THE REYKJANES PENINSULA
OUTDOORS 2021
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Reykjanes peninsula puts on a grand show It’s eight hundred years since the last time there was a volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes peninsula, until lava started to pour out at Fagrdalsfjall, not far from Grindavík, on 19th March – the first time for 6000 years that this site had seen volcanic activity. As soon as the eruption began, a great many people made the trek to the site and since then tens of thousands of people have made the journey to witness nature putting on a fireshow. This eruption hardly came as a surprise, as it has been the culmination of more than three weeks of non-stop earthquakes that shook the south-west of Iceland. Lava began to flow into the valley of Geldingadalur on the eastern side of Fagradalsfjall, and this volcanic activity is seen as an effusive eruption of the type that has hardly been seen in Iceland since the end of the last ice age. The lava that gushes from a number of fissures is primitive, and originates from 17-20 kilometres beneath the surface. This is a pahoehoe type of lava formed of quick-flowing molten basalt. The pictures taken by Jóhann Ólafur Halldórsson speak for themselves.
