Hekla

Also found in: Dictionary, Acronyms, Wikipedia.

Hekla

(hĕk`lä), volcano, 4,892 ft (1,491 m) high, SW Iceland. Since the early 11th cent. more than 20 eruptions have been recorded; the worst occurred in 1766 and the most recent in 1947. Hekla emits steam and has several crater lakes. In medieval Icelandic folklore Hekla was believed to be one of the gates to purgatory; it is also a legendary gathering place for witches.

Hekla

(Icelandic “cap” or “hood,” probably from the layer of mist that shrouds its top), an active volcano in the southern part of Iceland, 110 km east of Reykjavík. It is a stratovolcano 1,491 meters high, formed as the result of numerous eruptions along a fissure. From its top, streams of basalt lava, which poured out during the last big eruption in 1947-48, slope down on all sides. The volume of the magma ejected in 1947-48 is estimated at 0.4 cu km. The altitude of Hekla during that eruption increased from 1,447 m to 1,502 m, but later it was somewhat reduced as a result of the destruction of the crater’s rims. The first recorded eruption was in A.D. 1104. Hekla proper and the area around it have had in all more than 20 eruptions. The eruption in 1766, in which human lives were lost, was particularly destructive.

Hekla

a volcano in SW Iceland: several craters, subject to fairly frequent eruptions in recent times. Height: 1491 m (4892 ft.)

Mentioned in ?

References in periodicals archive ?

But Gardarsson, who has a tourist lodge at the foot of Hekla, isn't worried.

After the ash, Iceland volcano lures tourism cash

What is interesting is that fact that no earthquakes appear during this magma movements, there is also no harmonic tremor when the magma is moving around in the crust close to Hekla Volcano," he added.

Iceland's Helka Volcano may erupt anytime

Kepler sources his information thus: "The history of Mount Hekla,

When hell freezes over: mount Hecla and Hamlet's infernal geography

Through travellers' tales and his own imagination, an unknown 18th-century Danish artist painted a series of dramatic canvases of Hekla and other Icelandic volcanoes erupting.

The lure of volcanoes

"This layer," Steinberg explains, pointing to a white ash below the level of the grass roots, "is from 1104, from the volcano Hekla." He moves his trowel down a bit and says: "Here's the 1000 layer; and down here is the Landnam layer," referring to ash fall from the time of the first settlement of Iceland.

Through Dirt to the Past : Archaeology in Rural Iceland

Some valleys, like Hekla, consist only of black pumice stones and mysterious looking ravens peering down from great rocks.

GO-ZONE: FOR YOUR ICE ONLY...; check in

The island has more than 200 volcanoes, including the 4,891-foot Mount Hekla. There's also Mount Laki, with about 100 separate craters.

Storm watch: Iceland's weather often overshadows Air Force mission

Tres siglos mas tarde, en el XVIII, la erupcion de su volcan mas importante, el Hekla, volvio a reducir su poblacion.

Isla del tesoro genetico

Hotel Hekla serves as the book's unifying element; its staff members and people associated with them are its primary characters.

Vetrarferdin

And in the late 1700s, the volcano Hekla, east of Reykjavik, erupted and spewed ash over gardens and pastures.

Iceland's blond ambition: a Nordic country cashes in on its isolated gene pool

Vegetation on lava fields in the Hekla area, Iceland.

A decade of recovery of understory vegetation buried by volcanic tephra from Mount St. Helens

(12.) Some time between 1150 and 1136B.C., for example, the Hekla 3 volcano in Iceland erupted.