Öskjuvatn (, "Askja Lake") is a

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 ...

in the

Highlands of Iceland The Highlands of Iceland ( is, hálendið ) are a sparsely inhabited plateau that covers most of the interior of Iceland. They are situated above 400–500 metres (1300–1600 feet) and are mostly an uninhabitable volcanic desert, because the wa ...

. Its surface area is about 11 km². With a depth of , it is the second deepest lake 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 ...

after

Jökulsárlón Jökulsárlón (; literally "glacial river lagoon") is a large glacial lake in southern part of Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland. Situated at the head of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, it developed into a lake after the glacier started rece ...

. The lake is situated in the crater of the

volcano 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 are ...

Askja Askja () is an active volcano situated in a remote part of the Highlands of Iceland, central highlands of Iceland. The name Askja refers to a complex of nested calderas within the surrounding Dyngjufjöll mountains, which rise to , ''askja'' ...

in the north-east of the glacier

Vatnajökull Vatnajökull ( Icelandic pronunciation: , literally "Glacier of Lakes"; sometimes translated as Vatna Glacier in English) is the largest and most voluminous ice cap in Iceland, and the second largest in area in Europe after the Severny Island ice ...

. The name ''Öskjuvatn'' simply means ''Askja lake''. Like the neighbouring crater Víti, it was created by an enormous volcanic eruption in 1875. On July 10, 1907, two German scientists, Walter von Knebel and

Max Rudloff Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) (1 ...

disappeared while exploring the lake in a small boat. Knebel's fiancée, Ina von Grumbkow, led an expedition in search of them with a vulcanologist

Hans Reck Hans Gottfried Reck (24 January 1886 – 4 August 1937) was a German volcanologist and paleontologist. In 1913 he was the first to discover an ancient skeleton of a human in the Olduvai Gorge, in what is now Tanzania. He collaborated with ...

, but no trace of them was ever found. Suppositions at the time suggested that seismic volcanic disturbances could have caused a landslip or similar occurrence, and recorded that only two days previously the telegraph cable to Iceland had been broken by deep water disturbances for the first time since it was laid, close to the Icelandic coast.

References

External links

Photo of Askja and the lake
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oskjuvatn Calderas of Iceland Lakes of Iceland North Volcanic Zone of Iceland Volcanic crater lakes

See also

References

External links