Due to Iceland’s location on the Mid-Atlantic ridge, a divergent boundary of the tectonic plate and its location in a warm place, the North-North Island has a high concentration of active volcanoes.
The island, known as the Land of Fire and Ice, currently has 32 active volcanic systems, 13 of which have seen eruptions since the settlement of Iceland in 874 AD. The most active system is Grímsvötn.
Iceland is the largest and most active volcanic region in Europe, according to a third of the lava that has flowed on Earth over the past 5,000 years – since the Middle Ages.
The vast North Atlantic island borders the Arctic Circle where it lies over the Mid-Atlantic ridge, a rift on the seabed that separates the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. The displacement of these plates is partly responsible for Iceland’s intense volcanic activity.
Despite being located in the far north near the Arctic Circle, the volcanoes of Iceland can have far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world. in 2010, an eruption at the Eyjafjallajokull volcano sent large clouds of smoke and ash into the atmosphere, causing the largest air traffic disruption in peacetime to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The disruption lasted more than a week with the cancellation of more than 100,000 flights worldwide and stranding about 10 million passengers.
In the photo: the northern lights are seen above the ash plume of a volcano in Eyjafjallajokull, Iceland, on 22 April 2010
934
The eruption of Eldgja – which in Icelandic means ‘canyon of fire’ – is the largest basalt lava eruption the world has ever seen. The Eldgja Rift is part of the same volcanic system as the mighty volcano Katla and is 75 kilometers long and extends to the western edge of Vatnajokull. The eruption resulted in two large lava fields covering 301 square kilometers.
1783
The eruption of the Laki volcanic rift in the south of the island is considered by some experts to be the most devastating in Iceland’s history, causing the greatest environmental and socio-economic catastrophe: 50 to 80 percent of Iceland’s livestock are dead, which led to a famine that left a quarter of Iceland’s population dead.
The volume of lava, nearly 15 cubic kilometers (3.6 cubic miles), is the second largest observed on Earth in the past millennium.
The meteorological impact of Laki’s eruptions has had consequences for many years in the Northern Hemisphere, causing a drop in world temperatures and crop failures in Europe when millions of tonnes of sulfur dioxide were released.
Some experts have suggested that the effects of the eruption may have played a role in the aftermath of the French Revolution.
The volcano’s 130 still-smoking craters were placed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2019, along with the entire Vatnajokull National Park to which it belongs.
Pictured: Laki volcanic cones left behind after the eruption in 1783. The volume of lava, nearly 15 cubic kilometers (3.6 cubic miles), is the second largest recorded on earth in the past millennium.
1875
At present virtually unknown, Askja, Iceland’s second largest volcanic system, erupted in three different phases. Two of the three ash clouds rose more than 20 kilometers (12 miles) into the sky.
The toxic rainfall over Iceland, which in some places reached a thickness of 20 centimeters (eight inches), killed livestock, polluted the land and unleashed a wave of emigration to North America.
Askja is today on a plateau and far from civilization, a popular tourist attraction and its lava fields were used to train astronauts for the 1965 and 1967 Apollo missions.
1918
Katla’s last eruption, considered one of Iceland’s most dangerous volcanoes, added five kilometers of land mass to the south coast of the country.
Located beneath the Myrdalsjokull Glacier, when Katla erupts, it ejects large amounts of tefra, or solidified magma rock fragments that are scattered in the air and carried by the powerful flooding of the glaciers caused by the melting ice.
Katla has erupted on average two eruptions per century for more than 100 years and according to experts, it is in arrears.
Satellite image of the Katla volcano in Iceland. Photo taken on 20 September 2014. Katla’s last eruption is considered one of the most dangerous volcanoes in Iceland and has added five kilometers of land mass to the country’s south coast.
1973
In one of the most dramatic eruptions in the country’s recent history, the island of Heimaey on the Westman Islands woke up one January morning from an eruption in a rift just 150 meters from the city center.
The eruption of the Eldfell volcano not only took place in a populated area – one of the country’s most important fishing zones – but it also surprised locals at dawn. A third of the houses in the area were destroyed and the 5,300 residents were evacuated. One person is dead.
2010
2010 In April 2010, enormous plumes of ash floated in the air during the eruption of the Eyjafjallajokull volcano for several weeks, causing the largest air traffic disruption in peacetime to the Covid-19 pandemic.
About 100,000 flights were canceled and more than 10 million travelers were stranded.
In the photo: horse grazing as a cloud of volcanic matter rises from the erupting Eyjafjallajokull volcano, 16 April 2010 in Fimmvorduhals, Iceland. A major eruption occurred on April 14, 2010, which resulted in a volcanic eruption being thrown into the atmosphere in parts of Northern Europe, disrupting air travel. Some 100,000 flights have been canceled and more than 10 million travelers stranded
2011
Grimsvotn Volcano, also located below the Vatnajokull Glacier, is Iceland’s most active volcano. His latest eruption was in May 2011, the ninth since 1902.
For more than a week, it ejected an ash cloud 25 kilometers (15 miles) into the air, causing more than 900 flights to be canceled, mainly in the United Kingdom, Scandinavia and Germany.
2014 – 2015
The awakening of Bardarbunga, a volcano beneath the Vatnajokull Glacier – Europe’s largest glacier – in the heart of the uninhabited highlands of southern Iceland, was the most recent eruption before Friday.
The volcano erupted for five months, both below the ice and breaking through the surface in a rift at the Holuhraun lava field, which created the largest basalt lava flow in Iceland in more than 230 years, but caused no injuries or damage. not.