Volcanoes in Iceland

There are over a hundred volcanos on the central plateau which have not erupted in the past thousand years and between 30 and 40 that are active, meaning that they have erupted within last few centuries. On average, Iceland experiences a major volcanic event once every 5 years. Since the Middle Ages, a third of all the lava that has covered the earth's surface has erupted in Iceland.

The most famous and active volcano in Iceland is mount Hekla, which has erupted 18 times since 1104, the last time in 2000. Other active volcanos, measured in terms of the number of eruptions besides Hekla, are Grímsvötn, Katla, Askja and Krafla. Katla, has erupted about 20 times since the settlement of Iceland.

A volcano in Heimaey in the Vestmannaeyjar Islands off the south coast, which was thought to be long extinct as it had not been active for about 5,000 years, suddenly erupted in 1973. Heimaey is the largest of the Vestmanneyjar Islands, and the only one that is inhabited.

The largest recorded lava flow in world history occurred here in the summer of 1783, when a 25-km crater row, Lakagigar, southwest of Vatnajökull, poured out 3 cubic miles of lava, the greatest lava flow witnessed on Earth, at least in the last millennium. The lava-field created by the eruption covered 580 km², with a total volume of 12 km³. During the summer of 1783, a bluish haze from the eruption covered Europe and Western Asia, causing difficulties in agriculture there.

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