Unless you're on top of a very high place or next to one of the most influential men in the world, any selfie you take is probably not going to be that remarkable. That is unless, of course, you're standing inside the crater of a massive, rumbling volcano.
National Geographic Your Shot member Andrew Hara captured this breathtaking selfie after leaving his camera on a timer while inside Kilauea's Halemaumau Crater in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. A volunteer at the park, Hara was able to place his camera on a tripod in a restricted area before navigating to a stable outcropping of rock to look down at the lava below.
Gases from eruptions can be a factor in climatic changes, especially after significant volcanic events. In 1991, Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted and sent a 20 million ton cloud of sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere in one of the largest disturbances of the stratosphere in history and created a brief period of global cooling. In the air, sulfur dioxide soon becomes sulfuric acid, which, when inhaled, can be damaging to the lungs and hearts of human beings.
National Geographic Your Shot is National Geographic's online photography community. You can find the original photo entry here.