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Festivals
Events South Iceland
Basque Events
Vikingtimes
1
Public holidays include New Year's Day (1 January),
Easter (Maundy Thursday to Monday inclusive),
First Day of Summer (usually the third Thursday in April),
Labour Day (1 May), Ascension, Whit Sunday and Whit Monday,
National Day (17 June),
Merchants’ Holiday (first Monday in August),
Christmas (24–26 December). Christmas Eve,
New Year’s Eve...
Vulcanos
Iceland is situated over the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which means that the island frequently has earthquakes and is home to many volcanoes. On 29 September 1996 in a remote corner of the island, a series of moderate earthquakes were signs of the awakening of Bardarbunga, a volcano last known to erupt in 1910. The mouth of the volcano lay underneath an ice cap known as Vatnajökull, which is about 100 kilometres (60 miles) wide and lies 200 kilometres (125 miles) east of Reykjavík. The glacier formed a frozen blanket up to 600 metres (2,000 feet) thick over the volcano.
On 30 September, as the volcano began to surge, the overlying ice cracked, leaving immense crevasses on the surface and forming a series of depressions of up to 100 metres (330 feet) deep. The depressions were lined along a volcanic fissure that corresponded to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Torrents of meltwater rushed underneath the glacier, flowing along subterranean channels to the lower caldera of Grimsvötn, a collapsed volcano several kilometres to the southeast. The subglacial lake that formed in the heart of Grimsvötn swelled rapidly until the overlying ice began to rise, eventually reaching a height of more than 15 metres (50 feet).
On 1 October, Bardarbunga's eruption began, at first
held back by the ice, but managing to break through by the next day. Clouds
of black ash were propelled up to 10 kilometres (6 miles) into the sky by rhythmic
explosions, and a column of lighter ash and steam towered up to 13 kilometres
(8 miles) high, showering ash over the northern parts of Iceland. Water in the
Grimsvötn basin reached a critical level and eventually spilled into the
south-flowing melt rivers. The eruption continued until 13 October. Vatnajökull
resumed its frozen sentinel over the fire that lay beneath it.
