Category: volcanoes

Categories

Stromboli

As promised in the previous Blog post that gave an overview of my recent trip to Sicily, now here comes the more specific post about what was the definite highlight of that trip: seeing Stromboli erupt (below you’ll find several more photos of the natural fireworks show!). The guided hike to the 400m viewing point was actually the very first thing I booked for my Sicily trip and only then built everything else around this.

First you have to get to Stromboli, of course. I planned the trip in such a way that

Pompeii & Herculaneum

As promised in the previous Blog post, with its overview of my recent trip to Naples, I now bring you a post that concentrates entirely on Pompeii and Herculaneum, both of which I visited from Naples as day excursions during that recent trip.

Both places were wealthy ancient Roman cities that were destroyed in a catastrophic two-day eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius in (probably) October 79 CE. The first phase of the eruption produced a gigantic column of pumice and volcanic ash, which, when it collapsed, began to rain down volcanic material mainly over Pompeii, whereas

Inside a Volcano!

As the title says, it is indeed about going inside a volcano. Obviously that won’t be an active volcano (any such volcano you could enter only once, and get instantly vaporized). Instead it’s a very special, probably even unique commodification of a dormant volcano, more precisely a drained magma chamber, going down over 120m below the crater top. It is located on the Reykjanes Peninsula a ca. 20-30 minute drive south of Reykjavik.

As you may recall from the general Iceland post, the Reykjanes Peninsula is also where

Iceland in 2023

Twelve days ago I came back from my return trip to Iceland. Like on my first trip there back in 2004, I totally fell in love with the Icelandic scenery, be it glaciers, volcanic wastelands or dramatic sea cliffs (full of puffins in various places). Unlike in 2004, though, I brought back plenty of much better photos too, compared to the ones I took with my very first digital camera in 2004 (see this previous Blog post). So I can give you another little overview photo essay now – up to date and obviously with a