This is drone footage of a volcano in Iceland, not Mount Mayon in the Philippines

A breathtaking clip of lava bubbling out of the mouth of a volcano was shared on Facebook Reels on June 9.

Its caption reads: "Drone footage of Mayon Volcano as of June 8, 2023."

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Screenshot of the false post, captured on July 10, 2023

Tens of thousands of residents in the central Philippine province of Albay have taken shelter in evacuation centres since June after officials warned that Mayon is "currently in a relatively high level of unrest."

The Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said on July 13 a hazardous eruption could possibly happen within days or weeks (archived link).

Various images of the volatile volcano have been posted on social media, including AI-generated photos falsely shared as genuine.

The video has also been shared in other Facebook posts here, here and here with a similar claim.

However, a reverse image search using the clip's keyframes found it has been circulating online since 2022, and was not captured in the Philippines.

A Newsweek article published on March 9, 2022 featured the drone footage and identified Björn Steinbekk, an aerial photographer, as the video's owner (archived link).

"Björn Steinbekk captured the footage after Iceland's Fagradalsfjall volcano started erupting with a series of dramatic explosions in March 2021," the article said.

AFP reported the Fagradalsfjall volcano, located near Iceland's capital Reykjavik, erupted on March 20, 2021 after being dormant for more than 900 years. The volcano spewed lava for six months, and drew about half a million tourists to the area.

Steinbekk posted the footage on his Twitter account the day before the Newsweek article was published (archived links here and here).

He tweeted: "Magestical blow! It's almost a year since the volcano erupted. To celebrate I plan to release some old and never published videos over the next few weeks. Hope you like it!"

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Screenshot of Steinbekk's tweet containing the original footage

In response to a query from AFP, Steinbekk confirmed that the video falsely shared on Facebook Reels is footage he captured with a drone in 2021.

"This is my video, yes," he said on July 10.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the video in the false posts (left) and Steinbekk's footage (right):

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Screenshot comparison of the video in the false posts (left) and Steinbekk's footage (right)

A review of Steinbekk's website shows similar footage of lava spilling over a crater (archived link).

The photographer gained popularity in 2021 for flying drones over the erupting Iceland volcano, producing incredible close-ups of lava flowing.

His work was featured by media outlets around the globe, including in India, the United Kingdom and Australia (archived links here, here, and here).