The Surtsey eruption is one of the first things I remember seeing on the TV- the children's programme Blue Peter I think. It left a lasting impression. Totally understandable that your experience led to life long interest!
This and Surtsey emerging definitely also left its mark on the people of the Faroe Islands. I remember people older than me talking about it so it must have been well covered, not just on the radio but also by Faroese men who either worked in Iceland or worked on fishing vessels which would call port in Iceland. Great video, Gylfi. Looking forward to the new aerial shots. I'm interested in seeing how much erosion has taken place since 1998.
To go filming there will be such fun since I have many good areal photos and I love this before after work, it's a story of it's own, and thanks for visiting :)
I appreciate this. When I was in the Navy I learned about this from an icelandic officer in the Keflavik fire dept. I was also very interested in Puffin. A year later I took a flight to Vestmannaeyjar. It was raining and couldn't see a thing so I hiked to a small cave above town to get out of the weather, bivouac and went to sleep. In the morning I could see the Volcano, I went to climb later in the day) and beautiful Puffin were all around flying back with fish and standing outside Burrows. That day was very healing and was an adventure I will never forget. Iceland... something happens to you when you go to that magical place!
A fine example of your skills with video and presentation. This is fantastic to learn of and your personal experience brings us all into the story. Thank you Gylfi!
I remember that happening. I was 11 at the time! Was very interesting to me and sparked an interest in Volcanoes and Earthquakes that I still have today. Thanks Gylfi! Keep up the great work. Always something worth watching! 😁✌️💪☕
It was seared into my memory when i saw the immensity of the challenge to save the island and the vent behind the houses was spectacular and like you i too have a passion for everything geological for i respect raw nature unlike most who dismiss it at there peril
I was 7 years old and remember watching this on the news. It turns out there was a lot going on in the world at that time, yet this made the news in Jackson, Mississippi in the USA.
Thank you so much for posting this video. I remember watching this on the news (in the UK) when it happened & the great battle to save the harbour. I didn't realise the fissure was so long, the tv pictures focussed on the streets & houses. I have been fascinated by volcanoes ever since & now with the internet I'm able to find & follow eruptions around the world. Thanks again for all your hard work in bringing such interesting stories & videos about your wonderful country to TH-cam to share. 🙂👍
I was 11 when this happened and I remember we were all stunned by the images on the news. One of our teachers at school had connections in Iceland and we had a fundraiser to try and help out. I visited a few years ago to close the circle and learned a whole lot more about what happened during and after. I also finally learned how to pronounce "Heimaey" properly!
My first memories of a place called Iceland, I remember seeing these reports of the eruption on TV. The Fischer-Spassky chess matches also helped put Iceland on my World Map
I met Bobby Fisher in my store in Reykjavík the day after he came from Japan to live in Iceland for the rest of his life :) that was something different :)
@@JustIcelandic I understand he was quite the character, the owner of Krua Thai (I think that was the name of the restaurant) said he used to stop in for take out now and again. I think he’s buried in Selfoss?
I clearly remember watching the TV news coverage of this eruption with my parents in 1973, half a world away from Iceland. It created my first spark of interest in geology that eventually resulted in an exciting career as a geologist. Thank you for sharing your excellent coverage of this rememberable event!
Thanks a ton :) I will go to Vestmannaeyjar next summer, I want to do more before - after tricks, it's such a story in such footage, Vestmannaeyjar is a fantastic place :)
I visited the eruption museum there in 2019, a very impressive display, with a partially excavated house (also a big friendly ginger cat that welcomed all us visitors).
Another excellent video Gylfi. I remember watching updates each day as a child on children's BBC TV. And as someone else has posted here, this was my first introduction to Iceland, other than looking at an atlas. Very evocative images and it makes me want to visit the island. Thank you for your wonderful videos.
Wow. Already been 50 years since the eruption of Eldfell. Was visiting Vestmannaeyjar only few a months back. Not much volcanic activity there except the heat emanating from some of the vents on the east top rim of the crater. Thanks for sharing!
I really love the direction your content has headed and I want to say I am grateful that you put this together with your own style. with the image blending and the information, I learned a few things today. from Australia thank you.
Fabulous - thank you Gylfi! We remember learning about this amazing event at the old "Volcano Show" in Reykjavik way back in 1991, our first time in Iceland. Finally, in June 2021, our 4th time in Iceland, we got to visit Heimaey for a day. We loved it. We took a 2-hour small bus tour around the island. The guide was a local, and as we were driving up to Eldfell crater, he told us that his grandparents' house was buried under the lava from that 1973 eruption. It was beautiful and peaceful at the crater and hard to believe the destruction that occurred 50 years ago. We hope to go back to Heimaey and stay overnight to have more time for hiking and other things. We really enjoy your videos, Gylfi. Please keep them coming.
