Airborne drones capture mind-blowing videos of erupting volcanoes

When a volcano erupts, a certain 'conflict of priorities' can pop up in our brains. It's a fascinating and spectacular thing to witness, especially up close, but there's also the sudden and overwhelming urge to get as far away as possible, as fast as possible. That's where flying drones can really help us out. The video above was filmed by one of DJI's Phantom Quad Copter drones, piloted by Shaun O'Callaghan as he flew it over Vanuatu's Mount Yasur volcano.

According to VolcanoDiscovery.com, Mt. Yasur is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, and has been erupting continuously for at least the past 240 years (but likely much longer). The eruptions have calmed down over the six months or so, so that the alert status for the volcano was recently downgraded to just level 1, but they still put on a great show for tourists.

This second video, from Kurt Roll , shows a drone-camera view of Mt. Yasur from last July, when it was still more active, and the crater was throwing off some great Strombolian eruptions — the really spectacular ones that spew incandescent plumes into the sky.

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The music that Roll starts off with might be corny, but it's appropriate. The islands of Vanuatu lie overtop of the boundary between two of the tectonic plates that form the Pacific Ring of Fire. This region, which wraps around the Pacific Ocean like a horseshoe — from New Zealand, through southeast Asia up to Alaska and down the west coasts of North America and South America — is where roughly 90 per cent of the world's earthquakes occur and it's home to many of the world's volcanoes.

(H/T to Gizmodo)

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