Hooked on volcanoes? Tourists vie to catch Iceland's eruptions

As the glowing river of lava from a volcano that erupted last week in Iceland ebbed, not everyone was happy.

Madam Hazel Lane, a 49-year-old dental practice manager in London, had booked a ticket to Reykjavik as soon as she saw footage of the eruption on television, hoping to witness spectacular lava flows beneath molten red skies.

She had already visited Iceland the previous month, but it was too soon. Although the authorities had by that time evacuated the nearly 4,000 inhabitants of the nearby town of Grindavik, weeks passed before the volcano – which lies about 40 kilometers south-west of Reykjavik – erupted on Dec. 18.

“I had a crazy notion of going to Reykjavik for the day to fly over the volcanic eruption,” she said. She arrived with her son and his girlfriend on Dec. 22 to find that lava flows had already diminished.