What a fascinating video, Gylfi. Thank you for the time and effort you take in putting these videos together. The overlays make it so much easier to visualize what happened and all the houses that were lost. The Icelandic people are strong and resilient.
We visited Heimaey in 2019. It was a beautiful adventure we will never forget. John McPhee, the American essayist, wrote about the events of 1973 in his book "The Control of Nature". It was his article that pointed us toward our trip to the Westman Islands. Thank you for this video reminder of the courage and resourcefulness of these people who persevered through this eruption and the many months that followed.
I remember this, i was 10 at the time, but i think i was so fascinated because it was probably the first time i had even seen a volcano erupting on TV. I even remember seeing footage of the lava blasting up behind the house and the people being evacuated and wondering why they were all dressed like choir boys in white gowns. I even remember my Dad saying how pointless it was to spray water on it. I don't remember what he said when he found out it worked.
Love the Way they found out to pour water, on the lava to stop it and change direction, to save that harbour - Thats pretty bright ✨💡✨ I was two years then, But we had about this eruption in School years later.. 🌋
I remember the images of the people fighting the lava to save what they could. Very impressive the way Icelanders live with the constant threat, not sit in despair but act to save as much as possible.
A very good video with all the visual effects of this volcano & scenes of the town & fishermen together with interesting facts. Thank you from England, UK. 🇬🇧🌋🔥🏔️
An amazing journey and narrative - beautifully blending the old with the new and giving us a real taster of what you must have gone through. Thanks a lot.
So looking forward to your continuing coverage of Heimaey Island story, especially with your most excellent drone work. As a child I was fascinated by both the 1973 eruption, and the 1963 Surtsey Island formation. Like you, these events served to ignite (so to speak) a lifetime fascination with the processes that shape our planet. A top highlight of my 2021 trip to your wonderful island was a perfect-weather day on Heimaey, including a walk to the top of Eldfell.
I can't imagine how hard this would have been for the towns people. After all the footage we watched from La Palmer at least we have an idea. I'm really looking forward to learning more about this eruption. The footage you showed was tantalising...
There is an excellent film on Vimeo called “Living With Lava”. It’s about Icelandic eruptions recounted by people who lived through it. It’s excellent, I highly recommend it.
I remember seeing Surtsey erupt on tv here in the UK and that started my love of volcanoes (along with Jules Verne) so it's nice to hear your memories. Thank you
I love this video! I watched the documentary about this and it’s so fascinating to me. I still can’t believe how much ash there was! I love the before and after maps! I wish that was done on all volcanos and earthquake disasters. You really get the idea of just how devastating it was and it’s still amazing to me only 1 person died during that. Icelandic people are tough! I guess living there you would need to be though. I hope you do more videos like this or along these lines. I love to see old satellite photos along with new and old photos and video compared to new .
Remember this eruption being covered extensively in Life, Time and National Geographic magazines. PS - The 2021 eruption at the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma and scenes of ash covered business, houses and banana plantations brought the Icelandic eruption to mind.
Great video! The aerial overlays were especially interesting and informative - something I hadn't seen before. Believe it or not, we may have been neighbors at one time. I lived in Vestmannaeyjar from the spring of 1974 to the summer of '75, working at Vinnslustodin and then on a fishing boat named Stigandi. When back in port I had a voucher to eat in the cafeteria at Isfelag. Very memorable were those days, and one of the best experiences of my life. Thanks again for your many interesting videos and stories.
My father was stationed in Keflavik with the US Navy in 1973. He supported the evacuation effort by flying out sheep and appliances. He also filmed the volcano from the air and ground. A video of his experience can be seen here th-cam.com/video/FoKVud8ZzgM/w-d-xo.html
This is actually a nice piece of history!!!! I'm bookmarking it and will link to it when I do my own coverage, with many thanks from Iceland for keeping this :)
Thank you. I really liked the overlapped pictures. I went through Grindavik and noticed those houses and now I know why they are there. Didnt expect that. :)
This eruption was one of the case studies we used in the volcanoes section of my Geologic Hazards course! As always, you give an excellent presentation of the event - I'm pretty sure you would have had the highest marks in the class with this! ;)
I remember watching TV coverage at the time and particularly the hoses spraying water to cool and divert the lava flow from blocking the harbour; I was already interested in geology even before then. I visited Heimaey last year and now have a tiny piece of the lava. Everyone off the ferry went whale and puffin watching and some for hikes to the top of the volcano, I was the only person to be seen venturing through the lava field and down to the front of the lava flow. I even recognised part of the flow from I course I had done on 'Volcanic Risks in Iceland and New Zealand'. Also went to the top of the volcano where there's a few small vents of hot gas at the very top.
