{"id":25471,"date":"2026-10-06T12:53:19","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T12:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/?p=25471"},"modified":"2026-10-06T12:54:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T12:54:16","slug":"the-lava-show-in-reykjavik-iceland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/2026\/10\/06\/the-lava-show-in-reykjavik-iceland\/","title":{"rendered":"The Lava Show in Reykjav\u00edk, Iceland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thursday, May 14 continued<\/a>… We left the hotel at 1330. The Grandi <\/a>was on the corner of Myrargata and Seljavegur. The map app directed us to turn northeast on Myrargata, which was a direction we hadn’t yet explored. The taller part of the building at the far left was definitely The Grandi. We weren’t sure if the grey and red buildings with the slanted roofs were a wing of the Grandi or were different buildings altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Across the street was the Saga Museum. According to the brochure that Christi had picked up today, it was about early Icelandic history<\/a>, particularly viking. It was on the to-do list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The museum had an interesting statue in front. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beyond the museum was a roundabout. The map app directed us to turn right on the second street we came to, which took us northwest. This street contrasted sharply with the area we’d seen on our walk this morning to downtown.<\/a> The scenery this morning was primarily residential, with mostly older homes set close together and little parking. This street felt like suburbia with a generously spaced out line of large, blocky warehouse-type buildings with large parking lots. It was apparent to Christi that this stretch was man-made land.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We passed a large grocery store and a couple other buildings that looked like they may be tourist activities, as well. We arrived at 1345, went in and bought tickets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Tickets were\u00a06,590 ISK ($54.00) for adults and they charged Keith (who was 14) as an adult. We waited in the lounge for a few minutes, then were ushered into a small theater just before 1400. A man came out, introduced himself and gave his background. He was French and he moved to Iceland because he was really into volcanoes<\/a> and wanted to live where he could see eruptions. Then he gave a background on the company. It was started by a couple who had an amazing experience watching an eruption. They wanted to come up with an innovative way to replicate the experience and teach people about lava in a safe environment.\u00a0He explained that the lava used in the show was 100% real — they collected basaltic stones<\/a> and melted them down for the demonstration. He explained that, while obsidian<\/a> was one of the hardest stones on earth, basaltic was a lot softer due to the lower amount of silica. Then he brought out the guy whose job it was to melt and move the lava. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He wore this special suit to ensure he was fully protected from the high temperatures and intensive brightness. The host explained what the suit was made of and the process used to melt the stones. Then the melter headed behind the stage to prepare for the demonstration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the demonstration began, they showed an interesting, high quality film about volcanoes. The film explained why Iceland was so geologically active<\/a>. Then it explained how damaging volcanoes could be \u2013 only volcanoes and large meteors could trigger an extinction level event<\/a>. It gave a history of the major eruptions around Iceland over the centuries and listed some of the effects (sometimes worldwide) of those eruptions.\u00a0Once of the more recent was the eruption of Eyjafjallaj\u00f6kull, which occurred from March 20 – June 23, 2010. Since no one could say that word, everyone started calling it the E-15 eruption. It caused all flights in Europe to be canceled for six days weeks. Some parts of Europe had flight disruptions for weeks. It also caused flight disruptions in North Africa and the Middle East. The reason for the total shut down was because bits of hot lava in the ash plume could get into the engine system and ignite the planes — no one wanted to see planes exploding in the sky. We presumed the ash plume must have floated over Europe.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the film ended, lava poured down the chute. This was recorded at 1422. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He showed the different ways that small lava pieces could dry to create all the very different lava shapes\/stones,<\/a> etc.\u00a0Explosions made the tiny pebbles. The flows that crystalized made the solid tan colored basaltic stones. When left undisturbed, basaltic naturally arranged itself into columns<\/a> that usually had 5 or 6 sides, though disruptions to the lava caused all kinds of shapes to occur. He talked about an especially problematic form of volcanic glass called Pele’s hair, which were long, thin strands of lava glass that shattered easily and thus could get into skin and even the respiratory system of humans and animals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 1424, while the lava was still very hot, he put a block of ice on the bottom section of the tray and gently pushed it into the lava. The ice melted incredibly quickly and made the lava bubble up. The bubbles contained trapped gasses. They were thin and easily cracked when he gently touched them with the stick. He explained that this was tiny in scale compared to a real eruption — that in nature these bubbles were huge and when they popped, it created violent explosions. Also, the steam would shoot bits of ash and smaller rocks\u00a0into the sky. This was why lava flows under glaciers <\/a>could be more violent than a regular terrestrial lava flow. He explained why hyaloclastite lava rocks<\/a> were different from terrestrial rocks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The outer layer cooled very quickly to a dark red. It stopped glowing and appeared to be solidified by 1430. