A volcanologist can be seen (bottom left) observing the incandescent front of a steaming, blocky lava flow that is advancing from Hekla volcano during a three-day eruption beginning on 17 August 1980. Lava issued from much of the 5.5-km-long fissure that runs along Hekla’s summit ridge, producing lava flows that covered much of the northern flanks and flows to the E, S, and SW.

Photo courtesy of Gudmundar Sigvaldason (Nordic Volcanological Institute), 1980.

This image is made available under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 license terms.

Keywords: lava flow | aa | degassing | gas | gas plume | eruption

Hekla