Fire
Ethiopia · November to February
Danakil Depression
A lava lake, acid springs in yellow and green, and a salt plain 120 metres below the sea
Danakil · Mount Yasur · Iceland Highlands
Fire
A lava lake in the hottest place on earth, a Pacific volcano that erupts every few minutes and lets you stand on its rim, and the coloured mountains of Iceland’s interior with a trail across the aftermath.
Volcanoes make their own rules. The Danakil is run by heat and by escorts, Yasur by a daily alert level, the Icelandic highlands by a road that opens for ten weeks. The Monte Carlo run is the tool for this realm because the risk is not the mountain; it is the probability that the plan happens on the day you booked.
The three places cover the range: a rift valley below sea level with a permanent lava lake, a cinder cone with a car park, and a cold interior of hot rivers and rhyolite where the danger is hypothermia in July.
Everything in Fire
Fire
Ethiopia · November to February
Danakil Depression
A lava lake, acid springs in yellow and green, and a salt plain 120 metres below the sea
Fire
Vanuatu · May to October
Mount Yasur, Tanna
The most accessible active volcano on earth, erupting every few minutes since Captain Cook saw its glow
Fire
Iceland · July and August
Iceland Highlands
Rhyolite mountains in yellow, red and green, hot rivers and a trail across lava and ice
Climate by month
Danakil Depression
Mount Yasur, Tanna
Iceland Highlands
How close is close enough?
Questions people ask
Which volcano first?
Yasur: the most accessible active volcano on earth, at alert level one, with a Pacific island around it. The Danakil is a serious tour; the Icelandic highlands are a trek.
Is standing on a rim safe?
At the published alert level and with the guides, the record is good. Every fatality on Yasur has been beyond the safe line, and the Danakil’s risks are heat and the region rather than the lava.
What do I need to bring?
A mask for the gas, closed shoes, a torch, water, and for Iceland a shell and warm layers that expect snow in July.
The Simulation Brief
One place, one simulator, one honest number. Every second Sunday.
No newsletter theatre. A short e-mail with the place we modelled, what the model said and what the ground said back.