Heimaey

Disa and I flew out of Reykjavik´s domestic airport in the wee
hours of the morning yesterday, en route to Heimaey, or Home
Island, the populated island of the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago.
The Vestmannaeyjar Islands have known volcanic activitiy for
a hundred thousand years, and the group of islands came into
being as a result of submarine eruptions during the last ice age.
The nearby island, named Surtsey - the youngest island on Earth -
came into being in November 1963 as part of a seabed eruption
that last nearly four years. It is on Heimaey that in January 1973
that the most famous eruption began, at 1:55 a.m.

A fissure opened on the eastern side of the island, less than
500 meters from the eastern neighbourhood of the port town.
Luckily, the day before, weather was stormy and all the town´s
fishing boats were still at harbour, thus able to aid in evacuating
the island´s 5,000 residents to the mainland. In March 1973, the
molten lava threatened to close the opening to the harbour. A
work crew, using many hoses from the ocean, cooled and
redirected the lava flow to save the harbour. This action was
called pissa á hraunið, i.e. pissing on the volcano, and resulted
in not only saving the harbour but making it a more protected
one Heimaey than before.

The eruption ended, finally, on the 3rd of July, 1973. Over the
period of the eruption, a new volcano appeared, named Eldfell
- Fire Mountain - on the eastern side of the island, and a new
lava field added 3.3 square kilometers to the island´s land mass,
or an increase of 20%. Almost 400 houses were buried by the
eruption´s lava and ash, and as many were crushed or damaged.
Walking through the eastern-most neighbourhoods, the remade
houses were painted brightly, looking new and brave next to the
wasteland of the nearby lava fields. Of the evacuated families,
most returned to Heimaey, but some had had enough of the dangers
of living on an active volcanic island.

We arrived in the early morning and walked the 1.5 km from
the airport to the town. It was just us, the birds, and a few sheep
wandering along the road. By the way, the airport runway is
made from the ash of the 1973 eruption. The sheep are allowed
to roam the entire island, and are gathered up when it´s time.
As we walked down the road into town, Heimaey was still fast
asleep. After a delicious cup of coffe, we took a hike up the
eastern road from the harbour, up on to the lava fields. We
found a chimney sticking out from the mountainside on our
way up, evidence of what lay buried below.

Returning to the town for lunch, we met a woman in one of the
shops - a co-op gallery - who is originally from Ontario and
moved to Heimaey with her husband many years ago. She said
it was a great place to raise children and that the only thing she
couldn´t get used to were the wind and horizontal rains. Later
on we hooked up with Unnur, our guide for the day. She took
us around the island and pointed out some of the landmarks
and told us, in English and Icelandic, the stories behind her
homeplace. Such a dramatic island, how it rises from the sea,
its raw, volcanic geology. There are still places up Eldfell where
the rock is so hot - once you dig six inches it can be nearly 400 F -
that locals go up there to bake bread by burying it in the rock.

Unnur showed us where they are creating a "Pompeii of the
North," digging out three of the buried houses beyond the
eastern end of the town. She explained that a few of the older
residents are against it, but that a majority support the project.
"For some, it still brings bad memories," Unnur said. She got
the excavation crew to let us past the barriers. We walked on
the black-ash earth to one of the dig sites. There, rising from
the black earth, was the roof and upper four feet or so of the
front of a house, cracked a little, bent a little, but still very
much like the house it once was. It was very quiet a moment
while we stood there. Haunting to see that buried house, and
to see how close the entire fishing village had come to being
wiped out. That only one man died in the 1973 eruption is
"amazing," a word that Unnur repeated a few times.

Along the way up to Eldfell, she stopped to show us a lava
garden created by a now elderly couple who survived the
devastation of 1973. Beautiful flowers and shrubs growing
out of the burnt ash and lava, a symbol of this resilient place.
We got to meet the elderly couple, as they were working in
the garden this day, and we signed their old guest book.

Once we reached the base of Eldfell, where the sign proclaims
that it is the world´s youngest mountain, the way up is a loose
path of reddish-gold lava rocks strewn atop the black ash. We
climbed, two steps up, one sliding back down, a very physical
undertaking. When we got to the top, the view was awesome.
To one side, you could look out upon the archipelago and the
sea, to another the desolation of the lava field that produced
the new 3.3 square km of island, and to the west the port town
glistening in the sun at the foot of the steep Home Rock.

Unnur had agreed to meet us back down at the base on the
other side, and there she was, parked at the open side of the
crater. In the crater itself was a tall, unadorned cross. "This is
where we have the prayers," Unnur told me, referring to a
memorial service they hold here every year on July 3rd to
thank God for the end of the 1973 eruption.

It´s time to race to the airport as the evening gathers. Unnur,
her face rosy from the day´s sun - earlier she´d hiked to the
peak of Eldfell, too, with a group of visiting school boys -
drove us to the airport. She showed us her sheep farm on
the way, where she lives with her husband. She is mother to
four boys and a daughter, aged 13 to 27, and proud of her
island. She loves Heimaey, and while she respects the power
and unpredictability of the earth, she loves the Earth too. We
say good-bye with a hug and a kiss on the cheek. Unnur has
made this place personal, giving us ancient history, recent
history, and a sense of what it is like to live on Heimaey now.

I realize that the word "awesome" is so overused, but as we
fly off into the evening, seeing the island from above, I realize
that "awesome" is the right word for Heimaey, the most accurate.
A day I will always remember. I hope that you get to come here
one day, my friends.

Thanks, Unnur, for showing us your beloved island.

DL

http://volcano.und.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/europe_west_asia/heimaey/heimaey.html
has some photos and a brief story about the 1973 eruption on Heimaey

http://www.peteturner.com/volcanolayout.html Pete Turner´s site has
some good before and after shots - years apart - of Heimaey.

http://danny.oz.au/travel/iceland/ has some photos of Heimaey as it looks today.