Hacker News Reader

Comment by stoolpigeon | Hacker News Reader

I've never been anywhere near any volcano. If you don't mind - what does it smell like? Could you feel the heat from it? What was the sound like? If you don't have the time I understand but I'd love to hear what the experience was like to be that close.

View on HN

Oh yes, you feel the warmth. The smell that immediately hit me was comforting, like you just lit a nice hardwood barbecue, probably from soil and plant material burning when coming into contact with the magma. The crater is loud and deeply rumbly and makes you feel the raw power of the Earth.

> The crater is loud and deeply rumbly and makes you feel the raw power of the Earth.

I'm using this in my next Zork clone ;)

Do it with Inform6 please :D

But don't you Icelanders find sulfuric smells – the same that much of the world associates with rotten eggs – kinda comforting, too, because since childhood such smells usually accompany hot bath water from the faucets? :)

Haha, well… I'm born and raised in the East fjords where there's little geothermal activity and geothermal heating is thus rare. When I first went to Reykjavik as a kid I nearly vomited when I was introduced with a bathtub full of that sulphuric liquid they called hot water :).

The first time I saw volcanic activity was in Rotorua[0], in New Zealand... I think the big volcano there is dormant but because it sits on top of a huge caldera, it still has plenty of volcanic activity, including boiling mud and geysers! It's an amazing place to visit. You can feel the warmth of the rocks and near the geyser, there are water ponds nearly as hot as boiling (incredibly clear water too). Seeing the geyser explode is the highlight of the visit, of course... But just seeing the boiling mud (which you can see everytwhere in town, basically) and hearing the noise of boiling liquid under your feet is an amazing feeling.

I was young and stayed in the local backpacker which had a naturally-warm water pool!

As you approach the city, you feel a very strong smell of sulphur (a smell described usually as rotten eggs), but as you stay in the town you more or less get used to the smell and stop feeling it... it's not as bad as it sounds.

Highly recommend a visit if you're around Australia or the South Pacific.

One day I want to visit Iceland as well, it looks amazing.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotorua

You are probably aware since you visited, but Lake Taupo in the middle of the North Island is a collapsed volcano and has had a couple of eruptions are some of the largest on earth. There are Roman and Chinese records of weather events that may be due to Taupo eruptions.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taupo_Volcano

The American author, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) wrote "The smell of sulfur is strong, but not unpleasant to a sinner.” after visiting Hawaii's Kilauea Volcano in his book "Roughing It".

I'd add one anecdote: I went hiking on one of the Hawaiian volcanos a few years ago and got up close with some active (but extremely slow-moving) lava. Here's a pic of me poking it with a stick:

https://imgur.com/DuwuCg1

What amazed me was the absolute sheer about of heat generated from that one TINY little patch. Like, as intense as standing in front of a pizza oven going at full blast. I could stand about ~15 seconds of it once I exposed the molten part, and then I had to step away. Overall in the area it was warm - mostly because it was Hawaii and hot out! - but also because of general ambient warmth. But it was just that - warmth.

But when I exposed that piece of molten lava - that was HEAT.

I'm sure it was safer than it looked, but holy smokes, I'd worry so much about breaking through the crust there.

Me too! But we were with a local guide who walked out on the lava crust every day, so I kinda had to trust him.

Although the soles of my sneakers were semi-melted by the end of the day. I blame my sneakers more than anything (cheap, lowish melting point rubber), but still....

If your question wasn't specific to this volcano, but any volcano, the answer is that every one is different.

A few years ago, I visited the Masaya Volcano in Nicaragua. It wasn't one you could get super close to, and the photos are a bit underwhelming, but it was still very impressive to see in person. This is what you can expect to see as a tourist: https://hotelplazacolon.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Masay...

The heat coming off of the volcano was significant, but not exactly overwhelming. The sulfur smell was overwhelming (apparently Masaya emits a lot of sulfur dioxide), and there were restrictions as the length of time tourists could stay at the volcano due to the gasses. There were signs all over, posted in English and Spanish warning about the health effects of the gasses emitted.

I climbed Mt. Etna once (in Sicily). It wasn't erupting at the time but there were active lava flows etc. The scary thing was that even though conditions were relatively benign, a sudden change of wind direction blew a stream of sulphorous-smelling air in the direction of our group and we all had to run back down to the chair lift gasping for air.

Not been near a volcano, but Iceland also has a very sulphuric smell in general, like eggs almost. It is in everything like the air and the water.

If you've been to Iceland you've probably been near volcanoes, just not necessarily active ones. This volcano that is currently erupting is only about 10 miles from Keflavik Airport (and maybe 5 miles from the Blue Lagoon, if you went there).

Haha you would be right then. Only saw some geothermal vents and hot springs but yeah, there is a lot of earth activity going on there.

Definitely exercise caution when parading around Iceland: nobody is going to stop you from walking yourself into something hot/dangerous.

I've been up one in Guatemala but the thing that I remember most was how popular lava is with hoardes of tourists

Reply on news.ycombinator.com