Hekla topographic map
Interactive map
Click on the map to display elevation.
About this map
Name: Hekla topographic map, elevation, terrain.
Location: Hekla, Rangárþing ytra, Southern Region, Iceland (63.99265 -19.66587 63.99275 -19.66577)
Average elevation: 3,720 ft
Minimum elevation: 2,703 ft
Maximum elevation: 4,859 ft
Before the eruption, a greater than normal amount of snow melting had occurred, indicating the volcano was heating up. Earth tremors began at 8:48 pm on the evening of the eruption; the largest had a magnitude of 4. The eruption started weakly at 9:23 pm IMT ± 2 min before increasing in power. The first pumice fell on Búrfell power station, 15 km away, at 9:35 pm causing people to evacuate. The eruption seems to have started in two locations at the same time – to the Shoulder crater's south-southwest and below the Lava Crater. At 10:30 pm a crater at 780 m was producing a lava column which reached an altitude of around 1000 m. During the night a 700 m high lava fountain was thrown up from the main crater. A 500 m long fissure starting below the Lava Crater opened and lava fountains and other lava flows emanated from it. One hour into the eruption, a new 400 m fissure opened to the northeast, producing two main lava fountains, and shortly after another adjoining fissure opened producing lava fountains to a height of 500 m. At around midnight, another fissure opened northwest of the Lava Crater, later hurling an over 300 m long lava fountain, 200–300 m into the air. By midnight lava had already covered over 1 km² and this extended to 7.5 km² by next morning implying a flow rate of around 1500 m³/s.