"Surtsey Surtsey (""Surtr's island"" in Icelandic, ) is a volcanic island located in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago off the southern coast of Iceland. At , Surtsey is the southernmost point of Iceland. It was formed in a volcanic eruption which began below sea level, and reached the surface on 14 November 1963. The eruption lasted until 5 June 1967, when the island reached its maximum size of . Since then, wave erosion has caused the island to steadily diminish in size: , its surface area was . The most recent survey (2007) shows the island's maximum elevation at above sea level."
"and on 5 June 1967, the eruption ended. The volcano has been dormant ever since. The total volume of lava emitted during the three-and-a-half-year eruption was about one cubic kilometre (0.24 cu mi), and the island's highest point was above sea level at that time. Since the end of the eruption, erosion has seen the island diminish in size. A large area on the southeast side has been eroded away completely, while a sand spit called ""Norðurtangi"" (north point) has grown on the north side of the island. It is estimated that about of material has been lost due to"
"had built the island to such a size that sea water could no longer easily reach the vents, and the volcanic activity became much less explosive. Instead, lava fountains and flows became the main form of activity. These resulted in a hard cap of extremely erosion-resistant rock being laid down on top of much of the loose volcanic pile, which prevented the island from being washed away rapidly. Effusive eruptions continued until 1965, by which time the island had a surface area of . On 28 December 1963, submarine activity to the northeast of Surtsey caused the formation of a"
"one. Basalt columns can be seen in many places, and the sea has eroded the soft rock of the shoreline and scooped out many picturesque coves and grottos, which are among the special features of the islands. There was a submarine eruption southeast of Hellisey in 1896. The next eruption began on 14 November 1963. It lasted about four years – one of the longest in Icelandic history – and gave birth to Surtsey, the 15th island in the group. In the eruption of 1973 that lasted for 155 days, Heimaey grew by about . The Vestmannaeyjar group is about"
"Jólnir Jólnir was formerly a volcanic island south of Iceland. It was a former vent of Surtsey, along with Syrtlingur and Surtla. It emerged from the ocean as a result of active plate tectonics between December, 1965 and July, 1966. Oceanic erosion cyclically wore down the new lava as it formed, and the island sank below the surface several times. It was named for Jólnir, a Norse god (usually identified as a second name for Odin). Jólnir's formation is closely linked to that of neighboring volcanic island, Surtsey, which emerged in 1963. Volcanic eruptions occurred in much of the surrounding"
"erosion and volcanic activity alternated in dominance. Activity at Jólnir was much weaker than the activity at the main vent, and even weaker than that seen at Syrtlingur, but the island eventually grew to a maximum size of in height, covering an area of , during July and early August 1966. Like Syrtlingur, though, after activity ceased on 8 August 1966, it was rapidly eroded, and dropped below sea level during October 1966. Effusive eruptions on the main island returned on 19 August 1966, with fresh lava flows giving it further resistance to erosion. The eruption rate diminished steadily, though,"
"than those that had built Surtsey, with the average rate of emission of volcanic materials being about a tenth of the rate at the main vent. Activity was short-lived, continuing until the beginning of October 1965, by which time the islet had an area of . Once the eruptions had ceased, wave erosion rapidly wore the island away, and it disappeared beneath the waves on 24 October. During December 1965, more submarine activity occurred southwest of Surtsey, and another island was formed. It was named Jólnir, and over the following eight months it appeared and disappeared several times, as wave"
"Iceland at 7,380 square kilometers. Dettifoss drops into the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon, a feature which, along with the Ásbyrgi gorge, appears to have been formed by catastrophic glacial flooding caused by volcanic activity. The volcano in question was possibly Bárðarbunga, which has been identified as posing the risk of a similar event in the future. The largest ""jökulhlaup""s (glacial floods) in Iceland are known to have occurred along Jökulsá á Fjöllum between 7100 and 2000 yr BP. The source of these floods were likely eruptions of a major volcano under the Vatnajökull glacier, in the late Holocene. The peak discharge of"
