Iceland thrihnukagigur-volcano inside of crater

Þríhnúkagígur (, anglicized as Thrihnukagigur, literally translated as ''Three Peaks Crater'') is a

dormant volcano A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

in the volcanic system of

Brennisteinsfjöll Brennisteinsfjöll (, "Sulfur mountains"
Brennisteinsfjöll. Detailed description. In: Catalogue of Icelandic Volcanoes ...

near

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. Covering a area and a depth of , it has not erupted in the past 4000 years. It was discovered in 1974 by cave explorer Árni B Stefánsson, and opened for tourism in 2012. It is the only volcano in the world where visitors can take an elevator and safely descend into the

magma chamber A magma chamber is a large pool of liquid rock beneath the surface of the Earth. The molten rock, or magma, in such a chamber is less dense than the surrounding country rock, which produces buoyant forces on the magma that tend to drive it upw ...

. The magma that would normally fill the chamber and become sealed is believed to have drained away, to the bewilderment of most scientists, revealing the

rift In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-grabe ...

beneath the surface. In August 2015, the members of the Icelandic band

Kaleo Kaleo (stylized as KALEO) is an Icelandic blues rock band which formed in Mosfellsbær in 2012. It consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Jökull Júlíusson, drummer David Antonsson, bassist Daniel Kristjansson, lead guitarist Rubin Pollock ...

and fourteen support staff descended into the volcano's magma chamber and recorded a live rendition of the band's song " Way Down We Go". In 2016, the Secret Solstice music festival announced that

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...

musician

Chino Moreno Chino Moreno (born Camillo Wong Moreno, June 20, 1973) is an American musician who is best known as the lead vocalist, primary lyricist and contributing guitarist of the metal band Deftones. He is also a member of the side-project groups Team Sl ...

Deftones Deftones is an American alternative metal band formed in Sacramento, California in 1988. They were formed by Chino Moreno (vocals, guitar), Stephen Carpenter (guitar), Abe Cunningham (drums), and Dominic Garcia (bass). During their first five ...

will perform the first ever public concert inside the magma chamber of a volcano.

Images

File:Thrihnukagigur Iceland 2.jpg, Inside the former magma chamber of Thrihnukagigur in Iceland. File:Thrihnukagigur Iceland 1.jpg, Looking up the volcanic throat of Thrihnukagigur in Iceland, an open volcanic conduit, from the former magma chamber. File:Thrihnukagigur Iceland map.jpg, Profile map of Thrihnukagigur in Iceland File:Bláfjöll2 01.jpg, Hiking trail to Thrihnukagígur

References

{{Authority control Volcanoes of Iceland Dormant volcanoes