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But then he easily poked through the surface with his stick and pulled up a thick string of lava that was still glowing yellow — it appeared to be as hot as it was when the lava was first poured. He explained that lava was a really good insulator \u2013 while the part exposed to air cooled quickly, the inside lost very little heat. Lava fields could stay hot for decades. There was an island that had an eruption in the 1970s and the lava fields were still hot.\u00a0While he talked he pulled up more lava. This was taken at 1431.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Then he pushed the lava strings back down and they quickly reformed with the rest of the lava. He said that the cooler the lava got, the more viscous, and thus was becoming more easily malleable. By 1434, the lava surface was an even deeper red, with some black spots. At this point, when he pushed on it with his stick, the lava shell was still pliable, but it wasn\u2019t moving on its own any more. It had to be pushed by a force to move. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Since the lava on the slope was thinner than the lava in the pool at the bottom, the lava on the slope had cooled much faster and made a wavy pattern. The host explained the rock form on the slope was volcanic glass. He started pushing on it with the stick, and the long piece of glass shattered without much force. He explained that basaltic was a relatively soft material, and thus structurally weak. if the lava contained more silica, the glass would be obsidian<\/a> and would not haven shattered since obsidian was one of the hardest stones on earth. Glass and sand were both made of silica, so the lava easily turned into both forms.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He went on to explain that this was also how lava tubes were created \u2013 the lava river was still flowing underneath the hard shell on the slope. When the lava flow eventually stopped, gravity would keep moving the molten part down, leaving the area on the slope hollow. He warned us to never to walk in the lava fields. We could step on a weak spot over a lava tube and fall in \u2013 and if we fell in before it was fully cooled underneath, we’d be in big trouble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the bottom of the chute, where it pooled, the texture was smooth. Since this was a thicker layer, it cooled more slowly. He lifted up the bottom and broke it a few times so we could see how the color and viscosity changed as it cooled. Meanwhile, the lava on the chute hardened into volcanic glass (as it was thin and cooled quickly, but I suspect if it was a thick enough layer would have turned into basaltic columns).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He put some water on the surface to help it cool faster. It made a ton of steam. After the steam had dissipated, entire surface was dark grey\/black. The photo below was taken at 1448. One would thinks that meant it was fully cooled, but he put a piece of paper on it and the paper immediately caught fire, showing that it was still hot despite being black. He explained that 600 degrees was the minimum temperature for it to glow faintly red; the brighter the color, the hotter it was. Black lava could be as hot as 599 degrees. He again warned us to never to walk in the lava fields. We could step on a weak spots in more solid lava, using into the uncooled deeper area and literally burn our feet off. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He began lifting up sections to show that underneath the black, it was still glowing orange. Now the lava was moving in chunks as opposed to strands, so it was becoming less valuable as it was closer to solidifying. The next photo was taken at 1449. Fun fact: people are less dense than lava, so one cannot sink in liquid lava. They’ll just sit on top and be burned.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As the show concluded, he explained that they reused the same rocks over and over. The guy in the special suit would come and collect the rocks and put them back in the melter for the next show. Interestingly, the melter ran on methane gas. They made the gas via recycled food waste. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then he took questions from the audience. Fun fact: people were less dense than lava, so people will never sink in a lava flow, just sit on top and be burned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We found the show to be really interesting and educational. Unfortunately, Keith fell asleep part way through. He said he felt bad because he was enjoying the show, but it was so dark and he was so jet lagged that he simply couldn’t stay awake.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the show, they walked to a restaurant that the lady at the ticket counter had suggested… to be continued… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thursday, May 14 continued… We left the hotel at 1330. The Grandi was on the corner of Myrargata and Seljavegur. The map app directed us to turn northeast on Myrargata, which was a direction we hadn’t yet explored. The taller … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,1,428,19,44,429],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-general","category-geological-sites","category-guided-tour","category-history","category-iceland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25471"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25536,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25471\/revisions\/25536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}