@@JustIcelandic great trip although the main purpose was to see the eruption which decided to finish four days before I arrived!! I could've cancelled but decided to visit anyway and loved it. So hopefully I will be visiting again but next time I'm on a plane the second a new eruption starts (hopefully somewhere accessible for a bus tour) as I missed the first one too.
Thank you for showimg this most interresting film! i have early tv-memories from that year i was only about four years old and ahalf went it stopped! ive understood some years back that my fascination and liking of the colour yellow , and orange , it has always been my favorite colour since then! it must have changed my imagination , that early age .
Hallo😃Das Video hier ist sehr interessant zu sehen für nicht! Sehr gute Aufnahmen von einst und jetzt! Ich war einmal zu Besuch auf einer Rundreise durch Island, und jetzt konnte ich alles hier „live“ sehen! 👍 Wünsche euch alles Gute für 2023🤗
I was in the US Navy stationed in Keflavik when this happened and was one of the volunteers who went out to help. I remember climbing up the side of the old volcano and looking across to the active one and feeling the heat on my face. My interest in photography started with that trip, because my little Kodak Instamatic camera just wasn't up to the task of capturing the eruptions. One day I'll get back for a visit.
Great video. Like others, I recall B&W BBC TV film of the eruption, and the evacuation, when I was 9. I visited in 2013, via the new ferry port, on a minibus tour. It was so interesting. They’d just begun to excavate some of the houses, 6 or so I think.
I remember using Readers Digest articles about the Westman Islands and Surtsey eruptions on my volcano project in 1975. I still remember the images, especially the townsfolk trying to shovel ash off their roofs.
Yes this was such a huge event and I believe the islands will get way more attention in future since they started to move seriously into tourism, but it wasn't on the mind the first decates after this major shock
excellent video today! it always fascinates me the differences between the before and after of eruptions. its truly seeing the evidence of our Living World 😀
😢Wonderful job, captivating! I can highly recommend any volcano curious people to visit Westman Islands and the excellent, just excellent Eldheimar Museum. Then exit the museum, turn left, hike up 200m to the peak of Eldfell. Survey the panorama of the town and seascape below you. Consider that the mountain you are standing on is only 50 years old (in my case, a mountain younger than me- which is just silly). Take a scoop or two of earth by the base of one of the alien fumaroles up there and feel the heat. Sobering. It’s not history. It isn’t over yet!
Have you ever seen the film “Living With Lava”? It’s a recounting of various eruptions in Iceland told from the point of view of the people who lived through it, the Westman account is especially poignant. You can find it on Vimeo, DEFINITELY worth the watch, it’s so good!
I went there last summer. Wanted to go two days but ofcourse like everytime something was going on, a football tournament so there was no place to stay and only 4 hours to be on the island as all ferry rides were fully booked except for the ones I could go on. So I went without car and enjoyed absolutely beautiful weather, warm and no wind. Learned all about the island in a guided tour as I couldnt do everything by walking. Sad to hear they killed all animals on the island during the eruption as they couldnt be evacuated and just in case the eruption would be worse than expected. I wanted to move there, but then I didnt want to sacrifice my horses if an eruption would happen again so I changed my mind. Still love it there though, highly recommend it. Will try again at some point to go, because many places were not open before 13.00 and I had to go back to mainland at 14.00
The island requires plenty of time to do it properly so if I would have jumped on the ferry last summer, I knew it would only make me more frustrated, not to have the time to do it fully, so I skipped it :) But I think it's one of the most intenrassant places in Iceland to visit, stuffed with history and geological formations, and then it's the strange islanders, cant be better :)
I remember hearing the story when I was a youth living in Los Angeles, California, USA. I did not realize at the time that the eruption was on a small offshore island. The concept of stopping a lava flow using firehoses didn't seem very likely to suceed.
I was lucky enough to visit in '74 or '75 when I was 12 or 13. It was a long time ago and I can't remember which year it was. I do remember that about half of the ash and cinders on the hill on the opposite side of the harbour had been cleared. I stood on/near the closed fissure and the ground was still warm to the touch. The guide told us that the temperature was still at 100C at a depth of 1 metre.
Thanks for sharing this awesome footage. It resembles the Fagradalsfjall eruption a bit although that was smaller. I guess Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 is the same system ?
I remember watching the IMAX film that was made about this eruption. It's too bad that the IMAX company has let these older productions disappear as the 70mm format really put you right there. All you see online are dated TV footage in 240p or worse. An IMAX original scanned in 4K would be epic.
