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Photographers flock to erupting volcanoes
In today’s newsletter, we examine the visual power of erupting volcanoes, see how helicopters are changing the hunt for life on Mars, catch up on one photographer’s long-delayed trip back home … and see a previously unpublished 1909 image by pioneering photographer (and mountaineer) Vittorio Sella.
By David Beard and Jen Tse
Already the gawkers have moved onto the fringe of an erupting volcano (above) in southwestern Iceland. What is it about seeing the incandescent lava, the newest part of Earth, flowing nearby? Or the nagging fear that you might be trapped in a violent, unpredictable spasm of fire and stone?
“I think that people are attracted to the sheer power and awe of volcanoes and images of eruptions,” says Sara Dosa, who was at the site during an eruption a year ago and directed Fire of Love, the just-released documentary about husband-and-wife volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft. “In a volcano, one can see the forces of creation and destruction all at once.”
The images below show the wonder of those in Iceland and at previous eruptions. One photograph below is of the Kraffts, who experienced the rawness and danger of volcanoes worldwide—and who never made it out of one eruption.
Dosa, who had returned to Iceland last month, left a week before the latest outburst—and is feeling a bit of FOMO. “Maurice [Krafft] described observing magmatic eruptions as witnessing the birth of the world billions of years ago,” Dosa tells us.
See our full story from Iceland here.
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How far will it go? The sputtering lava has already begun building small mounds of spatter near the fissure and filling the valley with a pool of molten rock. It’s unclear for now if the lava will remain confined to these valleys or will travel further afield, perhaps reaching the sea.
Hot samples: While the flashes of scarlet were just spotted on Thursday, scientists such as volcanologist Helga Kristin (above) already were busy collecting samples of rock.
Keeping watch: Members of the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue are seen investigating the dangers near the lava’s edge. While the volcano currently poses little risk, authorities are keeping a close watch on the changing hazards.
Time lapse: Stephen Wilkes documented last year’s Iceland eruption for 21 hours straight, making images of the fiery scene as day turned to night. Wilkes, a Nat Geo Explorer, created the effect by compiling 70 of the 1,123 photographs he took from a single vantage point.
September 19, 2021: The island of La Palma, part of the Spanish Canary Islands, is one of the most volcanically active zones in the archipelago. On this day, the island’s Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted for the first time in 50 years, and photographer Arturo Rodríguez was there to document it.
A shared love: French volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, in blue winter jackets, gaze upon a volcano in the distance as smoke, steam, and ash swirl behind them. Here’s the trailer to Fire of Love, the movie about them, from Nat Geo Documentary Films.
STORIES WE’RE FOLLOWING
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• Ancient caravan routes are being disrupted in regional war
• 75 years ago, this deadly, chaotic divide changed the world
PHOTO OF THE DAY
Beyoncé who? In Uganda’s Bidibidi refugee settlement, Esther Awate, 22, chose to name her daughter (both pictured above) after the musical superstar. Awate hopes to resume her studies someday but must wait until her daughter is old enough. For now, she embroiders floral and bird designs on pillows for the @milayaproject, a nonprofit that emerged out of a Nat Geo story by Nora Lorek about women who fled civil war in South Sudan with their ornately embroidered bedsheets, called milayas.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Back home: COVID-19 restrictions and assignments kept photographer Ismail Ferdous away from Bangladesh for two years. When he returned, he was drawn back to Cox’s Bazar—the shore that is both a vacation favorite and the site of a huge refugee camp for people who have fled persecution in neighboring Myanmar. The time away “made me more curious and also made me a stranger to my own heritage,” he tells us. His image (above) shows one of his discoveries: kids molding statues in the wet sand.
IN A FEW WORDS
LAST GLIMPSE
Lush life: Known for his alpine ascents, Vittorio Sella also devoted himself to photography—and to extracting a sense of lushness from the large format method he used. The National Geographic Society’s Sara Manco found this unpublished photograph from 1909 in our archives. The image of the Baltoro Glacier was taken on an expedition to K2 and the Karakoram region of Kashmir, says Manco, our senior photo archivist. Sella took his images on 11-by-15-inch glass plate negatives, which he carted on his climbs.
