, please go to drdianeadventures.com. We look forward to you joining us on our next adventure.