Eyjafjallajökull Volcano

South

In April 2010, Eyjafjallajökull shut down European airspace for six days — not because of a massive eruption, but because the volcano sits beneath a glacier, and meltwater meeting magma blasted fine ash to altitudes aircraft cannot safely fly through. The stratovolcano reaches 1,651 meters; its summit ice cap spans roughly 66 square kilometers and is up to 200 meters thick. Gígjökull, the main outlet glacier on the northern flank, was torn apart by the meltwater flood that poured down into the Markarfljót river system, and the volcanic system beneath the ice remains active. The glacier is visible from much of the South Coast, between Seljalandsfoss and Skógafoss on Route 1. Guided super-jeep tours and glacier walks operate from nearby farms; the summit itself requires technical mountaineering gear. The Þórsmörk valley on the eastern flank, sheltered by the massif, makes a good base for multi-day hiking. The Eyjafjallajökull Visitor Center at Þorvaldseyri farm, just off Route 1, tells the eruption story through farming families who lived through ash falls, evacuations, and watched the mountain erupt from their own fields. It is one of the more human-scale visitor centers in Iceland, worth a stop even without going onto the glacier.

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