![]() This is being constantly monitored, and first responders are on site. Scientists are still working to assess the situation, and there is a considerable risk of gas pollution in the area. The National Police Commissioner urges people not to go near the site. The new eruption site is about 38 kilometers (24 miles) from Reykjavík and does not pose an immediate danger to residents or infrastructure. No activity has been in the crater since August 5 and no lava is running. It is important to keep in mind that the area is still an active site and not a safe zone. The Litli-Hrútur eruption has now been declared over. ![]() Ready for a quiz? Try the 'Iceland's Volcanoes' interactive activity.On July 10, 2023, a fissure eruption started on the Reykjanes Peninsula northwest of the sites of the 20 eruptions in Fagradalsfjall, at Litli-Hrútur hill. Over 90% of housing in Iceland is heated by natural geothermal heat. The same geological activity that creates the volcanoes provides an endless supply of geothermal energy. This was one of the reasons for the 1789 revolt in France. The lava-field created by the eruption covered 580 km², with a total volume of 12 km³.ĭuring the summer of 1783, a bluish haze from the eruption covered Europe and Western Asia, causing difficulties in agriculture there. The ensuing famine led to the death of 20% of the population, or about 10,000 people. So much ash was released that the sun was obscured for a time, and hundreds of thousands of sheep and cattle perished from the poisonous gases. The largest recorded lava flow in world history occurred here in the summer of 1783, when 25km of craters poured out 14 cubic km of lava. Throughout Iceland's history, volcanoes have meant disaster. At its largest, this new island had an area of 2.8 km², but has now been reduced by wave action to 1.5 km². It emerged from a depth of 130 m during an eruption which lasted until 1967. A typical submarine eruption occurred on the Reykjanes Ridge in 1963, resulting in a new island, Surtsey, which forms part of the same archipelago as Heimaey. The most famous and active volcano in Iceland is Mount Hekla, which has erupted 18 times since 1104, the last time in 2000. There are over a hundred volcanoes on the central plateau which have not erupted in the past thousand years and between 30 and 40 that are active, meaning that they have erupted within the last few centuries. Some of the worst earthquakes devastated large areas of southern Iceland in 17. ![]() Catastrophic earthquakes occur at longer intervals than the volcanic eruptions. Parts of Iceland are frequently shaken by earth tremors. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes follow each other. There are also a few dormant shield volcanoes - with low-profile, wide-spreading lava flows.Įruptions from fissure vents - long cracks in the earth's crust - are also common in Iceland. Of the roughly 130 volcanoes in Iceland, the most common type is the stratovolcano - the classic cone-shaped peak with explosive eruptions that form a crater in the very top (such as Hekla and Katla, on the South Coast). When basalt cools in particular ways, it forms the hexagonal rock columns that you can see on the South Coast of Iceland and in other places. ![]() Iceland's towering cliffs and jagged islands and reefs are all made of basalt. Iceland's entire surface is made of volcanic rock, most of it basalt - the rock that forms when lava cools. Since the Middle Ages, a third of all lava that has covered the earth's surface has erupted in Iceland. Iceland is located on a hot spot or mantle plume, where magma is especially close to the surface, which explains why land formed in this spot in the middle of the ocean, and not elsewhere along the tectonic ridge. Even today, the country is growing by about 2.5 cm per year, as it splits wider at the points where the two tectonic plates meet. As the two tectonic plates move apart, magma from the earth's mantle rises to the surface. This ridge is the meeting point of the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. ![]() Iceland is located on the 40,000-kilometre-long, mostly underwater Mid-Atlantic Ridge. So why does Iceland have so many volcanoes? Volcanic activity is a fact of life in Iceland, where people have learned to live with both its drawbacks, and considerable advantages, such as geothermal energy and dramatic natural beauty. Iceland is among the most volcanically active places in the world, with roughly one eruption every five years, not including submarine eruptions. Many people visit Iceland to see volcanoes, especially after the challenging to pronounce Eyjafjallajökull grabbed the world's attention in 2010 by spewing ash into the atmosphere - and bringing European air travel to a halt. ![]()
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