Eyjafjallajökull rises from Iceland’s southern region, not far from Skógar, with its summit standing over 1,650 metres above sea level. Its summit is crowned by an ice cap, which blankets the crater of the volcano itself. While Eyjafjallajökull’s icy dome is smaller than most of Iceland’s glaciers, its presence and eruptions have made a considerable mark on the country’s geological and modern history.
A glacier above, volcanic fire below
Beneath the ice, Eyjafjallajökull is a stratovolcano roughly 800,000 years in age, made up of a mixture of basaltic to andesitic rocks. The volcano features a main crater, three to four kilometres in diameter, whose rim includes three peaks: Guðnasteinn, Hámundur and Goðasteinn. Its southern slopes once touched the sea, but the coastline has gradually retreated, leaving behind cliffs and waterfalls, with Skógafoss as one of the best-known in the area.
The glacier itself stretched over 80 square kilometres in earlier times, though it had shrunk to about 66 square kilometres by 2019. Most of the glacier’s tongues flow northwards, with the Gígjökull and Steinsholtsjökull outlets leading to glacier lagoons. In 1967, an event on Steinsholtsjökull saw millions of cubic metres of rock and ice surge outward following an explosion, traced by regional earthquake monitoring equipment.
A chain of eruptions shaping Icelandic and European life
Eyjafjallajökull’s history of eruptions stretches through the centuries, with recorded events in 920, 1612, and a prolonged series from 1821 to 1823. The ash from the 1821 eruption blanketed large areas and caused significant livestock losses, mainly from the high fluoride content in the fallout.
The volcano is closely linked to others in the region, especially Katla to the northeast. Notably, significant activity at Eyjafjallajökull often precedes eruptions at Katla, as observed historically.
The name Eyjafjallajökull has roots in Icelandic words for islands (eyja), mountains (fjöll) and glacier (jökull), which together roughly translate as “the glacier of the islands’ mountains.” The mountains at the volcano’s base are thought to refer to the archipelago of Vestmannaeyjar, visible offshore.
Most recently, Eyjafjallajökull made global headlines in 2010 with a series of eruptions. The activity began in March, initially outside the main crater at Fimmvörðuháls, and then, in April, the volcano erupted from beneath the glacier. This led to floods caused by rapidly melting ice and, more dramatically, sent ash high into the atmosphere. Air travel across northern and western Europe was severely interrupted, affecting tens of millions over several days. The ashy clouds led to revisions of international airspace regulations in the light of lessons learned from the disruptions.
Sources
- Wikipedia
- Wikipedia (Icelandic) in Icelandic
