Brennisteinsalda

Brennisteinsalda in the middle ground

Play of colors on the Brennisteinsalda

Brennisteinsalda is the name of a 855 -meter-high volcano in southern Iceland, part of the volcanic system of Torfajökull. The mountain is located about 3 km from Landmannalaugar, and is located in the municipality of Rangárþing Ytra.

Volcanism

When Brennisteinsalda is a rhyolitic lava dome, which is part of the Calder edge of Torfajökull central volcano.

The mountain is named sulfur shaft ( German translation of the Icelandic Brennisteinsalda ) to right. Sulfur deposits have colored the slopes yellowish. On the other hand, he still has an amazing mix of other colors, which come about through a number of influences: Green ( mosses), pink ( iron precipitation ) and beige ( rhyolite ), gray, blue and black ( basalt, Pechstein and ash deposits ) and white ( lime precipitates ). Not for nothing did he adorns numerous photos of Landmannalaugar, a nature reserve near the Hekla.

Because the mountain is part of the Calder edge of the active Torfajökull central volcano, lies at his feet, a high- temperature region. On its slopes the soil in places is still hot, it steams and smokes.

During the last series of eruptions in Torfajökull towards the end of the 15th century sprang from his flank the Obsidianlavafeld Laugahraun.

Hiking in the mountains

If you want to Laugavegur to the mountain pass from the hut in Landmannalaugar, one first traverses the vast Obsidianlavafeld.

In the mud pots and fumaroles on the mountain and down the mountain should the white spots ( calcium precipitations ) avoid in order not to break, since among them the earth's crust is particularly thin.