Hekla Volcano

Iceland's most famous volcano is built up on a WSW-ENE trending fissure by repeated fissure eruptions, forming a vaulted ridge about 5 km long and split lengthwise in major eruptions. The present height of the volcano is 1491 m (1447 before the 1947 eruption). Morphologically Hekla represents an intermediary stage between a crater row and a stratovolcano. Seen in the direction of the fissure it has the concave outline typical of a stratovolcano. Hekla erupts a magma type which is unique for Iceland. The postglacial products of Hekla can be described as two end members of a series, one highly silicic, the other andesitic (icelandite). Intermediate magmas between these end members may result from magma mixing. After the 1980 eruption it was possible, by measurements of surface deformation, to determine the depth to the magma reservoir which is at about 8 km. Hekla has had a number of large postglacial eruptions, producing vast amounts of tephra which repeatedly covered up to two thirds of the country with light-coloured tephra (i.e. 7000 B.P., 4500 B.P., 2900 B.P., A.D. 1104 and A.D. 1158). During historical time the first eruption (A.D. 1104) was a tremendous explosive eruption which destroyed the Þjórsárdalur valley. This eruption produced about 2.5 km3 of rhyodacitic tephra, which was carried towards NNW. The following eruptions in Hekla, producing both lava and tephra, occurred in 1158, 1206, 1222, 1300, 1341, 1389, 1510, 1597, 1636, 1693, 1766, 1845, 1947, 1970, 1980, 1991 and 2000. Some of these eruptions caused great damage, especially the eruptions in 1510, 1693 and 1766.