Iceland Volcano : Torfajökull volcano

Iceland Volcano : Torfajökull volcano

Torfajökull volcano Data:

• Stratovolcano 1259 m (4,131 ft)
• Iceland, 63.93°N / -19.18°W
• Current status: dormant (1 of 5)
• Typical eruption style: effusive and explosive.
• Eruptions from Torfajökull: ca. 900 AD, 1170(?), 1477
• The Torfajökull central volcano, located north of Myrdalsjökull and south of Thorisvatn lake, is cut by a 12-km-wide caldera that formed during the Pleistocene.

Torfajökull volcano Background:
Torjajokull consists of the largest area of silicic and intermediate volcanism in Iceland; about 225 cu km of silicic extrusive rocks are exposed. The dominantly rhyolitic complex rises about 500 m above surrounding basaltic plains and is elongated in a WNW-ESE direction. Most rhyolitic lava flows were erupted subglacially, forming silicic hyaloclastites that form ridge and dome-shaped breccias.

During postglacial times only a narrow fissure zone at the western end has been active, producing mostly silicic lava flows, lava domes, and tephras. The most recent silicic eruption produced the Hrafntinnuhraun lava flow about 900 AD. The fissure system is along trend with and was active at the same time as the basaltic Veidivötn fissure system of Bárdarbunga central volcano in 1477 AD. The small Torfajökull icecap lies mostly outside the SE rim of the caldera, which is the site of vigorous thermal activity over a broad area of 130-140 sq km.
Iceland Volcano-tindfjallajokull-

Iceland Volcano: Tindfjallajökull volcano

Iceland Volcano: Tindfjallajökull volcano

Tindfjallajökull volcano Data:

• Schichtvulkan 1463 m (4,800 ft)
• Iceland, 63.79°N / -19.59°W
• Current status: (probably) extinct (0 of 5)
• Typical eruption style:explosive.
• Eruptions from Tindfjallajökull: unknown

Tindfjallajökull is one of the oldest Holocene volcanoes of the eastern volcanic zone of Iceland and has produced rocks of basaltic-to-rhyolitic composition.

Tindfjallajökull volcano Background:
Eruption of the rhyolitic and trachyandesitic Thorsmork ignimbrite accompanied formation of a 5-km-wide caldera during the Pleistocene. The NW rim of the caldera is topped by the Tindfjallajökull icecap. About a dozen small eruptions took place during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, mostly from vents north and west of the caldera.

Iceland Volcano: Katla Volcano

Iceland Volcano: Katla Volcano
Katla Volcano Data:

• subglacial volcano 1512 m (4,961 ft)
• South Iceland, 63.63°N / 19.05°W
• Current status: restless (2 of 5)
• Typical eruption style: explosive basaltic and dacitic eruptions, voluminous lava flows.
• Eruptions from Katla: 920 AD, 950 AD (?), 1150, 1177, 1245, 1262, 1311, 1357, 1416, 1440, 1450, 1500, 1580, 1612, 1625, 1660-61, 1721, 1755-56, 1823, 1860, 1918, 1955(?), 1999(?), 1918
• Katla volcano, located near the southern end of Iceland's eastern volcanic zone, is hidden beneath the Myrdalsjökull icecap. Katla is one of Iceland's most active and most dangerous volcanoes, infamous for its large eruptions happening on average every 50-100 year, causing devastating glacial floods (jökullhlaups). In recent year, increased seismicity and inflation of Katla has been being measured. Katla, statistically due for a new eruption, is being very closely monitored and an eruption in a not too distant future would not come as a big surprise.

Katla Volcano Background:
The subglacial dominantly basaltic volcano is one of Iceland's most active and is a frequent producer of damaging jökulhlaups, or glacier-outburst floods. A large 9 x 14 km subglacial caldera with a long axis in a NW-SE direction is up to 750 m deep. Its high point reaches 1380 m, and three major outlet glaciers have breached its rim.

Although most historical eruptions have taken place from fissures inside the caldera, the Eldgjá fissure system, which extends about 60 km to the NE from the current ice margin towards Grímsvötn volcano, has been the source of major Holocene eruptions. An eruption from the Eldgjá fissure system about 934 AD produced a voluminous lava flow of about 18 cu km, one of the world's largest known Holocene lava flows. Katla has been the source of frequent subglacial basaltic explosive eruptions that have been among the largest tephra-producers in Iceland during historical time and has produced dacitic explosive eruptions during the Holocene.
Iceland Volcano

Iceland Volcano: Eyafjallajökull volcano

Iceland Volcano: Eyafjallajökull volcano

Eyafjallajökull volcano Data:

• Stratovolcano 1666 m (5,466 ft)
• South Iceland, 63.63°N / 19.62°W
• Current status: dormant (1 of 5)
• Typical eruption style: effusive (Hawaiian-style lava fountains and lava flows), mildly explosive due to ice-water-lava interaction.

