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See also: | Other events in 1783 · Timeline of Icelandic history |
Events in the year 1783 in Iceland .
Iceland experiences frequent volcanic activity, due to its location both on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a divergent tectonic plate boundary, and being over a hotspot. Nearly thirty volcanoes are known to have erupted in the Holocene epoch; these include Eldgjá, source of the largest lava eruption in human history. Some of the various eruptions of lava, gas and ash have been both destructive of property and deadly to life over the years, as well as disruptive to local and European air travel.
Laki or Lakagígar is a volcanic fissure in the western part of Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland, not far from the volcanic fissure of Eldgjá and the small village of Kirkjubæjarklaustur. The fissure is properly referred to as Lakagígar, while Laki is a mountain that the fissure bisects. Lakagígar is part of a volcanic system centered on the volcano Grímsvötn and including the volcano Þórðarhyrna. It lies between the glaciers of Mýrdalsjökull and Vatnajökull, in an area of fissures that run in a southwest to northeast direction.
Grindavík is a fishing town in the Southern Peninsula district of Iceland, not far from Þorbjörn, a tuya.
Eldey is a small, uninhabited island about 13 kilometres off the coast of the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland. Located west-southwest of Reykjavík, the island of Eldey covers an area of about 3 hectares, and rises to a height of 77 metres (253 ft). Its sheer cliffs are home to large numbers of birds, including one of the largest northern gannet colonies in the world, with around 16,000 pairs. This colony can now be watched live via two webcams that are located on top of the island.
Southern Peninsula is an administrative unit and part of Reykjanesskagi, or Reykjanes Peninsula, a region in southwest Iceland. It was named after Reykjanes, the southwestern tip of Reykjanesskagi.
The geology of Iceland is unique and of particular interest to geologists. Iceland lies on the divergent boundary between the Eurasian Plate and the North American Plate. It also lies above a hotspot, the Iceland plume. The plume is believed to have caused the formation of Iceland itself, the island first appearing over the ocean surface about 16 to 18 million years ago. The result is an island characterized by repeated volcanism and geothermal phenomena such as geysers.
Brennisteinsfjöll is a minor volcanic system, with crater rows and small shield volcanoes on the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland.
Reykjanes is a small headland on the south-western end of the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, giving the main peninsula its name. Volcanic action is responsible for forming the entire peninsula. The nearest town is Keflavik.
The volcanic system of Krýsuvík, is situated in the south–west of Iceland on the Reykjanes peninsula. It is located in the middle of Reykjanes and on the divergent plate boundary of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge which traverses Iceland. It was named after the Krýsuvík area which is part of it and consists of a fissure system without a central volcano. However, there are some indications—namely, the discovery by geophysical methods of what scientists interpret as a buried caldera, combined with the well-known, vigorous hydrothermal system above it—that an embryonic central magma chamber may already exist or be actively developing.
Þorbjörn is a 243 m high volcanic mountain next to the town of Grindavík (Gullbringusýsla) on Reykjanes peninsula, Iceland. Blue Lagoon can be easily seen from the summit.
The Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland is the continuation of the mostly submarine Reykjanes Ridge, a part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, on land and reaching from Esja in the north and Hengill in the east to Reykjanestá in the west. Suðurnes is an administrative unit covering part of Reykjanes Peninsula.
Sveifluháls is a mafic hyaloclastite ridge of 397 m height in the southwest of Iceland in Gullbringusýsla. It is part of Krýsuvík volcanic system and of the protected area Reykjanes Fólkvangur.
Fagradalsfjall is an active tuya volcano formed in the Last Glacial Period on the Reykjanes Peninsula, around 40 kilometres (25 mi) from Reykjavík, Iceland. Fagradalsfjall is also the name for the wider volcanic system covering an area 5 kilometres (3 mi) wide and 16 kilometres (10 mi) long between the Eldvörp–Svartsengi and Krýsuvík systems. The highest summit in this area is Langhóll. No volcanic eruption had occurred for 815 years on the Reykjanes Peninsula until 19 March 2021 when a fissure vent appeared in Geldingadalir to the south of Fagradalsfjall mountain. The 2021 eruption was effusive and continued emitting fresh lava sporadically until 18 September 2021.
Nýey, Nýeyjar, Nyø (Danish), was a small, uninhabited island that formed in 1783 due to an underwater eruption in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge southwest of Reykjanes, Iceland. It disappeared within a year.
Eldeyjarboði is a blind skerry located about 57 km southwest of Reykjanes, Iceland. It is part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
Events in the year 2023 in Iceland.
Eldvörp–Svartsengi ; "fire cones–black meadow" in Icelandic also Svartsengi volcanic system) is a volcanic system in the southwest of Iceland on the Southern Peninsula, southeast of Keflavík International Airport and north of the town of Grindavík. Made up of fissures, cones and volcanic craters, it had been relatively inactive for several centuries until 2020, when the first in a series of magmatic intrusions occurred. In December of 2023 the fourth such intrusion culminated in an eruption, with further eruptions in 2024.
Sundhnúkur is a volcanic hill, within its associated Sundhnúksgígar crater row and volcanic fissures in the Svartsengi volcanic system, part of the Reykjanes Peninsula rift zone of Iceland. It is the location of the 2023–2024 Sundhnúkur eruptions.
The Reykjanes Fires were a series of volcanic eruptions that took place on the Reykjanes Peninsula in south-west Iceland between approximately 1210 and 1240. They caused widespread physical and economic damage, covering large areas of the peninsula in lava and tephra and causing the mass starvation of livestock, as well as a number of deaths of people due to earthquakes. The peninsula's volcanic systems were subsequently dormant for 800 years until a fresh series of eruptions began in 2021, which have been called the New Reykjanes Fires.