Nýey (), Nýeyjar , Nyø (Danish), was an island that formed in 1783 due to an underwater eruption in the

Mid-Atlantic Ridge The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a divergent or constructive plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in the world. In the North Atlantic, the ridge separates the North Ame ...

southwest of

Reykjanes Reykjanes () is a small headland on the southwestern tip of the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland, giving the main peninsula its name. The region is about from Iceland's international airport. As the name means "smoking peninsula" connected to volc ...

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 ...

. It disappeared within a year.Islandsbloggen, 2011/04
/ref>Ferlir, Underwater Eruption Out of Reykjanes
/ref>

History

The formation of "Nýeyjar" began on May 1, 1783. It attracted a lot of attention and some connected it to the

1783 Calabrian earthquakes The 1783 Calabrian earthquakes were a sequence of five strong earthquakes that hit the region of Calabria in southern Italy (then part of the Kingdom of Naples), the first two of which produced significant tsunamis. The epicenters form a clear a ...

. The captain of a 'small ship' (" :is: húkkerta") that sailed in the area, wrote in his

diary A diary is a written or audiovisual record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. Diaries have traditionally been handwritten but are now also often digital. A personal ...

about a burning island due southwest of

Geirfuglasker Geirfuglasker (, "Great Auk Rock") was a small islet near Reykjanes, Iceland. It was volcanic rock with steep sides except for two landing places. The rough surf around the island usually made it inaccessible to humans, and one of the last refug ...

. He tried to observe it but had to stay over half a mile away, due to the poisonous sulphurous smoke. King

Christian VII of Denmark Christian VII (29 January 1749 – 13 March 1808) was a monarch of the House of Oldenburg who was King of Denmark–Norway and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein from 1766 until his death in 1808. For his motto he chose: "''Gloria ex amore patriae'' ...

named the island "Nýey", ordered an expedition to it, and dedicated it to the monarchy with a

Danish flag The national flag of Denmark ( da, Dannebrog, ) is red with a white Nordic cross, which means that the cross extends to the edges of the flag and the vertical part of the cross is shifted to the hoist side. A banner with a white-on-red cross is ...

. He also planned for an inscribed stone to be placed on the island. It had disappeared by the summer of 1784, when Magnús Stephensen (Lawyer and Supreme Court Judge), planned to dedicate it to the king whilst en route to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

Sources

* Vísindavefurinn : " How common are new islands in eruptions? “ (Vísindavefurinn, 5044, Hversu algengt er að nýjar eyjar verði til í eldgosum?)University of Iceland, Earth Sciences, How common are new islands in eruptions? by Professor Sigurður Steinþórsson, 9 June 2005.
/ref>

References

Ephemeral islands Islands of Iceland Mid-Atlantic Ridge Southwest Iceland Uninhabited islands of Iceland {{Iceland-geo-stub

History

See also

Sources

References