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Veiðivötn (, "
fishing
Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...
lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
s") is a
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 ...
lake region in the
Highlands of central Iceland, where approximately 50 lakes fill two rows of
fissure vent
A fissure vent, also known as a volcanic fissure, eruption fissure or simply a fissure, is a linear volcanic vent through which lava erupts, usually without any explosive activity. The vent is often a few metres wide and may be many kilom ...
s.
Geologically, Veiðivötn is part of the
Bárðarbunga
Bárðarbunga (), is a stratovolcano located under Vatnajökull in Vatnajökull National Park which is Iceland's most extensive glacier. The second highest mountain in Iceland, above sea level, Bárðarbunga is also part of a volcanic system th ...
volcanic system.
In 6600 B.C., long before the
settlement of Iceland, prehistoric eruptions from the region produced the
Þjórsá Lava
The Great Þjórsá Lava ( Icelandic: ''Þjórsárhraunið mikla'' ) is the largest lava flow in Iceland (by both area and volume) and the largest lava that is known to have erupted in a single eruption in the Holocene. It belongs to a group of lav ...
, the largest
lava flow in
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 ...
, and the largest to have erupted anywhere on Earth during the
Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togeth ...
.
Veiðivötn's current landscape was created in 1477 by an explosive
VEI-6 fissure eruption of
tholeiitic basalt
The tholeiitic magma series is one of two main magma series in subalkaline igneous rocks, the other being the calc-alkaline series. A magma series is a chemically distinct range of magma compositions that describes the evolution of a mafic magma ...
. It was the largest volcanic eruption in
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 ...
's recorded history.
Today, many of the fissures from the 1477 eruption are filled with water lakes that have become popular for
trout
Trout are species of freshwater fish belonging to the genera '' Oncorhynchus'', '' Salmo'' and '' Salvelinus'', all of the subfamily Salmoninae of the family Salmonidae. The word ''trout'' is also used as part of the name of some non-salm ...
fishing.
References
1477 in Europe
Bárðarbunga
East Volcanic Zone of Iceland
Fissure vents
Highlands of Iceland
Holocene volcanoes
Maars
Recreational fishing
Rift lakes of Iceland
VEI-6 volcanoes
Volcanic crater lakes
Volcanic eruptions in Iceland
Volcanoes of Iceland
{{Iceland-geo-stub