To bad it caused airports to shut down but surely you don't mess with mother earth! Amazing and awfull stuff can happen!

Woow it's like.. earth having orgasm

Very nice footage, amazing to see so much energy released so fast and for so long ...
Wish we can harness volcanoes power someday Along with hydro electric, wind and solar power, we'll be flowing with electrical power forever (without fossil fuel)!

#3 if you can come up with a way to harness that sort of enegry you'll be the world's richest person, that is until the volcano goes dormant for the next 20,000 years. Better design some big batteries to hold all that energy.

Great to see footage like this, but would be awesome to see some timelapse from down at ground level.

Well let me inform those of you who don't know...

We are overdue for a super volcanic eruption from Yellowstone Wyoming.

If it ever erupts it is likely that most of the U.s. would have a big forecast of 10 inches of ASH!. Scientists estimate there to be about 40 on earth... and Yellowstone is way overdue!!

check it out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZzpmCr6ECk&feature=related


Great video though.

reminds me of the VITAL ENERGY mom meltdown

It's really amazing. It kinda looks like Godzilla got really drunk, ate a few tons of beans, wandered up to Iceland and passed out in the snow.

The Smoke Monster from LOST is coming!

Didn't know that there was lightning in volcanic eruptions.... EPIC...

Just imagine how common this was when the Earth was in it's first stages!

#5 let me inform you. There is no cyclical volcanic eruptions. They simply blow when too much pressure builds. So with Yellowstone it's a little naive to say it is over-due for one. In 1992 they thought it was going to blow because of increased bulging in the lands surface around the area, and increased activity of underground magma movement, but the magma plume disintegrated. If it were to blow, pretty sure we would all be screwed world-over, not just in the states. Ash would be blown into the stratosphere impacting our climate and sending us more than likely into an 'ice house' period. Just a thought...

That looks just EVIL!

That was breathtaking!
It doubled in size by the end of the video and they seemed kinda freaked out by it!
First Volcano filmed in HD!!!

just to remember how small and transient we are

#3 I recall a scientist reporting that if we were able to capture and harness the power of Hurricane Rita, it would power the top 10 U.S. cities for 500 years.

Like several of the other comments, it never occurred to me that ash clouds would generate lightning.

I have never heard of a thunder snow storm either. Anybody know anything about? This video just got me thinking...

The video stops after 1 second for me.
This is only video I'm having this problem with. What's wrong?

From a recent magazine article:

All of you out there across the globe who have fought so hard to tackle the hideous enemy of our planet, namely carbon emissions, you know .... that bogus hype of "climate change" or "global warming" .... well, I feel it is necessary to inform you of some bad news. It really does pain me to have to bring you this disappointing information.

Are you sitting down?
Okay, here's the bombshell. The current volcanic eruption going on in Iceland, since its recent spewing of volcanic ash has, to this point, NEGATED EVERY SINGLE EFFORT you have made in the past five years to control CO2 emissions on our planet.

I know, I know .... (group hug) ... it's very disheartening to realize that all of the carbon emission savings you have accomplished while suffering the inconvenience and expense of: driving Prius hybrids, buying fabric grocery bags, sitting up til midnight to finish your kid's "The Green Revolution" science project, throwing out all of your non-green cleaning supplies, using only two squares of toilet paper, putting a brick in your toilet tank reservoir, selling your SUV and speedboat, going on vacation to a city park instead of Yosemite, nearly getting hit every day on your bicycle, replacing all of your $1 light bulbs with $10 light bulbs ... well, all of those things you have done have all gone down the tubes in just the past few days.

The volcanic ash emitted into the Earth's atmosphere in the past two weeks has totally erased every single effort you have made to reduce the evil beast, co2.I'm so sorry. And I do wish I had a silver lining to this volcanic ash cloud, but the fact of the matter is that the brush fire season across the western U.S.A. will start in about two months and those fires will negate your efforts to reduce carbon in our world for the next two years.
But, hey, grab a Coke, give the world a hug and have a nice day!

@9 I'm not sure but it's probably the hot air from the volcano colliding with the cold Icelandic air?

@19 Maybe because the heli doesn't have any frickin jet engines?

#18 Nice one... I agree and really enjoyed that. Thanks for sharing.

#19 The ash particles in the upper atmosphere will potentially destroy jet engines then planes could start falling out of the sky...

#20 The Heli does use a "jet" turbine engine to power the rotors. If you listen, they are flying up wind of the eruption where the ash particles are not in the air.

i didnt realize that volcanic eruptions could create lightning. That was freaking awesome footage!