It was not for nothing that Iceland was given such a poetic name - "the land of ice and fire." The country’s territory is ten percent covered with glaciers, and the volcano in Iceland is not just a fire-breathing mountain, but an element of national folklore. Volcanic eruptions occur on average every five years.
True, most of them are quite peaceful. And recently, the almost unpronounceable oronim “Eyyafyadlayekyudl” learned to pronounce not only Europe, but the whole world.
Icelanders are not used to regular eruptions. The first volcano in Iceland, whose eruption is recorded in the annals - Torfaeküdl. He erupted in 1477, but did not deliver any particular inconvenience to the natives, since the historical tablets do not report anything about the damage they caused.
Many volcanoes have the status of "asleep", as they did not erupt very, very long time ago. For example, Herdubrade volcano erupted for the first and last time about three hundred thirty thousand years ago.
Geologists argue that the eruption was associated with the "birth" of the volcano. Since then, he is silent, waiting for his time, and when he comes - is unknown. Another asleep volcano is Curling. The volcano is located on the northern coast of the island and has a height of more than one and a half kilometers. His last eruption was six to seven million years ago.
The most famous volcano in Iceland is Hekla. Of all the fire-breathing mountains of this island, he is the most active. For frequent eruptions, Icelanders called him the "gate to hell." Haeckle holds the Icelandic record for the duration of the eruption. Having started throwing lava on March 27, 1947, Hekla finished "messing up" only in April 1948, that is, more than a year later! Scientists have found that several Hekla eruptions in prehistoric times caused a decrease in the average temperature in the Northern Hemisphere by several degrees! This was made possible due to the large amount of volcanic ash and dust that blocked the path of sunlight. Icelanders have a legend that on top of Hekla during the Easter holiday witches gather for their Sabbath. True, it is not clear why the witches gather there during the Christian holiday. Impure power, by definition, must be hidden in its underground shelters during the triumph of the Light. Although who knows, perhaps Hekla is such a refuge for them.
The second most popular volcano in Iceland is Eyyafyadlayekyudl. It is located in the southern part of the island and gained fame in 2010 after a huge amount of ash was thrown into the atmosphere as a result of its powerful eruption. Then, due to problems in air navigation, a large number of flights were postponed. To be precise, this small volcano did not have a name until 2010, but was named after the glacier in the region of which it is located.
The eruption of a volcano in Iceland for local residents is the same as for the inhabitants of Kamchatka or the Kuril Islands is the activity of local hills: yes, unpleasant, yes, sometimes dangerous, but nothing can be done. Yes, and already used to it.
The name of the volcano in Iceland (Eyyafyadlayekyudl, for example), is unpronounceable for most inhabitants of the planet due to the archaic nature of the Icelandic language. If the mainland Scandinavian languages: Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, experiencing the influence of neighbors, strongly departed from their common ancestor, then Icelandic is almost identical to the ancient Viking language . Icelanders can even easily read in the original Edda - the works of an ancient epic, while the descendants of the Vikings from the mainland are deprived of such an opportunity. This is equivalent if we could read in the original “The Tale of Bygone Years” by the monk Nestor or “The Tale of Igor's Campaign”.