I love the overlay of the maps. It really helps to understand how the harbor was at risk. I also didn't know about the success of the battle for the harbor. I am wonder if people today would still have the courage to try. I hope so, but I have my doubts.
I remember it well, I saw the most amazing video of the whole story, from the first image of fire splitting the ground, in the back garden of a house. It’s fascinating to see what has changed. We had been given a book about Surtsey not long after the eruption. OMG, what a country! No wonder it was thought to be the moth of hell in the Middle Ages. (Maybe it is!)
Bbc in the uk did a show about it. Volcano live. It was a 4 part show, but did a separate show about iceland; it was fascinating. The volcanologists Maurice and kattia kraft were there, they were watching that eruption...
This struggle to save the harbour of westman is seared into my memory even though i was only 8 years old i remember it like it was yesterday it was my first time i seen a volcanic venting fissure The experience seeing the fissure spewing rock ,ash,lava, behind the houses it towered above those houses like they where match boxes in comparison it was all inspiring to me That's why i think i have always had a love for everything geology geologic in nature i notice strata from every geological age everywhere i go for i know volcanic processes had a hand in most of its creation The islanders never gave up and neither did i in the wish that they saved there harbour to carry on there way of life?
Thank you, friend. I didn't see this one. Now I've forgotten my question... I'm looking forward to your next film on this island. I left my family home as a teen also, but soon returned. Twice. Finally, in 1974 at twenty I managed to get away and discovered a way to support myself. A job! That's what I was going to ask -- how far from the hot spot are the islands?
a question I always had, could tremors outside the Reykjanes Peninsula affect the separation of plates within the Peninsula? For example, there were some tremors of +4.0 magnitude these days in the sea on the path of plate separation that Iceland is on, these could influence a new eruption close to Fagradasfjall and Grindavik?
This is actually a question I would like to ask our experts, however, it's all the same plate boundaries and unrest outside the peninsula tends to migrate onshore so this is all linked
My grandparents lived there when it happened and they had to evacuate. My mom was also about 2 years old. I remember they told me they felt an earthquake and then they looked out the window when they heard a strange soumd outside and there was a volcano😅
Hello Gylfi, I just read about the underwater volcano Kolombus near Santorini, which last erupted in 1760, they say the magma chamber now at 1.4 kubic kilometers. Do you have anything like that in Iceland? How many known underwater volcanoes do you have in Iceland?
It's somewhat hard to define the underwater volcanoes, then I mean each and every one, and impossible I think, however, there are 3 places where we get such eruptions, by Westman island, the Reykjanes peninsula and by the north coast but it's less of them there, On average, we get such eruptions every 100 yrs or so, but some are hard to locate perfectly so this remind a kind uf underworld to our scientists :)
Burned on your hard drive, was that back in 1973? The first hard drive I worked on in 1977 was a large 50 pound cabinet with a 40 MB cylinder pack of 6 12 inches plates and several thousand dollars (and had to be kept in a cool air conditioned room).
You are a treasure in how you are able to share Iceland with us viewers. Thank you for your hard work and skills.
So nice of you and thanks a ton :)
@@JustIcelandic I agree. Awesome videos. Thanks dude.
The Surtsey eruption is one of the first things I remember seeing on the TV- the children's programme Blue Peter I think. It left a lasting impression. Totally understandable that your experience led to life long interest!
Thank you :) and greetings fro the north :)
Fascinating! Can't wait to see the whole project! Also, the kid on the pedal-powered excavator was adorable!
I agree, it was a great shot of the kid, had to include it :)
@@JustIcelandic The Icelandic people: “Hookayyy….time to get out the ‘dozers….here’s yours, kid.” So cute. I love the videos you’ve made on this.
Well-presented sir! When I was a boy, my mother called me to the TV to watch the island of Surtsey being born. Epic. Cheers.
Cheers :) and greetings from Iceland
This and Surtsey emerging definitely also left its mark on the people of the Faroe Islands. I remember people older than me talking about it so it must have been well covered, not just on the radio but also by Faroese men who either worked in Iceland or worked on fishing vessels which would call port in Iceland. Great video, Gylfi. Looking forward to the new aerial shots. I'm interested in seeing how much erosion has taken place since 1998.
To go filming there will be such fun since I have many good areal photos and I love this before after work, it's a story of it's own, and thanks for visiting :)
My mother was one of the evacuees, so this video serves as a fascinating reminder of an event that occurred before I was born. Kærar þakkir!
Thanks and welcome :)
What an interesting history lesson! I look so forward to what's yet to come from you on this project of yours!
Thanks a lot and greetings from Iceland :)
Thanks for that piece of history.
Welcome :)
I appreciate this. When I was in the Navy I learned about this from an icelandic officer in the Keflavik fire dept. I was also very interested in Puffin.
