If you ever have an urge to hike—or even bathe—inside a volcano, you may want to visit Torfajökull. While this volcano has not had a large eruption since 1477, its 18-kilometer by 12-kilometer caldera is home to one of Iceland’s largest geothermal areas—an exotic landscape dotted with steaming sulfur and mud pools, hot springs, and gas vents.
The Operational Land Imager (OLI) on Landsat 8 acquired this image of Torfajökull’s caldera on Sep 20, 2014. Calderas, large circular volcanic depressions, form in the wake of major eruptions when the land surface slumps down into an empty or partially empty magma chamber. In Torfajökull’s case, geologists think the caldera formed in stages, with the first collapse happening about 600,000 years ago.
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