Page 232 - Volcano and Geothermal Tourism
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14




                     Emerging Volcano and


                     Geothermal Related Tourism



                     in Iceland










                     Ross Dowling                               one-third of all the lava to surface on Earth in the
                                                                last 1000 years being of Icelandic origin.
                     Introduction                                  Nowhere  on  Earth  is  such  a  showcase  of

                     Iceland is located in the North Atlantic Ocean just   volcanic  features  found  (Harlow,  2008)  and  on
                                                                average there are eruptions occurring every four
                     south of the Arctic Circle. At 103,000km² in size,   to five years (Guðmundsson, 2007). The volcanoes
                     it is the world’s 18th largest island, and Europe’s   include Hekla, Eldgjá and Eldfell and the eruption
                     second largest island following Great Britain. It is   of Laki in 1783–1784 caused dust clouds and haze
                     considered  to  be  a  part  of  Europe,  not  North   to appear over most of Europe and parts of Asia
                     America,  though  geologically  the  island  belongs   and Africa for months after the eruption. Recent
                     to both continents. Due to its cultural, economic   eruptions have included the new island of Surtsey,
                     and linguistic similarities, in some contexts Iceland   which rose above the ocean in a series of volcanic
                     is  also  included  in  Scandinavia.  It  is  reasonably   eruptions  between  1963  and  1968.  A  second
                     remote with its nearest neighbours being Green-  occurred on the island of Heimaey in 1973 which
                     land (287km) and the Faroe Islands (420km). The   produced the new red cinder cone Eldfell, and a
                     population is 316,000, and its capital city Reykjavik   third is Hekla which produced a series of powerful
                     is the world’s northernmost one. The majority of   earthquakes which shook the country in 2000.
                     the  people  live  in  coastal  areas  near  the  capital   Iceland  has  a  high  concentration  of  active
                     with  other  major  towns  scattered  around  the   volcanoes  due  to  unique  geological  conditions
                     coast. Only a quarter of the country is vegetated   (Wikipedia,  2009a).  The  island  has  about  130
                     and  much  of  the  remainder  is  lakes,  glaciers  or   volcanic  mountains,  of  which  18  have  erupted
                     lava-covered wasteland.
                                                                since  the  settlement  of  Iceland.  Over  the  past
                     Geology and volcanism                      500 years, Iceland’s volcanoes have erupted a third
                                                                of the total global lava output. Although the Laki
                     Sitting  astride  the  Mid-Atlantic  Ridge,  Iceland’s   eruption in 1783 had the largest eruption of lava
                     geology is a work in progress as it is the youngest   in  the  last  500  years,  the  Eldgjá  eruption  of
                     country  in  Europe  (Einarsson,  2006).  It  has  22   934AD and other Holocene eruptions were even
                     active  volcanoes,  250  geothermal  areas,  780  hot   larger. Geologists explain this high concentration
                     springs, and the world’s third largest ice-cap. It is   of volcanic activity as being due to a combination
                     one  of  the  world’s  most  active  hot-spots  with     of the island’s position on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge








       Ch14.indd   209                                                                             3/28/2010   1:30:11 PM
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