Esjufjöll

The subglacial Esjufjöll volcano is located at the SE part of the Vatnajökull icecap.

Esjufjöll
Esjufjöll north of Jökulsárlón as nunataks of Vatnajökull glacier
Highest point
Elevation1,760 m (5,770 ft)
Coordinates64.27°N 16.65°W / 64.27; -16.65 
Geography
LocationIceland, East Iceland
Geology
Age of rockHolocene
Mountain typeStratovolcano
Last eruption1927?

Geography

The mountains, actually nunataks within Vatnajökull, are located to the north of Öræfajökull volcano and of Jökulsárlón glacial lake.[1] The mountain range consists of 4 mountain massifs with three valleys in between them.[2]

The glaciers flowing around them are feeding Breiðamerkurjökull and in the end Jökulsárlón.[2]

Volcanism

Esjufjöll are a small volcanic system and as such part of Iceland's Oræfi Volcanic Belt. [3] Also part of this zone are Öræfajökull and Snæfell (north of Vatnajökull).[4]

The volcanic system consists of the Snaehetta central volcano with a large caldera. Most of the volcano, including the 40 km2 caldera, is covered by the icecap. On the other hand are parts of the SE flank exposed in NW-SE-trending ridges.[5] Most of the exposed rocks are mildly alkaline basalts, but one may also find small amounts of rhyolitic rocks.[5]

In the beginning of September 1927, a jökulhlaup came down the Jökulsá á Breiðamerkursandi. The glacier run was accompanied by a sulfur stench. On one occasion, ash fall on the Breiðamerkurjökull was thought to have possibly originated from Esjufjöll.[5] Although Holocene eruptions have not been confirmed from Esjufjöll, earthquake swarms that could indicate magma movements were detected in October 2002, and recently in October 2010.[5]

Mountaineering

Ari Trausti Guðmundsson proposes a mountaineering tour crossing Breiðamerkurjökull and up on Lyngbrekkutindur.[2]

gollark: I'm pretty sure it does not actually depend on hardware installed, since Vulkan has good multi-GPU support.
gollark: Mine reads `1.2.194`.
gollark: With me designing the CPUs, they have no chance of failing.
gollark: They are apparently investing something like a third of their revenue on capital expenditures and R&D now, so maybe they'll hire exact duplicates of me to do even more design.
gollark: Sorry, I mean Intel 7 CPUs.

See also

References
  1. Ísland Vegaatlas. Reykajvík (Ferðakort) 2006, p.7
  2. Ari Trausti Guðmundsson, Pétur Þorsteinsson: Íslensk fjöll. Gönguleiðir á 151 tind. Reykjavík 2004, p. 200.
  3. T. Thordarson, G. Larsen:Volcanism in Iceland in historical time. Volcano types, eruption types and eruption history. (2007)
  4. See eg.: Thor Thordarson, Armann Hoskuldsson: Classic geology in Europe 3. Iceland. Harpenden 2002, p. 14
  5. "Esjufjöll". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.