A year later I took a flight to Vestmannaeyjar. It was raining and couldn't see a thing so I hiked to a small cave above town to get out of the weather, bivouac and went to sleep. In the morning I could see the Volcano, I went to climb later in the day) and beautiful Puffin were all around flying back with fish and standing outside Burrows.
That day was very healing and was an adventure I will never forget. Iceland... something happens to you when you go to that magical place!
Seems almost trite to say, but I believe that little island will cast a spell on anyone who visits.
Thank you for sharing and greetings from Iceland :)
A fine example of your skills with video and presentation. This is fantastic to learn of and your personal experience brings us all into the story. Thank you Gylfi!
Thank you very much :)
I remember that happening. I was 11 at the time! Was very interesting to me and sparked an interest in Volcanoes and Earthquakes that I still have today. Thanks Gylfi! Keep up the great work. Always something worth watching! 😁✌️💪☕
Thanks for sharing!
It was seared into my memory when i saw the immensity of the challenge to save the island and the vent behind the houses was spectacular and like you i too have a passion for everything geological for i respect raw nature unlike most who dismiss it at there peril
I was 7 years old and remember watching this on the news. It turns out there was a lot going on in the world at that time, yet this made the news in Jackson, Mississippi in the USA.
You're very welcome and thanks for sharing :)
Thank you so much for posting this video. I remember watching this on the news (in the UK) when it happened & the great battle to save the harbour. I didn't realise the fissure was so long, the tv pictures focussed on the streets & houses.
I have been fascinated by volcanoes ever since & now with the internet I'm able to find & follow eruptions around the world.
Thanks again for all your hard work in bringing such interesting stories & videos about your wonderful country to TH-cam to share. 🙂👍
You're very welcome and thanks for sharing :)
I remember this clearly we were glued to the info and messages from family in Iceland.. My husband used to work there.
Thanks for sharing and welcome :)
I was 11 when this happened and I remember we were all stunned by the images on the news. One of our teachers at school had connections in Iceland and we had a fundraiser to try and help out. I visited a few years ago to close the circle and learned a whole lot more about what happened during and after. I also finally learned how to pronounce "Heimaey" properly!
Thanks for sharing and greetings from Iceland :)
My first memories of a place called Iceland, I remember seeing these reports of the eruption on TV. The Fischer-Spassky chess matches also helped put Iceland on my World Map
I met Bobby Fisher in my store in Reykjavík the day after he came from Japan to live in Iceland for the rest of his life :) that was something different :)
@@JustIcelandic I understand he was quite the character, the owner of Krua Thai (I think that was the name of the restaurant) said he used to stop in for take out now and again. I think he’s buried in Selfoss?
I clearly remember watching the TV news coverage of this eruption with my parents in 1973, half a world away from Iceland. It created my first spark of interest in geology that eventually resulted in an exciting career as a geologist. Thank you for sharing your excellent coverage of this rememberable event!
Thanks a ton :) I will go to Vestmannaeyjar next summer, I want to do more before - after tricks, it's such a story in such footage, Vestmannaeyjar is a fantastic place :)
I visited the eruption museum there in 2019, a very impressive display, with a partially excavated house (also a big friendly ginger cat that welcomed all us visitors).
Thanks and welcome :)
Excellent.
Many thanks!
Another excellent video Gylfi. I remember watching updates each day as a child on children's BBC TV. And as someone else has posted here, this was my first introduction to Iceland, other than looking at an atlas. Very evocative images and it makes me want to visit the island.
Thank you for your wonderful videos.
Thank you and greetings from Iceland :)
Wow, that was truly exceptional how resourceful and determined they were to keep the lava at bay, lol or in this case, away from the bay!
Absolutely!
Thanks for stopping by :)
Wow. Already been 50 years since the eruption of Eldfell. Was visiting Vestmannaeyjar only few a months back. Not much volcanic activity there except the heat emanating from some of the vents on the east top rim of the crater. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the info and always welcome to Iceland :)
I really love the direction your content has headed and I want to say I am grateful that you put this together with your own style. with the image blending and the information, I learned a few things today. from Australia thank you.
I appreciate that! and always welcome :)
Fabulous - thank you Gylfi! We remember learning about this amazing event at the old "Volcano Show" in Reykjavik way back in 1991, our first time in Iceland. Finally, in June 2021, our 4th time in Iceland, we got to visit Heimaey for a day. We loved it. We took a 2-hour small bus tour around the island. The guide was a local, and as we were driving up to Eldfell crater, he told us that his grandparents' house was buried under the lava from that 1973 eruption. It was beautiful and peaceful at the crater and hard to believe the destruction that occurred 50 years ago. We hope to go back to Heimaey and stay overnight to have more time for hiking and other things. We really enjoy your videos, Gylfi. Please keep them coming.
