Kolbeinsey

Kolbeinsey ( German " Kolbeinns Island" ) is a 90 -square-foot volcanic island 105 km North of Iceland's north coast, 74 km north-northwest of the island of Grimsey. The island is at 67 ° 08 'N the northernmost point of Iceland. According to her the north adjacent to Iceland section of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is named, the so-called Kolbeinseyrücken.

Volcanism

It is the only place where the undersea volcanic mountain range Kolbeinseyrücken breaks through the sea surface.

The island Kolbeinsey was similar to that of Surtsey by an undersea volcanic eruption. Your exact age is not certain, probably formed during the late Pleistocene or early Holocene. Originally it was quite a large island with a shield volcano on pillow lava and Palagonitschichten. The surviving remnant consists of basalt.

The last known Vulkanausbrücke on the Kolbeinsey - backs were in 1755, and 1372nd earthquakes more frequent events, including in 2010 during the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010.

Historical Background

The island was in medieval Iceland so well known that it is both mentioned in medieval history book Conquest book as well as in one of the sagas, the Svarfdælasaga from the 14th century.

According to these sources Kolbeinsey was named after Kolbeinn Sigmundarsson, the first settlers in the district Kolbeinsdalur Skagafjordur in northern Iceland. Thus Kolbeinn was so angered by the political circumstances of his country, that he sat in a boat and sailed north. But he was shipwrecked on that rock north of Grimsey, where he eventually met his death.

At the beginning of the 17th century sent Guðbrandur Þorláksson, the then Bishop of Hólar men on an adventurous journey to this island, including to measure them. This is, for example, described in a ballad of the mid-17th century.

Erosion and rescue attempts

The island is severe wave erosion exposed to and will disappear entirely in the near future - probably around 2020, as was predicted from the previous work of destruction of the water.

The size of the island was at the beginning of 2001, only 90 m, which corresponds to a circle of less than 11 m in diameter. The original size of the island is unknown. When she was first measured in 1616, was its size nor 700 m north-south and 100 m east-west. By 1903 the size had been reduced by half. In August 1985, we recorded an area of ​​39 m diameter. The highest point is 8 meters above the sea level.

The fact that the island is about 9400 km ² territorial fishing grounds adds to the Icelandic State, there is every reason to secure the demonstrably prone nature of the rock in its present state comprehensive. Among other things, the establishment of a steel wall, in order to prevent the erosion have been proposed.

On the island, a helipad was built in 1989 from concrete to counteract the erosion. As announced in March 2006, the landing site is, however, no longer usable, since large parts are cast into the sea due to the erosion forces.