Drone Captures Incredible Footage of Volcano Eruption

But GoPro camera melted in intense heat.

ByABC News
October 2, 2014, 10:31 AM

— -- A drone captured breathtaking footage of an Iceland volcano erupting, getting so close to the molten lava that a GoPro camera attached to the drone melted.

But the memory card survived, making the drone company DJI's trip to the Bardarbunga Volcano a success.

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"The fact that you can take a $1,000 flying camera and put it in the middle of an erupting volcano to capture wide-angle views of this giant bowl of molten lava, which is exploding and throwing lava 150 meters or so into the air, is pretty amazing," drone pilot Eric Cheng says in a video about the project.

The Bardarbunga volcano has been erupting for about a month.