Hekla
| Hekla | |
|---|---|
Hekla and Þjórsá
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| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 1,488 m (4,882 ft) |
| Coordinates | 63°59′N 19°42′W / 63.983°N 19.700°WCoordinates: 63°59′N 19°42′W / 63.983°N 19.700°W |
| Naming | |
| Translation | Hooded (English) |
| Geography | |
 Hekla
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| Geology | |
| Mountain type | Active Fissure stratovolcano |
| Last eruption | February to March 2000 |
| Climbing | |
| First ascent | Eggert Ólafsson, Bjarni Pálsson, 20 June 1750 |
Hekla (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈhɛʰkla]), or Hecla, is a stratovolcano in the south of Iceland with a height of 1,491 m (4,892 ft). Hekla is one of Iceland's most active volcanoes; over 20 eruptions have occurred in and around the volcano since 874. During the Middle Ages, Europeans called the volcano the "Gateway to Hell".
Hekla is part of a volcanic ridge, 40 km (25 mi) long. The most active part of this ridge, a fissure about 5.5 km (3.4 mi) long named Heklugjá, is considered to be the volcano Hekla proper. Hekla looks rather like an overturned boat, with its keel being a series of craters, two of which are generally the most active.
The volcano's frequent large eruptions have covered much of Iceland with tephra and these layers can be used to date eruptions of Iceland's other volcanos. 10% of the tephra created in Iceland in the last thousand years has come from Hekla, amounting to 5 km3. The volcano has produced one of the largest volumes of lava of any in the world in the last millennium, around 8 km3.
In Icelandic Hekla is the word for a short hooded cloak which may relate to the frequent cloud cover on the summit. An early Latin source refers to the mountain as Mons Casule.
After the eruption of 1104, stories, probably spread deliberately through Europe by Cistercian monks, told that Hekla was the gateway to Hell. The Cistercian monk Herbert of Clairvaux wrote in his De Miraculis (without naming Hekla):
The renowned fiery cauldron of Sicily, which men call Hell's chimney ... that cauldron is affirmed to be like a small furnace compared to this enormous inferno.
A poem by the monk Benedeit from circa 1120 about the voyages of Saint Brendan mentions Hekla as the prison of Judas.
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