"years, and erupted approximately of volcanic material. The eruption was explosive and originated from the summit crater, and may have produced lava flows. Snæfellsjökull National Park is Iceland’s only National Park to extend to the seashore. The park covers an area of 170 km² (65 sq. miles). The Park’s southern boundary reaches to Háahraun in the region of Dagverðará while the northern part reaches to Gufuskálar. The coast is varied and alive with birdlife during the breeding season. The coastal plain is mostly covered by lava that flowed from the glacier or nearby craters. The lava is covered with moss"
"of fresh magma dwindled, and large clouds of dust were often seen blowing away from the island during this stage of the eruption. The new island was named after the fire jötunn Surtur from Norse mythology (""Surts"" is the genitive case of ""Surtur"", plus -ey, ""island""). Three French journalists representing the magazine ""Paris Match"" notably landed there on 6 December 1963, staying for about 15 minutes before violent explosions encouraged them to leave. The journalists jokingly claimed French sovereignty over the island, but Iceland quickly asserted that the new island belonged to it. By early 1964, though, the continuing eruptions"
"Surtsey Island, Iceland, for example, was created between November 1963 and June 1967. The island has since partially eroded, but it is expected to last another 100 years. Some earthquakes can create sudden variations of relative ground level and change the coastline dramatically. Structurally controlled coasts include the San Andreas fault zone in California and the seismic Mediterranean belt (from Gibraltar to Greece). The Bay of Pozzuoli, in Pozzuoli, Italy experienced hundreds of tremors between August 1982 and December 1984. The tremors, which reached a peak on October 4, 1983, damaged 8,000 buildings in the city center and raised the"
"and the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, volcanism, which could have been generated by the Iceland hotspot, connected the Eurasian and North American continents and formed a land bridge between the continents while they spread apart; this feature is known as the Greenland Scotland Transverse Ridge, and it know lies below sea level. Approximately 36 mya, the Iceland hotspot was fully in contact with the oceanic crust and possibly fed segments of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which continued to form the oldest rocks located directly to the east and west of modern-day Iceland. The oldest subaerial rocks in modern-day Iceland are from 16.5 mya."
"over the Iceland hotspot, which greatly enhances the volcanic activity. It is estimated that a third of all the basaltic lava erupted in the world in recorded history has been produced by Icelandic eruptions. The Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands) archipelago lies off the south coast of Iceland, and consists of several small islands, all formed by eruptions in the Holocene epoch. Heimaey, the largest island in the group and the only inhabited one, also contains some material from the Pleistocene era. The most prominent feature on Heimaey before 1973 was Helgafell, a 200 meters (650 ft) high volcanic cone formed in"
"Lóndrangar The Lóndrangar are a pair of rock pinnacles in Iceland. They are volcanic plugs of basalt, that have been hewn out from softer surrounding rock by erosion. At 75 and 61 m tall, they are a singular sight, rising above and outside the ocean front due east across from Malarrif and some 10 km from Hellnar, on the southern coast of Snæfellsnes peninsula. History has it that the taller of the cliffs was ascended in 1735, while the smaller one was not climbed until 1938. The Lóndrangar are remnants from a bigger crater which has mostly eroded away. It"
"Geology of Iceland The geology of Iceland is unique and of particular interest to geologists. Iceland lies on the divergent boundary between the Eurasian plate and the North American plate. It also lies above a hotspot, the Iceland plume. The plume is believed to have caused the formation of Iceland itself, the island first appearing over the ocean surface about 16 to 18 million years ago. The result is an island characterized by repeated volcanism and geothermal phenomena such as geysers. The eruption of Laki in 1783 caused much devastation and loss of life, leading to a famine that killed"
"km, of any Icelandic volcano during the inhabited era. The eruption started at around 3:30 am on 5 April 1766 and ceased in May 1768. Initially a 2–4 cm layer of tephra was deposited over Austur-Húnavatnssýsla and Skagafjördur, resulting in the deaths of both fish and livestock. Rangárvellir, Land and Hreppar also suffered damage. During the eruption up to 0.5 m lava bombs were thrown 15–20 km away, and flooding was caused by the sudden melting of snow and ice on Hekla's slopes. Hekla was dormant for more than sixty years before 1845, when it suddenly burst forth on 2"
"by Denmark. Iceland's history has also been marked by a number of natural disasters. Iceland is a relatively young country in the geological sense, being formed about 20 million years ago by a series of volcanic eruptions in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, but it is still growing from fresh volcanic eruptions. The oldest stone specimens found in Iceland date back to ca. 16 million years ago. In geological terms, Iceland is a young island. It started to form in the Miocene era about 20 million years ago from a series of volcanic eruptions on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where it lies between"
