Not everyone knows where the Hekla volcano is located on the map. Everyone is talking about his brother with an unpronounceable name, which in 2010 made passengers on flights remember Iceland and its magmatic activity with an unkind word. But Hekla is much more dangerous and more insidious than her smoky brother. From its muzzle, it is usually not a column of ash that can clog jet engines, but the most natural fountain of fire, lava and volcanic bombs. Hekla is capricious, unpredictable, secretive. The Icelanders call their volcanoes only female names. They probably know the strength and power of the representatives of the beautiful half of humanity, when something unbalances them - you definitely cannot call them the weaker sex at these moments. Both Hekla and her sister Katla are legendary on the island. Let's get to know this fire-breathing monster.
Gate to Hell
If you askedof a medieval Cistercian monk about the location of the volcano Hekla, he would not hesitate to answer that at the very entrance to the underworld. The souls of sinners, leaving the body, immediately rush through the vent into the eternal fire, where there is gnashing of teeth. A certain monk Benedict, singing in verse the life of St. Brendan, called Hekla the prison of Judas. And ordinary Icelanders until the 19th century were sure that on the top of this volcano on Easter, witches flock to their Sabbath. Why did Hekla cause such sacred awe, horror and admiration among the locals? Since the time people settled the island, this headstrong beauty has shown her explosive temper more than twenty times. And the approach of "hysteria" is difficult to predict. The name "hekla" itself comes from the name of a short cloak with a hood. At the top of the mountain there is always a cloud, from a distance resembling a hood.
What do scientists say?
Geographical coordinates of Hekla volcano are 63.98° north latitude and 19.70° east longitude. It is located in the southwestern part of Iceland, about a hundred kilometers from the capital Reykjavik. According to the type of Hekla, it belongs to stratovolcanoes. It formed from a linear crack. Due to frequent eruptions, the height of the mountain changes. For example, in 1948 it was 1502 m, but subsequently the edges of the crater collapsed. Now the growth of Hekla is 1488 m. It is part of an extended mountain range composed of andesite and bas alt lavas. The volcanic fissure reaches a length of five kilometers. But the age of Hekla, by geological standards, is almost infantile - only 6,600 years.
Largeeruptions
However, in such a short history, the Hekla volcano has managed to cause trouble in Iceland more than once. Dendrochronology (the study of climate change using fossil plants) makes it possible to determine that four thousand years and also 2800 years ago there were major eruptions of this volcano. The column of smoke lowered the 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 slopes of the mountain were covered with forests, but now they are completely bare. The Icelandic government is dreaming of a fabulously expensive ridge planting project.
Will the Hekla volcano calm down over time?
Scientists have discovered a pattern: the longer the period of time between eruptions, the more devastating these attacks of violence. But fortunately, now the volcano "stranges" with an enviable constancy once a decade. In the 20th century, it erupted in 1947-48, 1970, 1980, 1981, 1991 and 2000. The last destructive events that resulted in loss of life occurred in 1766 and 1947-1948. But in the twenty-first century, the volcano Hekla has not yet manifested itself. And this is disturbing. Since the capricious beauty has a really unpredictable character. Seismologists note that, unlike other volcanoes, Hekla has a very short period between the onset of an eruption and the ejection of lava. Therefore, rescuers have quite a bit of time to evacuate people.
Waiting for the explosion
Given that the volcano Hekla last erupted in late February 2000, and at the end of the twentieth century, seismic activity resumed every ten years, scientists expect a new explosion any day. It's hard to guess what it will be like. Sometimes the eruptions took place within a few days, and in 1947 Hekla raged for more than a year. To protect people from the consequences of a new earthquake and the ejection of lava with ash, geophysicists have laid sensors to a depth of sixteen kilometers from the top that transmit all information about the state of magma inside the volcanic crack and crater. So far, no movement has been detected in the bowels of Hekla. Some areas on the surface of the volcano are hot, but this is not surprising on the island of Iceland. Walking tours are held to the crater, and the government assures that they are absolutely safe for tourists.
