Boiling lava, gases escaping, mini earthquakes and lava bombs create a surreal soundscape inside the volcanic caldera at Erta Ale in Northern Ethiopia. I'm sitting on the edge of the crater, trying to avoid stepping over big cracks and on to overhangs that might drop into the 600m/2000 feet chasm below. At the bottom there is a lava lake that occasionally spews volcanic bombs and boiling rock. The magma can barely be seen through the thick volcanic gases though.
The mixture of smoke, dust, sulphur, chlorine, brine steam, silica particles, poisonous gases and many other compounds is thick and suffocating. The scarf I bought from a kid at Dallol doesn't do much to protect me so I have to carefully monitor wind direction and to always keep upwind.
Listening to the volcano
Reaching what's known locally as "the gateway to Hell" isn't for the faint of heart though. This is considered the hottest place on Earth for year-round temperatures. The trip through Amhara, Tigray and Afar regions takes several days. We travel through barren landscapes, acidic deserts below sea level, thick salt plates that support the weight of vehicles and endless lava fields.
We've had to hire members of the local militia, a security detail, porters and a local cook. We sleep outside on makeshift beds and we eat whatever the locals eat, mostly goat. To my surprise, our cook manages to make pancakes one day! You can see more footage from the expedition in the following video:
It's all more than worth it when we finally reach the volcano. Experiencing the raw, breathtaking (literally!) and deadly beauty of our planet is an incredibly humbling experience. If you look closely at the video, you can spot a few small white dots moving around in the bottom half of the frame. Those are members of our expedition group that should provide an element of scale. Most of them had already been there before, but they hadn't heard the direct sound of the volcano until I offered them my headphones as I was recording. Our guide was so moved by the experience that he started crying!
So how did I record this soundscape? I initially recorded the volcano using a Sennheiser MKH 8060 microphone in a Rycote blimp suspended over the edge, but that only allowed me to capture a mono recording. To get a more natural sounding stereo perspective I used a pair of Lom mikroUsi microphones in Bubblebee Windbubbles taped to tripod legs. I placed the mics just over the edge and secured the tripod in place with a big chunk of lava rock. I left the rig there for a few hours and moved away from the edge so I could avoid the noxious gases blown by the wind.
My friend Will photographing the volcano
My expectations for this expeditions were high but it's safe to say they were met and exceeded. Nothing compares to being on the edge of an active volcano. I was fully immersed in this natural spectacle, exposed and minuscule. This recording won't bring back the toxic fumes or the sense of constant exposure but I hope it will provide a glimpse into this fascinating spectacle of nature.
Lastly, you can buy these recordings for commercial use at https://mindful-audio.com/volcano/