The violent past of Lake Víti (meaning hell in Icelandic) dates back to 1724, when glowing magma blew a 300-meter-wide (1,000 ft.) hole in the earth’s crust. The enormous explosion marked the beginning of a five-year-long eruption called the Lake Mývatn fires.
For more than 100 years after the eruption ended, a mud porridge boiled and bubbled in the bottom of the crater. Now we have this calm green lake.
This is one of two famous Víti lakes in Iceland. (Not to be confused with Víti in the Askja area, further south in the central highlands.)
This Víti is in the Krafla caldera area in the Mývatn region in the north and is easily accessible by an asphalt road leading to it from Route 1 (the Ring Road).
The violent past of Lake Víti (meaning hell in Icelandic) dates back to 1724, when glowing magma blew a 300-meter-wide (1,000 ft.) hole in the earth’s crust. The enormous explosion marked the beginning of a five-year-long eruption called the Lake Mývatn fires.
For more than 100 years after the eruption ended, a mud porridge boiled and bubbled in the bottom of the crater. Now we have this calm green lake.
This is one of two famous Víti lakes in Iceland. (Not to be confused with Víti in the Askja area, further south in the central highlands.)
This Víti is in the Krafla caldera area in the Mývatn region in the north and is easily accessible by an asphalt road leading to it from Route 1 (the Ring Road).
