Volcano Chasers Have a Red-Hot Passion for Eruptions

Volcano chasers have a red-hot passion for eruptions

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Common sense might dictate that when a volcano starts erupting, the best thing to do is run away. But for a small and somewhat obsessed band of photographers, news of a new lava-spewing giant somewhere in the world means one thing: It's time to book a flight.

In early April, Martin Rietze spent three sleepless nights huddled next to a large boulder about 1,600 feet from the mouth of Iceland's recently reawakened Eyjafjallajökull volcano, having the time of his life.

Sleepless because when a volcano is throwing car-sized pieces of rock into the air, you can't close your eyes for a second. "It's too dangerous to sleep, so you have to stay up," he says from his home in Eichenau, Germany.

Rietze, an engineer who builds delicate electronics for planetariums, is part of a very small group of mostly men worldwide who spend vacations racing to be as near as possible to molten magma, choking ash clouds and poisonous gases, not to mention a rain of smoking-hot boulders.

Can you say Volcano watch 2010

ETA: I must say though, I commend these reporters for their boldness


[edit on 5/27/2010 by UberL33t]

A red hot passion for eruptions?

I'm afraid this topic is a little too hot for me to handle!

IRM