Volcanoes are ones of the most curious creations of nature. But it doesn't mean that a volcano is just a "mountain that throws out smoke and lava", as it may seem at first glance. There are different types of volcanoes, they can be not only ground, but also underwater; they can be active, dormant or even they can entirely lose the capability of eruption. They also vary in shapes: there are shield volcanoes, cinder cones, lava domes and stratovolcanoes... Over the previous several years AirPano team had photographed a great number of very different volcanoes, situated in all remote corners of the Earth and presenting all variety of these unique geological formations.

We have prepared the selected tour which includes panoramas of such "celebrities" as an extinct stratovolcano Elbrus, volcanic massif Plosky Tolbachik or threatening Eyjafjallajökull, and their not that famous "brothers": Mutnovsky volcano in Kamchatka, Grímsvötn in Iceland, Dallol in Ethiopia... Practically all the time when we had to take photos of a volcano we found ourselves in extreme conditions and all the situations were full of adventures.

So, being at the altitude of about 4800 meters (that was the altitude we had to rise to take photos of the eruption of Klyuchevskaya Sopka volcano) we felt the lack of oxygen for breathing and the temperature was about 50C° below zero. We had to take photos through the open port-holes, illuminators and doors, and frequently we leaned over the edge; an icy wind was blowing through and even with our equipment breaking down every now and then we managed to accomplish our task.

With the help of our panoramas you can explore an Icelandic volcano Thrihnukagigur ("Three peaks") from inside. The last time it erupted was 4000 years ago, and now we can have a look at the remains of its former activity. The variety of colours of crater inner surfaces creates a very special atmosphere, and the dimensions of its magma chamber can be compared to three basketball fields and its height - to the Statue of Liberty.

The panorama of Erta Ale volcano is also rather unusual. It is the most active volcano in Ethiopia. Its name can be translated as "smoking mountain" and it is not surprising. Erta Ale is one of the five volcanoes in the world having a lava lake in its crater. Outlines of flamy lines and the level of lava are continuously changing, so "excessive" amount of lava is always goes out of the crater and sometimes creates the second lava reservoir (there are no other examples of this kind among volcanoes).

The first active volcano which became the "hero" of our panoramas was the famous Plosky Tolbachik in Kamchatka which is 3140 meters high. Its eruption occurred on 27 November 2012; that was the biggest one since 1975. We were ones of the first to take photos of this historic moment. And a supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park in the USA, on the contrary, became quiet hundreds of thousand years ago, having covered with lava crust the bigger part of the park.

So we invite you to have a look at these threatening or quiet giants. Each of them has made a contribution in forming the present look of our planet.

3 April 2015