Thanks a lot for sharing this story, and yes, Heimaey need time to digest, such a drama and welcome to Iceland anytime :)
What a fascinating video, Gylfi. Thank you for the time and effort you take in putting these videos together. The overlays make it so much easier to visualize what happened and all the houses that were lost. The Icelandic people are strong and resilient.
Many thanks!
We visited Heimaey in 2019. It was a beautiful adventure we will never forget. John McPhee, the American essayist, wrote about the events of 1973 in his book "The Control of Nature". It was his article that pointed us toward our trip to the Westman Islands. Thank you for this video reminder of the courage and resourcefulness of these people who persevered through this eruption and the many months that followed.
Thank you for sharing and welcome :)
I remember this, i was 10 at the time, but i think i was so fascinated because it was probably the first time i had even seen a volcano erupting on TV. I even remember seeing footage of the lava blasting up behind the house and the people being evacuated and wondering why they were all dressed like choir boys in white gowns. I even remember my Dad saying how pointless it was to spray water on it. I don't remember what he said when he found out it worked.
Thanks for sharing and greetings from Iceland :)
Love the Way they found out to pour water, on the lava to stop it and change direction, to save that harbour
- Thats pretty bright ✨💡✨
I was two years then, But we had about this eruption in School years later.. 🌋
Thanks and welcome :)
I remember the images of the people fighting the lava to save what they could. Very impressive the way Icelanders live with the constant threat, not sit in despair but act to save as much as possible.
Thank you and welcome :)
A very good video with all the visual effects of this volcano & scenes of the town & fishermen together with interesting facts. Thank you from England, UK. 🇬🇧🌋🔥🏔️
Glad you enjoyed it
An amazing journey and narrative - beautifully blending the old with the new and giving us a real taster of what you must have gone through.
Thanks a lot.
Many thanks!
Greetings from southern New Zealand. Yes this is an incredible tale of Icelandic resilience. Thank you for sharing
Thanks for watching :)
So looking forward to your continuing coverage of Heimaey Island story, especially with your most excellent drone work. As a child I was fascinated by both the 1973 eruption, and the 1963 Surtsey Island formation. Like you, these events served to ignite (so to speak) a lifetime fascination with the processes that shape our planet. A top highlight of my 2021 trip to your wonderful island was a perfect-weather day on Heimaey, including a walk to the top of Eldfell.
Many thanks Mark and thank you for sharing :)
I can't imagine how hard this would have been for the towns people.
After all the footage we watched from La Palmer at least we have an idea.
I'm really looking forward to learning more about this eruption. The footage you showed was tantalising...
There is an excellent film on Vimeo called “Living With Lava”. It’s about Icelandic eruptions recounted by people who lived through it. It’s excellent, I highly recommend it.
@@wtglb thanks!
I will watch it 👍
@@petramitchell7162 let me know what you think or have trouble finding it in Vimeo 👍🏻
Recommended :)
Thanks for stopping by :)
Wow that's so much to take in.... never realised this happened in 1973! Thank you!
You're very welcome
I remember seeing Surtsey erupt on tv here in the UK and that started my love of volcanoes (along with Jules Verne) so it's nice to hear your memories. Thank you
Thanks and always welcome :)
Wonderful video and reminder of that eruption. Best of the best! Always able to learn something different and new on your channel!
Many thanks 👍
Your videos are fantastic. As someone who fell in love with iceland the first time I went there, I find them incredibly informative.
Great to hear :) and highly appreciated with best regards from Iceland
i love the vids you put out glad to see iceland in all its beauty during the winter snows
More to come soon :)
Yes, I can still remember seeing this in the news as a teenager. Oh my, how time goes by... :)
Moves fast indeed :)
I love this video! I watched the documentary about this and it’s so fascinating to me. I still can’t believe how much ash there was! I love the before and after maps! I wish that was done on all volcanos and earthquake disasters. You really get the idea of just how devastating it was and it’s still amazing to me only 1 person died during that. Icelandic people are tough! I guess living there you would need to be though. I hope you do more videos like this or along these lines. I love to see old satellite photos along with new and old photos and video compared to new .
Thanks a lot, you will see more image blending here, and greetings from Iceland :)
I was 12 when this happened and I remember the images of the struggle to keep the harbor.
Nice to see the changes this way.
Thanks a lot :) and welcome
Remember this eruption being covered extensively in Life, Time and National Geographic magazines.
PS - The 2021 eruption at the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Spanish island of La Palma and scenes of ash covered business, houses and banana plantations brought the Icelandic eruption to mind.