Eyafjallajökull volcano (its name meaning Island-Mountain under a glacier) under the small homonymous glacier in southern Iceland erupted spectacularly on 20 March 2010, after having been dormant for almost 200 years. During its most violent phase, the subglacial eruption produced large ash plumes that drifted over Europe and forced an unprecedented closure of airspace over most of Europe for several days in mid April 2010.

Eyafjallajökull volcano Background:
Eyjafjöll, located immediately west of Katla volcano, consists of an E-W-trending, elongated ice-covered basaltic-andesite stratovolcano with a 2.5-km-wide summit caldera.
Fissure-fed lava flows occur on both the eastern and western flanks of the volcano, but are more prominent on the western side. Although the 1666-m-high volcano has erupted during historical time, it has been less active than other volcanoes of Iceland's eastern volcanic zone, and relatively few Holocene lava flows are known. The sole historical eruption of Eyjafjöll, during December 1821 to January 1823, produced intermediate-to-silicic tephra from the central caldera.
Iceland Volcano

Iceland Volcano: Kerlingarfjöll volcano

Iceland Volcano: Kerlingarfjöll volcano
Kerlingarfjöll volcano Data:

• Stratovolcano 1488 m (4,882 ft)
• SW Iceland, 64.63°N / 19.32°W
• Current status: dormant (1 of 5)
• Typical eruption style: effusive and explosive.
• Eruptions from Kerlingarfjöll: None during historic times
• Kerlingarfjöll is a glacially dissected, largely Pleistocene rhyolitic central volcano located SW of the Hofsjökull icecap.

Kerlingarfjöll volcano Background:
Steep-sided Pleistocene rhyolitic lava domes and numerous hot springs occupy two calderas at the center of the 5 x 7 km wide complex. Holocene flank fissures on the NE side produced the Illahraun lava flow, which traveled more than 20 km to the south. Fumarolic activity at Kerlingarfjöll, mostly concentrated in the center of the complex, is the most vigorous in Iceland.
Iceland Volcano

Iceland Volcano: Hofsjökull volcano

Iceland Volcano: Hofsjökull volcano
Hofsjökull volcano Data:
shield volcano (subglacial) 1782 m (5,846 ft)
SW Iceland, 64.75°N / 19.98°W
Current status: dormant (1 of 5)
Typical eruption style:effusive eruptions from flank fissures.
Eruptions from Hofsjökull volcano: None during historic times.

Hofsjökull volcano Background:
Hofsjökull volcano lies along an east-west-trending area connecting the two principal rift zones of Iceland. It bridges the gap between the Reykjanes-Langjökull rift on the west, which terminates at Langjökull, and the eastern zone, which extends NE-ward across east-central Iceland.
The roughly 7 x 11 km central caldera of Hofsjökull volcano lies beneath the western part of the massive Hofsjökull icecap. A small Holocene shield volcano is located at the SW margin of the icecap. Flank fissures north and east of the icecap have produced basaltic lava flows during the Holocene.
Iceland Volcano-langjokull-volcano.

Iceland Volcano: Langjökull volcano

Iceland Volcano: Langjökull volcano

Langjökull volcano Data:

• Stratovolcano volcano (subglacial) 1360 m (4,462 ft)
• Iceland, 64.75°N / -19.98°W
• Current status: dormant (1 of 5)
• Typical eruption style: Large effusive eruptions from flank fissures, explosive activity from the summit crater.
• Eruptions from Langjökull volcano: ca. 925 AD. The Langjökull central volcano lies at the northern end of an active volcanic zone that extends to the NE from the Reykjanes Peninsula.

Langjökull volcano Background:
Langjökull volcano occupies the NE half of the massive Langjökull icecap, east of the prominent Pleistocene table mountain, Erikskökull. A summit caldera lies beneath the ice. Several shield volcanoes have been constructed along flank fissure zones, and postglacial lava flows flank Langjökull on the northern, western, and eastern sides. One of the most prominent of these is a small shield volcano that was formed at the site of the massive Hallmundahraun lava flow, which covers 200 sq km, and was erupted shortly after 900 AD.
The Geysir thermal area, containing Iceland's largest geysers, lies in the Haukadalur basin, near the southern end of the lengthy fissure system extending from Langjökull central volcano.
Iceland Volcano

Iceland Volcano: Prestahnukur volcano

Iceland Volcano: Prestahnukur volcano

Prestahnukur volcano Data:

• shield volcano (subglacial) 1390 m (4,560 ft) (?)
• SW Iceland, 64.60°N / 20.58°W
• Current status: (probably) extinct (0 of 5)
• Typical eruption style: effusive (lava flows).
• Eruptions from Prestahnukur: none during historic times, last eruption radiocarbon-dated at 7550 BC +-500 years

Prestahnukur volcano Background:
The massive subglacial Prestahnukur volcano at the SW end of the Langjökull icecap has associated rift zones to the north and SW that have erupted during the past 10,000 years.

