No latest activity reported for Askja.

Below is a summary of eruption dates and Volcanic Explosivity Indices (VEI).

The following references are the sources used for data regarding this volcano. References are linked directly to our volcano data file. Discussion of another volcano or eruption (sometimes far from the one that is the subject of the manuscript) may produce a citation that is not at all apparent from the title. Additional discussion of data sources can be found under Volcano Data Criteria.

Carey R J, Houghton B F, Thordarson T, 2008. Contrasting styles of welding observed in the proximal Askja 1875 eruption deposits I: Regional welding. {J Volc Geotherm Res}, 171: 1-19

Carey R J, Houghton B F, Thordarson T, 2010. Tephra dispersal and eruption dynamics of wet and dry phases of the 1875 eruption of Askja volcano, Iceland. {Bull Volc}, 72: 259-278

de Zeeuw-van Dalfsen E, Rymer H, Sigmundsson F, Sturkell E, 2005. Net gravity decrease at Askja volcano, Iceland: constrainsts on processes responsible for continuous caldera deflation, 1988-2003. {J Volc Geotherm Res}, 139: 227-239

Gudmundsson A T, 1986b. {Iceland-Fires}. Reykjavik: Vaka-Helgafell, 168 p

Hjartardottir A R, Páll Einarsson P, Sigurdsson H, 2009. The fissure swarm of the Askja volcanic system along the divergent plate boundary of N Iceland. {Bull Volc}, 71: 961-975

IAVCEI, 1973-80. Post-Miocene Volcanoes of the World. {IAVCEI Data Sheets, Rome: Internatl Assoc Volc Chemistry Earth's Interior}.

Sigbjarnarson G, 1988. {Krepputunga and Bruardalir--Explanatory Text to Geologic Map}. Reykjavik: Orkustofnun OS-88038/VOD-06, 44 p (in Icelandic with English summary)

Sigurdsson H, Sparks R S J, 1978. Rifting episode in North Iceland in 1874-1875 and the eruptions of Askja and Sveinagja. {Bull Volc}, 41: 149-167

Sigvaldason G E, 1979. Rifting, magmatic activity, and interaction between acid and basic liquids. {Nordic Volc Inst Univ Iceland}, no 7903, 43p

Sigvaldason G E, 2002. Volcanic and tectonic processes coinciding with glaciation and crustral rebound: an early Holocene rhyolitic eruption in the Dyngjufjoll volcanic centre and the formation of the Askja caldera, Iceland. {Bull Volc}, 64: 192-205

Sigvaldason G E, 1992. Recent hydrothermal explosion craters in an old hyaloclastite flow, central Iceland. {J Volc Geotherm Res}, 54: 53-63

Sigvaldason G E, Annertz K, Nilsson M, 1992. Effect of glacier loading/deloading on volcanism: postglacial volcanic production rate of the Dyngjufjoll area, central Iceland. {Bull Volc}, 54: 385-392

Steinthorsson S, et al., 2002. {Catalog of Active Volcanoes of the World - Iceland}. {Unpublished manuscript}

Sturkell E, Sigmundsson F, 2000. Continuous deflation of the Askja caldera, Iceland, during the 1983-1998 noneruptive period. {J Geophys Res}, 105: 25,671-25,684

Thorarinsson S, Sigvaldason G E, 1962. The eruption in Askja, 1961, a preliminary report. {Amer J Sci}, 260: 641-651

Askja is a large basaltic central volcano that forms the Dyngjufjöll massif. It is truncated by three overlapping calderas, the largest of which is 8 km wide and may have been produced primarily from subglacial ring-fracture eruptions rather than by subsidence. A major rhyolitic explosive eruption from Dyngjufjöll about 10,000 years ago was in part associated with the formation of Askja caldera. Many postglacial eruptions also occurred along the ring-fracture. A major explosive eruption on the SE caldera margin in 1875 was one of Iceland's largest during historical time. It resulted in the formation of a smaller 4.5-km-wide caldera, now filled by Öskjuvatn lake, that truncates the rim of the larger central caldera. The 100-km-long Askja fissure swarm, which includes the Sveinagja graben, is also related to the Askja volcanic system, as are several small shield volcanoes such as Kollatadyngja. Twentieth-century eruptions at Askja have produced lava flows from vents located mostly near Öskjuvatn lake.