Thanks for sharing 😊
I remember that from when I lived in Michigan and was in second year of college. Fascinating video. Thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it :)
Great video! The aerial overlays were especially interesting and informative - something I hadn't seen before. Believe it or not, we may have been neighbors at one time. I lived in Vestmannaeyjar from the spring of 1974 to the summer of '75, working at Vinnslustodin and then on a fishing boat named Stigandi. When back in port I had a voucher to eat in the cafeteria at Isfelag. Very memorable were those days, and one of the best experiences of my life. Thanks again for your many interesting videos and stories.
I was actually later there working, but I worked in Fiskiðjan and thanks for sharing and greetings from Iceland :)
@@JustIcelandic Cheers and greetings from the U.S. East Coast!
Fascinating, thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it
My father was stationed in Keflavik with the US Navy in 1973. He supported the evacuation effort by flying out sheep and appliances. He also filmed the volcano from the air and ground. A video of his experience can be seen here th-cam.com/video/FoKVud8ZzgM/w-d-xo.html
This is actually a nice piece of history!!!! I'm bookmarking it and will link to it when I do my own coverage, with many thanks from Iceland for keeping this :)
Very interesting! Fascinating! Thank you very much.
Thank you too!
Awesome video, take care and thank you for sharing 👍🙏❤️
Thanks for visiting
Awesome to learn of the history Gylfi, great video ❤
Thanks so much!
Thank you. I really liked the overlapped pictures. I went through Grindavik and noticed those houses and now I know why they are there. Didnt expect that. :)
Glad you enjoyed it and welcome :)
This eruption was one of the case studies we used in the volcanoes section of my Geologic Hazards course! As always, you give an excellent presentation of the event - I'm pretty sure you would have had the highest marks in the class with this! ;)
As for visuals, this is was the eruption of the century and what a sight it must have been, but no drones back then though.
I remember watching TV coverage at the time and particularly the hoses spraying water to cool and divert the lava flow from blocking the harbour; I was already interested in geology even before then. I visited Heimaey last year and now have a tiny piece of the lava. Everyone off the ferry went whale and puffin watching and some for hikes to the top of the volcano, I was the only person to be seen venturing through the lava field and down to the front of the lava flow. I even recognised part of the flow from I course I had done on 'Volcanic Risks in Iceland and New Zealand'. Also went to the top of the volcano where there's a few small vents of hot gas at the very top.
Thanks for sharing, hope you had a great trip and greetings from Iceland :)
@@JustIcelandic great trip although the main purpose was to see the eruption which decided to finish four days before I arrived!! I could've cancelled but decided to visit anyway and loved it.
So hopefully I will be visiting again but next time I'm on a plane the second a new eruption starts (hopefully somewhere accessible for a bus tour) as I missed the first one too.
Thank you once again for a fantastic video. Your content is first class
Much appreciated!
Thank you for showimg this most interresting film! i have early tv-memories from that year i was only about four years old and ahalf went it stopped! ive understood some years back that my fascination and liking of the colour yellow , and orange , it has always been my favorite colour since then! it must have changed my imagination , that early age .
Thank you for sharing, there seems to be quite an incredible number of people around the world who remember this event, and greetings from Iceland :)
Hallo😃Das Video hier ist sehr interessant zu sehen für nicht! Sehr gute Aufnahmen von einst und jetzt! Ich war einmal zu Besuch auf einer Rundreise durch Island, und jetzt konnte ich alles hier „live“ sehen! 👍
Wünsche euch alles Gute für 2023🤗
Thank you and greetings from Iceland :)
Sending you my best regards too, and looking forward to seeing your planned next summer drone videos.
Awesome, thank you!
I was in the US Navy stationed in Keflavik when this happened and was one of the volunteers who went out to help. I remember climbing up the side of the old volcano and looking across to the active one and feeling the heat on my face. My interest in photography started with that trip, because my little Kodak Instamatic camera just wasn't up to the task of capturing the eruptions. One day I'll get back for a visit.
"Kodak Instamatic" thats where I started :) and thank you for your help, and be very welcome to visit us again, with greetings from Iceland :)
wow
hard to imagine the evacuation
Yes I'm surprised why Hollywood didn't make a movie about this :)
I was only six so this is lovely to see!
Welcome :)
Great video. Like others, I recall B&W BBC TV film of the eruption, and the evacuation, when I was 9.
I visited in 2013, via the new ferry port, on a minibus tour. It was so interesting. They’d just begun to excavate some of the houses, 6 or so I think.
7:17 to 7:26 the loveliest earthworks operator I would ever know of !!!🌼
😊
I remember using Readers Digest articles about the Westman Islands and Surtsey eruptions on my volcano project in 1975. I still remember the images, especially the townsfolk trying to shovel ash off their roofs.
