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Mýrdalsjökull

Mýrdalsjökull 20210717

 

Mýrdalsjökull is a glacier in the south of the Icelandic highlands. It is the country's fourth-largest ice cap, covering nearly 600 square kilometers, and its highest peak is almost 1500 meters tall. It is most well-known for sitting atop the notorious and explosive volcano, Katla.

Since 2010, the world has known of the volcano beneath Eyjafjallajökull; after all, it halted European air travel for over a week and stumped news readers everywhere. Few, however, are aware of the much larger volcano right beside it.

Mýrdalsjökull conceals Katla, one of the country’s most active volcanoes, having erupted, on average, once every fifty years since 930 AD. Because of the glacier above it, these eruptions tend to cause enormous ash clouds. It is these ash clouds that lead to flights being grounded, crops and livestock poisoned, and have the potential to change the world’s climate.

 

Source Guide to Iceland.

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Uploaded on October 1, 2021
Taken on July 17, 2021