鈥淚T REMINDED me of a landscape from The Lord of the Rings,鈥� says photographer , who captured this image of the Laki fissure in southern Iceland.
But these highlands weren鈥檛 always green and peaceful. Between 1783 and 1784, they were flooded with lava when one of the most powerful volcanic events that Earth has seen ravaged an area of about 600 square kilometres.
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During this event, named the Laki eruption, the Gr铆msv枚tn volcano and a 27-kilometre-long fissure 鈥� as well as massive craters, like the one shown here 鈥� erupted for eight months. Lingering ash and volcanic gases cooled global temperatures for about three years.
In a bid to see an eruption, geophysicist Ari Trausti Gu冒mundsson, who collaborated with Pitcairn on the project, spent the summer of 2014 constantly monitoring Iceland鈥檚 seismic activity. At the end of August, he advised Pitcairn that an eruption near the B谩r冒arbunga volcano in the east was imminent, and the pair rushed there.
They landed their helicopter within 5 metres of flowing lava and walked on the black sand (see image below). 鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 aware that there were fingers of lava beneath the sand,鈥� says Pitcairn. After a couple of hours, they had to head back to avoid breathing in too much of the toxic gases the volcano was emitting, such as sulphur dioxide.
Pitcairn is fascinated by Iceland鈥檚 landscape and hopes to return. 鈥淩ight now, the country is in transition due to climate change,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an important moment to capture.鈥�
Photos from Pitcairn鈥檚 latest book, Primordial Landscapes, are on of Natural History in Washington DC until April 2017.
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淟and of lava鈥�
