Iceland review - 2015, Qupperneq 35

into the water, is closed off to all but scientists. The police
had warned us of extreme levels of poisonous gases. “The
oxygen levels can suddenly drop. Without an oxygen mask,
you can suffocate,” they told us. according to the latest
risk assessment by the Icelandic Met Office and the Earth
Sciences Institute, there’s a 90 percent chance that the gas
levels are unhealthy anywhere within 25 kilometers of the
site. Our gas meter repeatedly warns us of the pollution,
despite the wind direction being in our favor. at a distance,
I take off my mask for a moment. a thick metallic taste
immediately envelopes my mouth.
While the eruption site remains closed to all but scientists,
photographers and media personnel with a special permit,
this hasn’t stopped people, including guides with tourists,
from trying to get close to the eruption, only to be stopped
by police, fined ISk 200,000 (uSD 1,700) and turned back.
“a few people have tried to get through without a permit.
They get pretty annoyed because the first checkpoint is
quite a way so they drive all that way, have to pay a fine and
don’t get to see the eruption,” Sigurður Betúel says. It’s get-
ting late. The police take a couple of photographs and then
get on their way back to the cabin.
The following day, the snowfall has stopped and we get
closer, now able to walk right up to the new lava. The silence
is broken by an eerie sound, frightening even, like a river of