"Geological deformation of Iceland The geological deformation of Iceland is the way that the rocks of the island of Iceland are changing due to tectonic forces. The geological deformation explains the location of earthquakes, volcanoes, fissures, and the shape of the island. Iceland is the largest landmass (102,775 km²) situated on an oceanic ridge. It is an elevated plateau of the sea floor, situated at the crossing of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the Greenland-Iceland-Faeroe Ridge. It lies along the oceanic divergent plate boundary of North American Plate and Eurasian Plate. The western part of Iceland sits on the North American"
"Þingvallavatn Þingvallavatn, anglicised as Thingvallavatn, is a rift valley lake in southwestern Iceland. With a surface of 84 km² it is the largest natural lake in Iceland. Its greatest depth is 114 m. At the northern shore of the lake, at Þingvellir (after which the lake is named), the Alþingi, the national parliament, was founded in the year 930, and held its sessions there until 1799 and still as of today the name Alþingi Íslendinga is carried by the parliament of Iceland. The lake lies partially within Þingvellir National Park. The volcanic origin of the islands in the lake is"
"and in the area surrounding Djúpavogur, especially between 1970 and 1980, did however not show any evidence of any monk settlement, but they found evidence of Norse settlements. Some of these surveys were led by the president of Iceland at the time, doctor Kristján Eldjárn. Papey Papey () is an island near the east coast of Iceland in the municipality Djúpavogshreppur and is about in extent, the highest point on the island being about 58 metres above sea level. The island was inhabited from the settlement of Iceland until 1966. There still is a lighthouse, a dwelling house, a church"
"glaciers cover 14.3% of its surface; only 23% is vegetated. The largest lakes are Þórisvatn reservoir: and Þingvallavatn: ; other important lakes include Lagarfljót and Mývatn. Jökulsárlón is the deepest lake, at . Geologically, Iceland is part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a ridge along which the oceanic crust spreads and forms new oceanic crust. This part of the mid-ocean ridge is located above a mantle plume, causing Iceland to be subaerial (above the surface of the sea). The ridge marks the boundary between the Eurasian and North American Plates, and Iceland was created by rifting and accretion through volcanism along"
"caldera, the subsidence of the caldera continued had reduced down from 80 cm a day at the start of the unrest to 25 cm per day, which now reached 50 metres in total. The lava field reached 76 km in area and an estimated 1 cubic kilometre volume of lava, this makes it the biggest eruption in Iceland since Laki in 1783 and the third largest lava field on Earth over this period. The lava output reduced from 200 metres per second in September to 100 m/s in November. Significant sulphur dioxide gas pollution continued to occur. The forecast was"
"on the island. Another continuing study has been following the biocolonization of Surtsey, Iceland, a new volcanic island that erupted offshore between 1963 and 1967. An earlier event, the Toba eruption in Sumatra about 73,000 years ago, covered some parts of India with of ash, and must have coated the Nicobar Islands and Andaman Islands, much nearer in the ash fallout cone, with life-smothering layers, forcing the restart of their biodiversity. However, not all founder effect studies are initiated after a natural disaster; some scientists study the reinstatement of a species that became locally extinct. Hajji and others, and Hundertmark"
"ca. 56-54 Ma. Continuing research also indicates that continental plate movement (Eurasian, Greenland, and North American), that regional rifting events, and that seafloor spreading between Labrador and Greenland may have begun as early as ca. 95-80 Ma, ca. 81 Ma, and ca. 63-61 Ma respectively (late Cretaceous to early Paleocene). Studies have suggested that the modern day Iceland hotspot corresponds to the earlier 'North Atlantic mantle plume' that would have created the NAIP. Through both geochemical observations and reconstructions of paleogeography, it is speculated that the present day Iceland hotspot originated as a mantle plume on the Alpha Ridge (Arctic"
"a republic, and Icelandic society has undergone a rapid modernisation process in the post-independence era. Iceland is a geologically young land mass, having formed an estimated 20 million years ago due to volcanic eruptions on the Mid-Atlantic ridge. One of the last larger islands to remain uninhabited, the first human settlement date is generally accepted to be 874 AD, although there is some evidence to suggest human activity prior to the Norse arrival. The first Viking to sight Iceland was Gardar Svavarsson, who went off course due to harsh conditions when sailing from Norway to the Faroe Islands. His reports"
