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Country: | Iceland | |
| Subregion Name: | Northeastern Iceland | ||
| Volcano Number: | 1703-01= | ||
| Volcano Type: | Caldera | ||
| Volcano Status: | Historical | ||
| Last Known Eruption: | 2004 | ||
| Summit Elevation: | 1725 m | 5,659 feet | |
| Latitude: | 64.42°N | 64°25'0"N | |
| Longitude: | 17.33°W | 17°20'0"W | |
| Grímsvötn, Iceland's most frequently active volcano in historical time, lies largely beneath the vast Vatnajökull icecap. The caldera lake is covered by a 200-m-thick ice shelf, and only the southern rim of the 6 x 8 km caldera is exposed. The geothermal area in the caldera causes frequent jökulhlaups (glacier outburst floods) when melting raises the water level high enough to lift its ice dam. Long NE-SW-trending fissure systems extend from the central volcano. The most prominent of these is the noted Laki (Skaftar) fissure, which extends to the SW and produced the world's largest known historical lava flow during an eruption in 1783. The 15-cu-km basaltic Laki lavas were erupted over a 7-month period from a 27-km-long fissure system. Extensive crop damage and livestock losses caused a severe famine that resulted in the loss of one-fifth of the population of Iceland. | |||
