jwalker9328: Inside the cold heart of an Icelandic volcano

Sunday, May 20, 2012

Inside the cold heart of an Icelandic volcano

This summer, some travelers may choose to spend their days sunning on a beach, while others might take refuge inside museums and department stores in air-conditioned cities.

But with an exclusive single-summer tour opening this June at Thrihnukagigur, a dormant Icelandic volcano near Reykyavik, others -- particularly cave enthusiasts and spelunkers -- might want to rethink their plans to include a tour of Thrihnukagigur's insides.

Journey to the bowels of the earth

The tour starts with a light 40-minute hike across a lava field and up to the crater, from where visitors are lowered into the enormous -- 120 meters deep and 70 meters wide -- magma chamber of Thrihnukagigur via a cable lift.

The setup is comparable to the way window cleaners dangle outside skyscrapers, like "an open elevator system," as 3H Travel, the Icelandic tour company that guides visitors into the heart of Thrihnukagigur, states on its website.

Visitors, five or six at a time, are transported into the bottle-shaped vault inside a basket, attached to cable wires, which in turn are attached to a huge crane on the surface. They enter through a relatively narrow aperture, a mere four meters square.