Hot springs are associated with the rhyolitic Prestahnukur central volcano. The classic Icelandic shield volcano Skjaldbreidur was formed at the southern end of the Prestahnukur volcanic system, between Thorsjökull glacier and Thingvallavatn lake. The broad, low-angle shield volcano produced 17 cu km of basaltic lava flows during the early Holocene.
Iceland Volcano..

Iceland Volcano: Grímsnes volcano

Iceland Volcano: Grímsnes volcano

Grímsnes volcano Data:

• crater rows 214 m (702 ft)
• Iceland, 64.03°N / -20.87°W
• Current status: dormant (1 of 5)
• Typical eruption style: effusive (lava flows).
• Eruptions from Grímsnes volcano: none during historic times. Grímsnes is a relatively small volcanic system located SE of Thingvallavatn lake east of an en echelon group of volcanic fields extending across the Reykjanes Peninsula.

Grímsnes volcano Background:
Grímsnes lava flows cover 54 sq km and were erupted from a group of 11 fissures that produced a series of NE-SW-trending crater rows. The eruptions of the basaltic Grímsnes lavas were restricted to a relatively short interval between about 6500 and 5500 years ago.
Iceland Volcano

Iceland Volcano: Hengill volcano

Iceland Volcano: Hengill volcano

Hengill volcano Data:

• crater rows 803 m (2,634 ft)
• SW Iceland, 64.18°N / 21.33°W
• Current status: dormant (1 of 5)
• Typical eruption style: effusive (lava flows).
• Eruptions from Hengill: none confirmed during historic times. The Hengill volcanic system, cutting through Thingvallavatn lake, consists of a series of NE-SW-trending fissure vents, crater rows, and small shield volcanoes occupying a strongly faulted graben.

Hengill volcano Background:
Hengill is the easternmost of a series of four closely spaced basaltic fissure systems that cut diagonally across the Reykjanes Peninsula and lies at the triple junction of the Reykjanes Peninsula volcanic zone, the Western volcanic zone, and the South Iceland seismic zone. Postglacial lava flows surface much of the volcanic system. The latest eruption was radiocarbon dated about 1900 years before present. An eruption in the Hellisheidi area once thought to have occurred around 1000 AD at the time of a meeting of the Icelandic parliament at Thingvellir is now known to have occurred at a vent about 5 km away in the Brennisteinsfjöll volcanic system. Geothermally heated greenhouses, hot springs, and geysers are found at the Hveragerdi thermal area.
Iceland Volcano...

iceland-volcano-brennisteinsfjoll.

Iceland Volcano : Brennisteinsfjöll volcano

Iceland Volcano : Brennisteinsfjöll volcano

Brennisteinsfjöll volcano Data:

• crater rows 626 m (2,054 ft)
• Iceland, 63.92°N / -21.83°W
• Current status: dormant (1 of 5)
• Typical eruption style: effusive (lava flows).
• Eruptions from Brennisteinsfjöll: 1000(?), 1188(?), 1200(?), 1341. The Brennisteinsfjöll volcanic system, located east of Kleifarvatn lake, consists of a series of NE-SW-trending crater rows and small shield volcanoes.

Brennisteinsfjöll volcano Background:
Postglacial and historical basaltic lavas cover a wide area. An eruption in 1000 AD was dated by its occurrence at the time of a meeting of the Icelandic outdoor parliament at Thingvellier. The most recent eruption at Brennisteinsfjöll took place in the 14th century.
Iceland Volcano...

iceland-volcano-krisuvik-volcano.

Iceland Volcano: Krísuvík volcano

Iceland Volcano: Krísuvík volcano

Krísuvík volcano Data:

• crater rows 379 m (1,243 ft)
• Iceland, 63.93°N / -22.1°W
• Current status: dormant (1 of 5)
• Typical eruption style: effusive (lava flows).
• Eruptions from Krísuvík: 1075, 1100, 1151, 1188, 1340(?) Krísuvík is a system of eruptive fissures, craters and small basalt shields in SW Iceland west of lake Kleifarvatn. A large eruption occurred from the Ogmundargigar fissure in 1188.

