Icelandic volcanoes are hot.
Despite most of the mountain being covered in snow the hottest parts of Hekla stay clear of snow. It’s nice to lie down on the warm rocks in cold weather.
(Source: Flickr / mattiskratti)
Hekla just began erupting! Not…
A lot of excitement began yesterday when news began circulating in Iceland that Hekla was spewing lava once again. Some well humored individual posted a news article from 2000 on his Facebook page. The headline read “Hekla byrjuð að gjósa” (E. Hekla erupting). Since pretty much all Icelanders are friends on Facebook the news spread fast.
To some people’s relief and other’s despair the article was from the last Hekla eruption in 2000. However it is quite likely that Hekla will erupt sometime soon as it is due if you consider its history. Hekla has erupted every recent decade including: 2000-1991-1980-1970-1947-1845-1766-1693-1636-1597-1510-1434-1389-1341-1300-1222-1206-1158-1104.
Iceland has always been proud of its eruptions
So we have even made stamps to remind us of noteworthy eruptions such as the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 1947. It would have caused similar disruption to air traffic in our hemisphere as they Eyjafjallajökull eruption did if jets were ruling the skys at the time.
Hekla has been forgotten a little bit with the recent Eyjafjallajökull eruption. But Hekla is nonetheless the most active volcano in Iceland. For the past few decades it has erupted every ten years, 1970, 1980, 2000 and 20??
Historical eruptions in Hekla were at least in the years: 2000-1991-1980-1970-1947-1845-1766-1693-1636-1597-1510-1434-1389-1341-1300-1222-1206-1158-1104.
Hekla is very only a couple of hours drive from Reykjavík and you can hike to the top. Just be aware of your escape routes if it awakes from its sleep.
