Skjaldbreiður

Volcano in Iceland

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Skjaldbreiður

Iceland

Selected geological features near the Skjaldbreiður shield volcano.(red outline). Light violet shading shows the current surface area of the Skjaldbreiður lava flows. Shading also shows:    calderas,   central volcanoes and   fissure swarms,   subglacial terrain above 1,100 m (3,600 ft), and   seismically active areas. Clicking on the image enlarges to full window and enables mouse-over with more detail.

Skjaldbreiður (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈscaltˌpreiːðʏr̥] ^ⓘ, "broad shield") is an Icelandic lava shield formed in a huge and quite protracted eruption series from about roughly 9,500 years ago.^[2] The extensive lava fields which were produced by this eruption, flowed southwards, and formed the basin of Þingvallavatn, Iceland's largest lake, and Þingvellir, the "Parliament Plains" where the Icelandic national assembly, the Alþing was founded in 930.

The volcano summit is at 1,066 m (3,497 ft),^[1] and its crater measures roughly 300 m (980 ft) in diameter. The Skjaldbreiður lava shield covers 170 km² (66 sq mi) with a volume of about 13 km³ (3.1 cu mi).^[3] and is sometimes considered as a separate southern part of the Oddnýjarhnjúkur-Langjökull volcanic system which it is usually classified as being within.^[4] In this context its most recent eruption would be 3600 years ago, and the earliest eruption after the last ice age 10,200 years ago.^[5] There are at least three lava units deposited between 6000 and 9000 years BP,^[6]

Straddling the Mid-Atlantic ridge, the lava fields from Skjaldbreiður have been torn and twisted over the millennia, forming a multitude of fissures and rifts inside the Þingvellir National Park, the best known of which are Silfra, Almannagjá [ˈalˌmanːaˌcauː], Hrafnagjá [ˈr̥apnaˌcauː] and Flosagjá [ˈflɔːsaˌcauː].

Gallery

• 
  Skjaldbreiður crater in snow.

References

Sources

• Scarth, Alwyn; Tanguy, Jean-Claude (2001). Volcanoes of Europe. Oxford University Press. pp. 243 pp. ISBN 0-19-521754-3.
• Thordarson, Thor; Hoskuldsson, Armann (2002). Iceland (Classic Geology in Europe 3). Terra Publishing. pp. 208 pp. ISBN 1-903544-06-8.