Krísuvík volcano Background:
The Krísuvík volcanic system is a group of NE-SW-trending basaltic crater rows and small shield volcanoes cutting the central Reykjanes Peninsula west of Kleifarvatn lake.
Several eruptions have taken place since the settlement of Iceland, including the eruption of a large lava flow from the Ogmundargigar crater row around the 12th century, probably in 1188. The latest eruption at Krísuvík took place during the 14th century.
Uplift in 2009: Between May and November 2009 the area over Krisuvik Volcano was uplifted by 3 cm.
Iceland Volcano

Iceland Volcano: Ljósufjöll volcano

Iceland Volcano: Ljósufjöll volcano

Ljósufjöll volcano Data :
Fissure vents 988 m (3,241 ft)
Western Iceland, 64.87°N / 22.23°W
Current status: dormant (1 of 5)
Typical eruption style: effusive fissure eruptions (lava flows).
Eruptions from Ljósufjöll volcano: 960 AD +-10 years


Ljósufjöll volcano Background:
The Ljósufjöll volcanic system at the eastern end of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula is a group of basaltic cinder cones and lava flows along short fissures on a roughly 90-km-long WNW-ESE line.

The volcanic field is about 20-km wide at the eastern end and narrows to about 10-km width on the west. Young-looking cinder cones and lava flows with morphologically fresh surfaces testify to numerous eruptions during the past 10,000 years. The latest eruption post-dated the settlement of Iceland, and took place about 1000 years ago.

Iceland Volcano: Lysuhóll volcano

Iceland Volcano: Lysuhóll volcano

Volcano Data :

• Pyroclastic cones 540 m (1,772 ft)
• Iceland, 64.87°N / -23.25°W
• Current status: dormant (1 of 5)
• Typical eruption style: Strombolian eruptions, lava fountains and lava flows.
• Eruptions from Lysuhóll: None during historic times
• Lysuhóll is Iceland's smallest volcanic system.

Lysuhóll Volcano Background:
It consists of a chain of small alkali olivine basaltic cinder cones and vents along a WNW-ESE line cutting across the central Snaefellsnes Peninsula in western Iceland.

The slightly arcuate line of Quaternary vents extends to the northern coast of the peninsula. Lysuhóll is the central of three volcanic systems occupying the peninsula. The latest eruption from Lysuhóll is undated, but the volcanic field has been active during the Holocene.

Iceland Volcano: Snaefellsjökull volcano

Iceland Volcano: Snaefellsjökull volcano

A large ice-covered volcano at the western tip of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula in western Iceland. Its last eruption dates about 1750 years back.

Background of Snaefellsjökull volcano:
Numerous pyroclastic cones dot the flanks of the 1448-m-high stratovolcano, the only large central volcano in this part of Iceland. Lower-flank craters produced basaltic lava flows and upper-flank craters intermediate-to-silicic material. Holocene lava flows extend to the sea over the entire western half of the Snaefellsjökull volcano. Several Holocene silicic eruptions have originated from the summit crater. The latest dated eruption of Snaefellsjökull volcano took place about 1750 years ago; several lava flows may be even younger.

Iceland and its Volcanoes

Iceland and its Volcanoes
Iceland has the land area of Virginia and the population of Virginia Beach (about 260,000 people). The country has the highest literacy rate (100%) of any nation in the world. Its history has always been closely related to volcanoes and knowledge of many volcanic eruptions since the middle ages are preserved in accounts.
Iceland established its own parliament in 930 and recorded its first historical volcanic eruption only a few years later. After a golden age of literature in the 12th and 13th centuries (when the sagas were written), natural history reporting reached a low around the 15th century. In the years 1707-09 a third of the population died from smallpox, and the 1783-84 Laki eruption killed a fifth of the remaining population by famine. Iceland gained sovereignty from Denmark in 1918 and complete independence in 1944.
Iceland is noted for subglacial and regional fissure eruptions related to the rifting process between the separating plates.
Iceland Volcano

ICELAND

ICELAND
Iceland, the land of ice and fire, is a true paradise for volcanologists. In few places on earth, geology and human history are so closely connected to volcanism as on Iceland. The island owns its existence to a large volcanic hot spot sitting on a mid-oceanic ridge, a unique setting. The plate boundary between the American and Eurasian tectonic plates crosses Iceland from south to North and the spreading process can be directly measured and observed on land.
Iceland Volcano..
iceland-and-its-volcanoes