"which runs right through it. This location means that the island is highly geologically active with earthquakes and many volcanoes, notably Hekla, Eldgjá, Herðubreið and Eldfell. Eyjafjallajökull (1,666 m) erupted in 2010, disrupting European air traffic. Iceland has many geysers, including Geysir, from which the English word ""geyser"" is derived. With the widespread availability of geothermal power, and the harnessing of many rivers and waterfalls for hydroelectricity, most residents have access to inexpensive hot water, heating and electricity. The island is composed primarily of basalt, a low-silica lava associated with effusive volcanism as has occurred also in Hawaii. Iceland, however,"
"and North Atlantic cores. Sixteen eruptions have been recorded for Katla since 930. The last major eruption started on 12 October 1918 and lasted for 24 days. It was likely a VEI-5 level eruption. The 1918 eruption resulted in extending the southern coast by 5 km due to laharic flood deposits. Its present dormancy is among the longest in known history. Minor (VEI-1?) eruptions occurred in: Katla (volcano) Katla () is a large volcano in southern Iceland. It is very active; twenty eruptions have been documented between 930 and 1918, at intervals of 20–80 years. It has not erupted violently"
"had five cinder cones; one cinder cone was erupting red hot lava. Lava flows were still erupting from the new island's flanks. On March 1, the five cinder cones were quiet, but a large lava flow may have still been effusing from the island's flanks. After that, the eruption ended; wave movements then joined the new and old islands. In November 2013, an eruption created a new, small island south-southeast off the shore of the original island. By December 2013, the island rose above sea level, with an area of 56,000 square meters (13.8 acres). The island was considered large"
"80% of Iceland and providing useful date markers in soil profiles in other parts of Europe such as Orkney, Scandinavia, and elsewhere. H and H produced the largest layers of tephra in Iceland since the last Ice Age. During the last 7,000 years, one third of the volcanic ash deposited in Scandinavia, Germany, Ireland, and the United Kingdom originated from Hekla. Hekla had been dormant for at least 250 years when it erupted explosively in 1104 (probably in the autumn), covering over half of Iceland (55,000 km) with 1.2 km / 2.5 km of rhyodacitic tephra. This was the second"
"led an expedition in search of them with a vulcanologist Hans Reck, but no trace of them was ever found. Suppositions at the time suggested that seismic volcanic disturbances could have caused a landslip or similar occurrence, and recorded that only two days previously the telegraph cable to Iceland had been broken by deep water disturbances for the first time since it was laid, close to the Icelandic coast. Öskjuvatn Öskjuvatn is a lake in the Highlands of Iceland. Its surface area is about 11 km². With a depth of , it is the second deepest lake in Iceland after"
"volcano will be covered by grass, as neighbouring Helgafell is. Eldfell is one of the best known volcanic eruptions in the world. Eldfell Eldfell is a volcanic cone just over high on the Icelandic island of Heimaey. It formed in a volcanic eruption, which began without warning on the eastern side of Heimaey, in the Westman Islands, on 23 January 1973. The name means ""Hill of Fire"" in Icelandic. The eruption caused a major crisis for the island and nearly led to its permanent evacuation. Volcanic ash fell over most of the island, destroying around 400 homes, and a lava"
"strong earthquake in Bárðarbunga, about 5 on the Richter scale, is believed to have started the eruption in Gjálp. On 26 September 2010, an earthquake swarm was recorded with over 30 earthquakes measuring up to 3.7""M"" on the moment magnitude scale. In August 2014, a swarm of around 1,600 earthquakes in 48-hours, with magnitudes up to 4.5""M"", The eruption has emitted large volumes of sulphur dioxide and impacted air quality in Iceland. There was no effect on flights outside of the immediate vicinity as the eruption hasn't produced a significant amount of volcanic ash. On February 28, 2015 it was"
"Tindfjallajökull Tindfjallajökull is a stratovolcano in the south of Iceland. It has erupted rocks of basaltic to rhyolitic composition, and a 5-km-wide caldera was formed during the eruption of the 54,000-year-old Thórsmörk Ignimbrite. It is capped by a glacier of 19 km². Its highest peak is Ýmir (1462m), which takes its name from the giant Ýmir of Norse mythology. The most recent eruption was at an unknown time in the Holocene. The name means ""Tindfjöll glacier"". Tindfjöll (""peak mountains"") is a ridge that extends to the south of the glacier. The rivers that flow from the glacier are Hvítmaga to"