Masaya: Lava lake in Nicaragua

Masaya is a volcano close to Nicaraguas capital Managua. In the crater Santiago an active lava lake is boiling since December 2015. I visited the volcano with a team of the Volcanological Society e.V. and we get a permit to stay on the crater rim during day and night. So, I was able to shot this stunning volcano footage of a boiling lava lake.

About Masaya volcano

Masaya is not just the most active volcano of Nicaragua, its a very unusual one, too. The volcano lies within the Las Sierras shield volcano and is a 6 x 11 km caldera with walls up to 300 m high. The basaltic caldera is filled on its NW end by more than a dozen vents that erupted along a circular, 4-km-diameter fracture system. The twin volcanoes of Nindirí and Masaya were constructed at the southern end of the fracture system and contain multiple summit craters. One of this is the currently active Santiago crater. A lava flow from the 1670 eruption overtopped the north caldera rim. (Source USGS)