Helgafell (, "holy mountain") is an inactive 227-metre-high

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

cone located on the island of Heimaey in the

Vestmannaeyjar Vestmannaeyjar (, sometimes anglicized as Westman Islands) is a municipality and archipelago off the south coast of Iceland. The largest island, Heimaey, has a population of 4,414, most of whom live in the archipelago's main town, Vestmannaeyj ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Arc ...

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. The Stórhöfði peninsula immediately to the south of Helgafell in what is now southern Heimaey formed about 6000 years ago,US Geological Survey
/ref> with Helgafell forming from a secondary eruption a thousand years later. Immediately north of Helgafell is the active volcano

Eldfell Eldfell is a volcanic cone just over high on the Icelandic island of Heimaey. It formed in a volcanic eruption, which began without warning on the eastern side of Heimaey, in the Westman Islands, on 23 January 1973. The name means ''Hill of ...

, which last erupted January 23, 1973. Helgafell is a dormant cone volcano, although it is considered likely that it will erupt again in the future.

References

Volcanoes of Iceland Mountains of Iceland Dormant volcanoes Vestmannaeyjar {{Iceland-geo-stub