Colorful Thermal Footage Capturing the Intense Heat of an Erupting Geyser in Iceland

While filming in Iceland, hosts Gavin Free and Dan Gruchy of The Slow Mo Guys posed in front of an erupting Strokkur Geyser while a photographer with whom they were working captured the moment on a thermal camera. The resulting footage revealed the varying levels of the intense heat that was released from the Earth through different colors.

Gav and Dan take a thermal look at a geyser and learn what makes them blow.

Thermal View of Erupting Geyser Iceland

Back in the studio, Gruchy and Free examined the footage and invited Professor John Cotter of St. Edwards University to show them how a geyser eruption works.

Okay, let’s start with the hot plate down here, this represents the magma that’s gonna be heating up the water. And these bubbles are getting bigger and bigger and coalescing at the top of the beaker. Once that bubble gets big enough, it’s gonna have enough momentum to start climbing. So if you’re on the surface looking down on this thing, what you’re gonna see is this bubble starting to rise. That tells you that blast is right on the way.

Slow Mo Guys Geyser Demo

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.