Bárðarbunga volcanic complex - Baugur crater

[Astronuc]

Geologists Climb Into Iceland Volcano, Come Out With Stunning Images
http://news.yahoo.com/geologists-climb-iceland-volcano-come-stunning-images-132015005.html

Baugur crater was the tallest and largest crater in the long line of sputtering cones built by the Bárðarbunga (English: Barbarbunga) eruption's spectacular fire fountains. A 165-foot-wide (50 meter) river of lava once flowed to the northeast from a boiling lava lake inside the crater.

The surface is still a red-hot 1,110 degrees Fahrenheit (600 degrees Celsius) in spots, and the scientists had to wear gas masks and carry oxygen, according to Evgenia Ilyinskaya, a volcanologist with the British Geological Survey. But the views are absolutely stunning. [Amazing Images from Scientists' Dive into Toxic Volcano ]

Talk about a hot job.

I hope they get samples for isotopic analysis. There are "small vents of blue sulfur-dioxide gas rise from the crater, along with puffs of steaming hot water vapor. There are also small amounts of chlorine, fluorine and carbon monoxide spewing from the crater, . . . " Toxic too.


The lava field covers 33 square miles (85 square km) and has a volume of 0.34 cubic miles (1.4 cubic km).

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I've seen some volcano shots where a researcher is wearing a yellow protective suit. Hopefully they had helicopter evac if needed.