Awesome Volcanoes

Volcanoes and the Northern Lights can be amazing to watch on their own. Associated Press shared this incredible footage of a volcano erupting in southwestern Iceland while the Aurora Borealis danced in the skies above. The contrast between the orange flames and the green and pink skies showcases the power and beauty of nature at the same time.

Inspired by another table he saw on YouTube, Drew Builds Stuff wanted his own desk that looks like molten lava. He started with burled elm wood, placed them into a form, filled the gaps with fire glass and epoxy, then sanded and polished it smooth. Programmable LED light strips complete the illusion, so we’re glad he didn’t give up after a major mishap.

Shanghai, China firm 100 Architects designed this vibrant outdoor space inspired by hot lava. Instead of drab concrete, it’s been decorated in brilliant shades of red, orange, and yellow. The park includes lots of play areas, including an obstacle course, see-saw, and merry-go-round, along with a jogging path for adults.

What could be more terrifying than a regular volcano? A supervolcano, that’s what. Kurzgesagt explains how these massive ash, lava, and gas-spewing volcanoes form, and what sort of catastrophic consequences they might have on the Earth and its inhabitants for if the planet’s superheated insides erupted.

Remember those grade school volcanoes we made from vinegar and baking soda? This mini volcano is a bit more dangerous. Play to DIY built the volcano from cardboard and string, then covered its exterior with crushed-up matchstick heads. Despite being submerged in an aquarium, it’s quite incendiary.

Last week, the Fagradalsfjall volcano erupted not far from Reykjavik, Iceland, and the Keflavik International Airport. Photographers descended on the area, including Jakob Vegerfors, who captured this extraordinary footage of fiery lava exploding into the air and a river of lava flowing around the eruption site.

Volcanic eruptions are known for their visual spectacle. But nature photographer Jakob Vegerfors thinks that sound is just as important as sight. He captured this surprisingly soothing footage during the March 2021 eruption at Geldingadalur, Iceland. We’re putting this on a loop instead of white noise at bedtime.

This unique desktop plaything is made from a semi-spherical chunk of natural volcanic rock, mated with a machined aluminum alloy base. The result is a rolling conversation piece that stimulates your senses of sight, touch, sound, and even smell. Its porous surface can be used as a diffuser for essential oils.

While it might look really cool to have a coffee table made of molten lava, it wouldn’t last long, and your house would surely burn down. On the other hand, this table from Positive Couple looks the part, without the deadly heat and fumes. They built it using backlit crystals, oak, and epoxy, set onto an aluminum base.

While geologists can study how lava flows by visiting volcanoes, science experiments are generally easier to perform in a controlled environment. Science geek Kyle Hill visited Syracuse University’s Lava Project for a look at how they melt rock in their custom crucible and turn it red hot goo at over 2700ºF.

We’ve seen some incredible but brief close-up footage of the Fagradalsfjall volcano eruption. Now watch 18 days of volcanic activity condensed down to five minutes in this time-lapse video that stebbigu created from the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service’s live streams of the eruption.

We recently witnessed some amazing drone footage of an Icelandic volcano in action. Photographer Garðar Ólafs went one better by flying his drone directly over the volcano’s vent, sacrificing his equipment to bring us this spectacular footage. We only wish we had an exterior shot of the drone melting.

If you’re going to smoke, you should at least have a good ashtray. We dig this concrete ashtray which turns the smoke from your cigs into a plume rising from a volcano’s vent. The only thing missing is the lava flow running down its side.

Nature’s fury is on full display in this short film that takes us inside the harrowing 2018 volcanic eruption of Kilauea on Hawaii’s big island. Photographers Lance Page, Michael Lienau, G. Brad Lewis, and Adrian Hein each captured a portion of the spectacular footage, which ranges from massive smoke plumes, to rivers of fire.

Want to keep neighborhood rugrats off your lawn? Minutephysics and Randall Munroe of xkcd have got you covered, with their step-by-step plan for installing a moat filled with molten hot lava. Sadly, it would cost about $60,000 a day to keep it running unless you dig down deep enough and power it with geothermal energy.

The Backyard Scientist performs yet another very dangerous experiment, as he pours a bucket of 1500ºF molten aluminum into a volcano made from sand, then ups the spectacle by adding some fireworks to the mix. Yeah, don’t ever try anything this guy does at home.

You let the chips fall where they may if you build your home at the foot of an active volcano – especially when you know it can rain molten nacho cheese or spicy salsa on your head. Suck UK’s porcelain bowl serves as a reminder to evacuate at the first sign of Doritos.

The S created his version of the old grade school volcano science experiment, but replaced the baking soda and vinegar with matchsticks and fire, resulting in a dangerous and spectacular fireball. It goes without saying, but don’t try this at home.

The Backyard Scientist doesn’t have a volcano around his house, but still wanted to play around with some molten lava. So he got to simulating the stuff by melting down some lava rock and then poured it into his parent’s swimming pool to see how it would behave.

SciShow host Hank Green answers the question none of us were asking, as he explores the rather ludicrous sounding idea of sending our garbage to the nearest volcano, and then just dumping it in. We don’t really need to explain why this is a bad idea, do we?

Volcanoes and lightning working together? No thanks. Mental Floss‘ John Green returns to the salon to share some interesting and unusual tidbits about the fury and mystery of nature’s fiery earthmaking engines. Also, they really should think about renaming Iceland “Fire and Iceland.”

Incredible footage captured via drone as it flies towards an unusual development on Kalapana Hawaii, where a chunk of cliff cracked off and exposed a lava tube which now sprays a huge torrent of liquid hot magma into the Pacific. (Thanks Orion!)

Back in 2009, astronauts on the International Space Station captured this amazing perspective of Russia’s Sarychev volcano erupting, as a massive plume of ash and smoke ascended towards the heavens above.