Not everyone knows where Hekla volcano is located.map. On everyone’s lips, his brother with a name that was hard to pronounce, which in 2010 made flight passengers remember the unkind word of Iceland and its magmatic activity. But Hekla is much more dangerous and more cunning than his smoky twin. It is not the ash column that jet engines are capable of driving, but the most natural fountain of fire, lava and volcanic bombs usually erupt from its vents. Hekla is capricious, unpredictable, secretive. Icelanders only name their volcanoes by female names. Probably, they know the strength and power of the representatives of the beautiful half of humanity, when something brings them out of balance - you can't call them the weak sex at these moments. And about Hekle, as well as about her sister Katla on the island, are legends. Let's get to know this fire-breathing monster.
Gate to hell
If you asked the medievala Cistercian monk about where the Hekla volcano is located, he would not hesitate to reply that he was at the very entrance to hell. The souls of sinners, leaving the body, immediately rush through the mouth to the eternal flame, where the gnashing of teeth. A certain monk Benedict, chanting in verse the life of St. Brendan, called Hekla the imprisonment of Judah. Until the 19th century, ordinary Icelanders were convinced that on the top of this volcano on Easter, witches flock to their sabbat. Why did Hekla cause such sacred thrill, horror and at the same time admiration of the locals? Since the time the people settled the island, this masterful beauty has shown its explosive burrows more than twenty times. And the approximation of "hysteria" is difficult to predict. The name "hekla" comes from the name of a short cloak with a hood. At the top of the mountain there is always a cloudlet, resembling a hood from a distance.
What do scientists say?
The geographical coordinates of the volcano Hekla - 63.98 °northern latitude and 19.70 ° east longitude. It is located in the southwestern part of Iceland, approximately one hundred kilometers from the capital Reykjavik. By type of Hekla refers to stratovolcanoes. It formed from a linear crack. Due to frequent eruptions, the height of the mountain varies. For example, in 1948 it was 1502 m, but subsequently the edges of the crater collapsed. Now the height of Hekla is 1488 m. It is part of an extended mountain range composed of andesite and basalt lavas. The volcanic crack reaches a length of five kilometers. But the age of Hekla is almost infant by geological standards - only 6,600 years old.
Large eruptions
However, in such a short history, the volcano Heklamanaged to hate in Iceland repeatedly. Dendrochronology (the study of climate change from fossil plants) makes it possible to determine that four thousand years and also 2800 years ago there were large eruptions of this volcano. A column of smoke reduced air temperature in the northern hemisphere for several years, and scientists found traces of volcanic ash in the peatlands of Ireland and Scotland, as well as in continental Europe. The first eruption recorded in written sources occurred in 1104. Once the mountain slopes were covered with forests, but now they are completely naked. The government of Iceland is dreaming of a fabulously expensive project for landscaping the ridge.
Does the Hekla volcano calm down over time?
Scientists have discovered a pattern:the longer the period between eruptions, the more devastating these fits of rage. But fortunately, now the volcano "freaks" with an enviable constancy once a decade. In the twentieth century, it erupted in 1947-48, 1970, 1980, 1981, 1991 and 2000. The last destructive events that resulted in human sacrifices occurred in 1766 and 1947-1948. But in the twenty-first century, the Hekla volcano has not yet manifested itself. And it is alarming. Since the capricious beauty character is really unpredictable. Seismologists note that, unlike other volcanoes, Hekla has a very short period between the beginning of the eruption and the eruption of lava. Therefore, the rescuers have quite a short time to evacuate people.
Waiting for an explosion
Whereas the Hekla volcano is pastonce erupted at the end of February 2000, and at the end of the twentieth century, seismic activity was resumed once every ten years, scientists are waiting for a new explosion from day to day. It is difficult to guess what it will be. Sometimes eruptions took place over several days, and in 1947 Hekla boiled for more than a year. To protect people from the effects of the new earthquake and the eruption of lava with ashes, geophysicists laid sixteen kilometers from the top of the sensors, which transmit all information about the state of magma inside a volcanic crack and crater. So far, no movement in the depths of Hekla has been identified. Some sites on the surface of the volcano are hot, but on Iceland this will surprise no one. Walking tours are conducted to the crater, and the government assures that they are absolutely safe for tourists.
