Iceland review - 2012, Page 58

56 ICELAND REVIEW
crater a ‘diamond in the rough’ and believes
it has the potential to become as big an
attraction as the Blue Lagoon, Iceland’s top
tourist destination along with the erupting
hot spring geysir and gullfoss waterfall.
a very SPeCial PlaCe
After an eruption, the magma chamber of
a volcano usually fills up and is sealed with
hard cold lava. However, Þríhnúkagígur’s
magma chamber is empty, which is what
makes it so spectacular. This is one of few
places on planet Earth where you can
explore the heart of a volcano.
In the words of world-renowned vol-
canologist Haraldur Sigurðsson: “It’s like
somebody came and pulled the plug and all
the magma ran down out of it.”
What makes Þríhnúkagígur crater unique
is how accessible it is.
Currently, only a limited number of
people can enter the crater at the same time.
However, there are ideas of drilling a 400-
meter long tunnel into the crater for tour-
ism purposes. This has been Árni's vision for
many years and the company behind Inside
the volcano is striving to make it happen.
The company is planning to construct
In BrIef
Iceland is located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the
Eurasian and North American tectonic plates are moving apart.
Þríhnúkagígur volcano sits in the center of this ridge. Its name in
English is literally ‘Three Peaks Crater.’ The bottom of the dome
is 120 meters from the opening, but the crater extends
deeper through a much smaller tunnel.
The small bright spot at the top of the photo is the surface entrance. The lift carrying the explorers
is descending into the dome after traveling through the narrow bottleneck of the crater. The various
colorations inside the crater are strikingly beautiful. No matter how the weather is above,
the temperature in the crater is always around three to four degrees Celsius.
CRATER