Martyred GoPro Shares Some Amazing Volcano Footage

The Eruption of Iceland's Bárðarbunga volcano that officially began late last August is still going strong, releasing small streams of magma across the scorched earth. And while media attention towards it has died down ever since it was determined that it was no threat in its largely uninhabited danger zone, GoPro-toting enthusiasts will still travel to admire the force of nature that it is.

One such enthusiast, Eric Cheng, recently joined photographer Ranar Th. Sigurdsson to check out the eruption for themselves.

Of course, Cheng and Sigurdsson could only get so close to Bárðarbunga without singeing their eyebrows. So instead of slipping on special suits and wading into the heat like a team of maniac volcano divers recently did, the pair chose to use drones to capture some breathtaking footage.

Cheng, the director of aerial imaging for drone maker DJI, wanted to show off what his drones could really do, capturing steady video clips even while hovering over roiling lava, violent updrafts of heat, and thick clouds of ash.

The footage was taken as the first in a coming series of videos from DJI called "DJI Feats." Cheng and Sigurdsson were using GoPro digital video cameras connected to a live HD wireless feed so they could direct the drones to capture the best angles in real time. But as the pair grew increasingly excited about what they were seeing, Cheng took things a bit too far.

"During the last flight I wanted to get a little bit closer to the lava, and suddenly the video feed cut out," Cheng explained in his Feats interview.

After the drone was ordered to automatically return, it was revealed that the intense heat of molten earth had proven too much for the camera the team's drone carried, literally melting it's front.

The camera, aptly named a GoPro Hero3+, had given its short life for the sake of good photography, and thankfully the SD card it housed was still intact.

You can watch a stunning montage of the resulting footage below.

[Credit: DJI/Cheng/Sigurdsson]