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Not many hours will elapse before you will see the ground swell like a molehill; an eruption will ensue, and you will be the happy possessor of a Stromboli of your own! Volcanoes of Iceland Mount Hecla Earliest Eruption Great Eruption in 1845 Skaptar Yokul Terrible Eruption in 1783 Rise and Disappearance of Nyoe Katlugaia The Geysers A very hot Bath Californian Geysers Iceland-spar Jan Mayen
The fountain of volcanic bombs consisted of masses of lava, containing gases which exploded and produced a loud sound, which was said to have been heard at a distance of 100 miles. The size of the bombs, and the height to which they must have reached, were very great. But the most remarkable of the historical eruptions in Iceland were those of Skaptar Jokull in 1783, and of Hecla in 1845.
Of these an extended description is worthy of being given. Of these two memorable eruptions, that of Skaptar Jokull began on the 11th of June, 1783. It was preceded by a long series of earthquakes, which had become exceedingly violent immediately before the eruption.
About a month before this great eruption of Skaptar Yokul, a volcanic island was thrown up from the sea, at a distance of about seventy miles from Iceland. So great was the quantity of ashes and dross ejected from its crater, that it overspread the sea to a distance of a hundred and fifty miles, forming a crust which obstructed the progress of ships.
At present its main office is to serve as a sulphur mine. Thus the peak which gives title to all fire-breathing mountains has become a servant to man. So are the mighty fallen! Skaptar Jokull and Hecla, the Great Icelandic Volcanoes.
Just a hundred years after the great Skaptar eruption, which darkened the skies of Europe, the island of Krakatoa, an isle formed by a small volcano in the straits of Java, was the seat of a vapour explosion which from its intensity is not only unparalleled, but almost unapproached in all accounts of such disturbances.
Skaptar, in Iceland, in 1783, sent up such volumes of dust that the atmosphere was loaded with it for months, and it was carried to the northern part of Scotland, 600 miles away, in such quantities as to destroy the crops.
The greatest recorded eruption of Iceland occurred in 1783, when the volcano of Skaptar, near the southern border of the island, poured forth, first, a vast discharge of dust and ashes, and afterward in the languid state of eruption inundated a series of valleys with the greatest lava flow of which we have any written record.
The least inclination given by M. E. de Beaumont of the upper surface of a lava-stream, namely 0 degrees 30 minutes, is that of the great subaerial eruption in 1783 from Skaptar Jukul in Iceland; and M. E. de Beaumont shows that it must have flowed down a mean inclination of less than 0 degrees 20 minutes.
Great displays of the aurora borealis usually accompany the volcanic eruptions of this island doubtless resulting from the quantity of electricity imparted to the higher atmosphere by the condensation of the ascending vapors. On the 18th of August, 1783, while the great eruption of Skaptar Jokull was in progress, an immense fire-ball passed over England and the European continent as far as Rome.
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