Volcanic eruption: Dramatic video from Iceland

Since the Grimsvotn volcano in Iceland burst to life Saturday, the CBCNews.ca Community Team has been keeping track of compelling photos and videos circulating online as the ash spreads through the air.

One dramatic video that caught our attention was produced by documentary filmmaker
Jon Gustafsson, who was born in Iceland but later immigrated to Canada. He was in Iceland when the volcano erupted and went to capture some amazing close-up footage.

Here's how he described the scene on video-sharing site Vimeo:

It took us 90 minutes to fly to Grimsvotn with a strong wind against us. The eruption looked magnificent in the sunset. Once we landed 5 miles away from the crater the cold glacier air hit us like a truck. We tried to work outside but I only lasted for a couple of minutes. Pilot Reynir Petursson also didn't want to stay on the ground for too long since it was very windy and the ash fall was unpredictable. The light was also disappearing and he needs visual reference which is difficult on a white glacier. Once we got off the ground again we had to stay low because there were so many lightnings all around the eruption. Getting hit by a lightning in that strong wind, extreme frost and next to a live volcano was not desirable. We made it back to Reykjavik at 2am. Now the airspace has been closed in a 20 nautical miles radius because of ash.

You see more photos of the eruption on his blog and in our social media roundup.

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