Eiríksjökull

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Eiríksjökull
Eiríksjökull (center), seen from Hvítársíða, southwest of Húsafell, Hallmundarhraun lava field in the foreground, Strútur on the left

Eiríksjökull (center), seen from Hvítársíða , southwest of Húsafell , Hallmundarhraun lava field in the foreground, Strútur on the left

height 1672  m
location West - Iceland
Coordinates 64 ° 46 '24 "  N , 20 ° 24' 34"  W Coordinates: 64 ° 46 '24 "  N , 20 ° 24' 34"  W.
Eiríksjökull (Iceland)
Eiríksjökull
Type Tabular volcano
rock Palagonite , basalt
View from Kaldidalur to Hallmundarhraun and Eiríksjökull

View from Kaldidalur to Hallmundarhraun and Eiríksjökull

Template: Infobox Berg / Maintenance / BILD1

The Eiríksjökull is a glacier in Iceland . It reaches up to a height of 1672 m and its area is 22 km² with a length of approx. 9-11 km from west to east and approx. 5-8 km from north to south. In the east it rises approx. 400–500 m above its surroundings, in the west it rises 600–800 m. Its volume is 40–50 km 3 , Eason et al. (2015) estimate it to be 48.2 km 3 .

location

The Eiríksjökull glacier shield is located in the west of Iceland.

At the same time it lies west of Langjökull and east of Arnarvatnsheiði and about 30 km north of Húsafell .

The glacier is visible from afar because of its height and towers over the plateau of Arnarvatnsheiði as well as the Hallmundarhraun lava field , which stretches down from northeast Langjökull to Húsafell. In its vicinity is Strútur , a 927 m high palagonite cone .

Folk tale and name

There is a folk tale that explains the current name. In the northern slope of the erosion there is a rock called Eiríksgnípa . One day the outlaw Eiríkur, who lived in Arnarvatnsheiði, more precisely in the cave Surtshellir , would have fled to this mountain. The farmers and law enforcement officers who pursued him managed to catch up with him on the slopes of the glacier, but he escaped leaving one foot behind. In the folk tale there is also a poem by him which says: “… I ran off with one foot, it will be difficult for you to imitate it.” (“… Með fótinn annan fór ég burt, / fáir munu 'eftir leika . ")

glacier

The glacier shield, which covers the entire summit area, reaches down to heights of 1300 to 1400 m.

Several glacier tongues extend from the glacier shield towards the valley, the most important of which have the following names: Brækur and Þorvaldsjökull drop to the north-west, Ögmundarjökull to the north-east. The largest glacier tongue extends down to the north and is called Klofajökull or Stórijökull .

Volcanism

The tabular volcano under the glacier has an area of ​​40 km² in the upper area, compared to 77 km² at the base. It was formed in one or perhaps several volcanic eruptions under a thick ice age glacier. The lower rock layers therefore consist of palagonites .

Eventually the magma reached the surface of the glacier or had melted it away, so that the uppermost layers consist of lavas. A large part of these lavas is still covered by (modern) glacier ice. But underneath you can see olivine basalt layers . Researchers say that a kind of shield volcano built up on the lower layers.

It is the largest tabular volcano ( Tuya ) in Iceland. The latest research is more likely to assume a single eruption in which the volcano was formed. Eiríksjökull is thus the largest volcanic building in the country that was probably formed in a single eruption. It seems to have been one of the largest known eruptions in Iceland with an output of approx. 40–50 km³ magma. Eiríksjökull was formed before the last glacial period and is more than 100,000 years old.

Mountaineering on Eiríksjökull

The ascent is quite demanding - 1300 m difference in altitude, 10 km from the starting point at the foot of the mountain to the summit - and is usually undertaken from the west side.

literature

  • Freysteinn Sigurðsson: Borgarfjarðarhérað. Ferðafélag Íslands, árbók 2008 a. a., p. 181 and p. 284–290.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Freysteinn Sigurðsson: Borgarfjarðarhérað. Ferðafélag Íslands, árbók 2008, p. 288.
  2. ^ Eason et al .: Effects of deglaciation on the petrology and eruptive history of the Western Volcanic Zone, Iceland. Bulletin of Volcanology, June 2015, p. 6
  3. ↑ cf. Ari Tausti Guðmundsson, Pétur Þórleifsson: Íslensk fjöll. Gönguleiðir á 151 tind. Reykjavík 2004, p. 54.
  4. ↑ cf. Ari Tausti Guðmundsson, Pétur Þórleifsson: Íslensk fjöll. Gönguleiðir á 151 tind. Reykjavík 2004, p. 55.
  5. ↑ a b c Ari Tausti Guðmundsson, Pétur Þórleifsson: Íslensk fjöll. Gönguleiðir á 151 tind. Reykjavík 2004, p. 54 f.
  6. ↑ cf. "The largest tuya is Eiríksjökull (48 km³) in the WVZ [= Western Volcanic Zone, editor's note] (...), it has a basal area of ​​77 km² and its maximum relative height is about 1 km. " In: Sveinn P. Jakobsson, Magnús T. Guðmundsson: Subglacial and intraglacial volcanic formations in Iceland. In: Jökull 58, 2008, p. 7 ( online ( memento from December 2, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ), accessed: January 30, 2011)
  7. ^ Freysteinn Sigurðsson: Borgarfjarðarhérað. Ferðafélag Íslands, árbók 2008, p. 181.