Askja: Iceland's Largest Volcano | by W. G. Lock
About Askja, Iceland's Largest Volcano
With A Description Of The Geeat Lava Deseet In The Interior: And A Chapter On The Genesis Of The Island.
W. G. Lock, F.K.G.S., Translator Of " Sporting Life On The Norwegian Fields," And Author Of "Jottings On Sport In Norway."
- Volcanos
- Come, wander with me, she said. Into regions yet untrod ; And read what is still unread In the manuscripts of God. And he waudered away and away With Nature, the dear old nurse, Who ...
- Chapter I. Prefatory
- ' Now the firm earth shakes like a frighted beast, And the island quakes from west to east; And seas of fire come from the rent, As though in ire by Heaven sent!' (John Mill.) IT is gen...
- Prefatory. Part 2
- Having stated that Mr. Watts' account of the Dyngjufjoll and Askja is in some very important particulars incorrect, it will perhaps be as well, as their description in his paper read before the Eoyal ...
- Prefatory. Part 3
- Beside the mountain in which Askja is situated, the Dijngjufjoll consist of a number of minor semi-detached peaks, extending to the northward from the eastern part of the northern front of the chief o...
- Prefatory. Part 4
- To return to Burton, and his work. To judge from the gallant Captain's two bulky volumes he had drifted to the ultima Thule of literature, compilation; the bourne, alas! too frequently, of those affli...
- Chapter II. To The Lava Flood In The Myvatn's Oraefi
- ' Wide ruin spread the element around, His havoc leagues on leagues may you descry ; And still the smouldering flame lurks underground, And tosses boiling fountains to the sky ! (Umbra.) ...
- To The Lava Flood In The Myvatn's Oraefi. Part 2
- * It is said by the people living around Myvatn, who scour the Orcrfi every autumn in search of strayed sheep, that a similar subsidence is to be seen at the southern end of the lava-bed. I cannot say...
- To The Lava Flood In The Myvatn's Oraefi. Part 3
- Herra Thoroddsen's paper bears further evidence of having been very carelessly compiled, amongst other things, Danish measure is given for English, Askja, measuring one square geographical mile in ext...
- To The Lava Flood In The Myvatn's Oraefi. Part 4
- West of the new lava, a capital newly made road now crosses the barren moorlands and sandy wastes of the Orcefi for several miles, and over this we did not spare our ponies, a little over two hours' g...
- Chapter III. Over The Odaoahraun To Askja
- ' But he whose weary step hath traced Iceland's mysterious awful waste, Whose eye the OdaSahraun hath viewed Can tell thee what is solitude! Mindful of the past, the timid swain Nurtured near th...
- Over The Odaoahraun To Askja. Part 2
- A large extent of the desert in the north is covered with a prodigious lava-flood from a crater near the Fremrincvmar (Farther solfatara), while in the northwest it chiefly consists of outbursts of la...
- Over The Odaoahraun To Askja. Part 3
- Jon and I, unlike Gunnlaugsson, Watts, and Johnstrup, have been exceptionally fortunate as to weather, for during the whole time that Jon and his companions were absent the sky was without a cloud ; a...
- Over The Odaoahraun To Askja. Part 4
- Resuming the ascent we rounded the spur of the mountain, and entered the defile. Its direction is from N.N.W. to S.S.E.; and it is about half a mile in width throughout its whole length, which I shoul...
- Over The Odaoahraun To Askja. Part 5
- Professor Johnstrup states that the lava on the eastern side of Askja has a declination towards the gap in the north-east of 300 Danish feet in a stretch of 12,000 = to 1 in 40. Now, as at the time...
- Over The Odaoahraun To Askja. Part 6
- By Aneroid (in 1878) the summit of this crater has an altitude of close upon 3,800 feet. Taking the depth of the pumice at its base at 100 feet, and the height of the outer crater walls at about the s...
- Over The Odaoahraun To Askja. Part 7
- While passing along the rift I noticed, projecting through the debris, some immense masses of obsidian and pitchstone that appeared to have ' boiled' up towards the conclusion of the eruption; therefo...
- Over The Odaoahraun To Askja. Part 8
- When the Professor visited the volcano, he says the surface of the disrupted mass lay 740 Dan. feet lower than its original level; and according to Lieut. Caroc's map a lake existed in the south-ea...
- Over The Odaoahraun To Askja. Part 9
- After a short rest we led our ponies up the ashy slope to the glacier-filled pass, which we traversed in safety; and fourteen hours later we were safe once more under the roof of Svartdkot, having bee...
- Chapter IV. The Probable Genesis Of Askja And Iceland
- ' The earthquake then, As a beast in pain, In his burning den, Snapt his chain: Till bound at last, like a snake he curled, And formed the mountains of our world.' (John Mill.) IN th...
- The Probable Genesis Of Askja And Iceland. Part 2
- It will doubtless interest my readers to know what Professor Johnstrup, in his paper before referred to, says with reference to the connection of the two scenes of eruption. 'The volcanoes here (the O...
- The Probable Genesis Of Askja And Iceland. Part 3
- The latitude of Reykjavik is 64 9', therefore a crater' in 64 7' would bear very slightly south of east (true), and if in 64 18', of course but a trifle north of east, while if it bore ...
- The Probable Genesis Of Askja And Iceland. Part 4
- As observed in the second chapter, extensive tracts of the island, as well in the coastal regions as inland, have a far greater altitude, and are unquestionably an older formation than the plateau of ...
- The Probable Genesis Of Askja And Iceland. Part 5
- Further proof is to be found in the facts that deep narrow fjords exist only on the east, north, and northwest coasts, where this older formation prevails, and not on the south and west, where the isl...
- The Probable Genesis Of Askja And Iceland. Part 6
- The regularity and evenness with which these vast sheets have been deposited seem to point to a remarkably peaceful welling forth of the floods of molten rock, accompanied by the discharge of little o...
- The Probable Genesis Of Askja And Iceland. Part 7
- From the number of lava-floods that have burst forth at various times at a distance from volcanic mountains in the same way as the one in 1875, it is evident that innumerable channels exist in the pos...
- The Probable Genesis Of Askja And Iceland. Part 8
- The majority of the volcanic mountains inland each mark a weak spot above a radiating channel, or where one was blocked by a core of congealed lava, and were formed in the same way as those near the c...
- The Probable Genesis Of Askja And Iceland. Part 9
- This, I respectfully submit, is the probable history of the volcano, which in the preceding pages I have attempted to describe. Hitherto, with the exception of the Oddftahraun and the Vatna Jokull,...