ICELAND VOLCANO: May 2011

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 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