Gently erupting volcanoes with gushing lava flows & fountains are a volcano geek’s wildest dream come true. When they are quiet, they also offer stunning hiking routes in otherworldly landscapes.
Standing next to a line of 8 erupting craters is a whole new level of the mind being blown. This was completely Off The Scale.
I stood utterly mesmerized looking upon the creation process of Earth itself.
And then there’s this beautiful yet ‘unpronounceable’ volcano, silently looming in the background. Until it erupted into world fame…
Pico del Teide on Tenerife is the biggest mountain of Spain. Surrounded by a huge caldera, its peak rises up an astonishing 3718 metres into thin air. Its flanks are a volcanic playground, with a multitude of colourful cones and bizarre cathedral-like formations, and winding roads along titled layers of rock. You can go all the way to the top of Pico del Teide by cable car and enjoy amazing views over the Canary Islands.
The Aeolian Islands in south Italy are the stuff of legends and a geological paradise. Stromboli, the ancient lighthouse of the Mediterranean, is famous for its fountain eruptions. Vulcano gave its name to the eruptive mountains we now know as volcanoes. Regular ferries from Naples or Milazzo on Sicily to Stromboli, Lipari and Vulcano make it easy to go island hopping between volcanoes on the Aeolian Islands.
GeekPic at the intimidating steaming heaps of the Fimmvörðuháls fissure lava flow in Iceland. I had to brave howling winds in order to even stay upright, while holding a relic lava rock that was coughed up by the mighty Eyjafjallajökull himself. The nearby Magni and Móði craters were still steaming at their edges.