Yes this was such a huge event and I believe the islands will get way more attention in future since they started to move seriously into tourism, but it wasn't on the mind the first decates after this major shock
Had a chance to visit back in 1989. Great place. The ground was still quite hot in places.
Thanks fro sharing :) and welcome
Sounds fascinating. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for watching!
Very interesting. Thank you
Welcome :)
excellent video today! it always fascinates me the differences between the before and after of eruptions. its truly seeing the evidence of our Living World 😀
Glad you enjoyed it!
😢Wonderful job, captivating! I can highly recommend any volcano curious people to visit Westman Islands and the excellent, just excellent Eldheimar Museum. Then exit the museum, turn left, hike up 200m to the peak of Eldfell. Survey the panorama of the town and seascape below you. Consider that the mountain you are standing on is only 50 years old (in my case, a mountain younger than me- which is just silly). Take a scoop or two of earth by the base of one of the alien fumaroles up there and feel the heat. Sobering. It’s not history. It isn’t over yet!
Thank you for sharing this, I look forward to play around with a drone there and do more before / after images, exciting photo subject to work with :)
Have you ever seen the film “Living With Lava”? It’s a recounting of various eruptions in Iceland told from the point of view of the people who lived through it, the Westman account is especially poignant. You can find it on Vimeo, DEFINITELY worth the watch, it’s so good!
Yes it's online, I recommend it :)
I went there last summer. Wanted to go two days but ofcourse like everytime something was going on, a football tournament so there was no place to stay and only 4 hours to be on the island as all ferry rides were fully booked except for the ones I could go on. So I went without car and enjoyed absolutely beautiful weather, warm and no wind. Learned all about the island in a guided tour as I couldnt do everything by walking. Sad to hear they killed all animals on the island during the eruption as they couldnt be evacuated and just in case the eruption would be worse than expected. I wanted to move there, but then I didnt want to sacrifice my horses if an eruption would happen again so I changed my mind. Still love it there though, highly recommend it. Will try again at some point to go, because many places were not open before 13.00 and I had to go back to mainland at 14.00
The island requires plenty of time to do it properly so if I would have jumped on the ferry last summer, I knew it would only make me more frustrated, not to have the time to do it fully, so I skipped it :) But I think it's one of the most intenrassant places in Iceland to visit, stuffed with history and geological formations, and then it's the strange islanders, cant be better :)
Thanks for sharing this interesting story, and historic film footage. Icelandic people are true warriors when it comes to battling the elements.
My pleasure!
wow amazing shared
Thank you :)
Oh my goodness, another one! My Starter Volcano was MT St Helens... I was living in Eastern WA.
I remember hearing the story when I was a youth living in Los Angeles, California, USA. I did not realize at the time that the eruption was on a small offshore island. The concept of stopping a lava flow using firehoses didn't seem very likely to suceed.
Thanks and greetings from Iceland :)
Thank you for great video
Glad you enjoyed it
Wow, thanks!
My pleasure!
Excellent video!
Thank you very much!
I was lucky enough to visit in '74 or '75 when I was 12 or 13. It was a long time ago and I can't remember which year it was. I do remember that about half of the ash and cinders on the hill on the opposite side of the harbour had been cleared. I stood on/near the closed fissure and the ground was still warm to the touch. The guide told us that the temperature was still at 100C at a depth of 1 metre.
Yes it's what the used to heat house the next 30-40 years and thanks for sharing, and welcome to Iceland :)
The movie Volcano (1997) is inspired in this eruption, also is cited there. Very good video!!
Thanks a lot, I'm checking out that movie! and always welcome...
I remember this on the news too.
Welcome :)
Thanks for sharing this awesome footage. It resembles the Fagradalsfjall eruption a bit although that was smaller. I guess Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 is the same system ?
I actually can't say at this moment, it's the topic of my longer version since this is one of the less known systems....and thanks for stopping by
I remember watching the IMAX film that was made about this eruption. It's too bad that the IMAX company has let these older productions disappear as the 70mm format really put you right there. All you see online are dated TV footage in 240p or worse. An IMAX original scanned in 4K would be epic.
I love the overlay of the maps. It really helps to understand how the harbor was at risk. I also didn't know about the success of the battle for the harbor. I am wonder if people today would still have the courage to try. I hope so, but I have my doubts.
Thank you extremely interesting, you have a stark but very beautiful landscape…dangerous to!
Many thanks
Good one!
Thanks!
I remember reading about this in the National Geographic as a boy and watching it on TV
Thank for visiting :)
Well that explains why all the webcams are pointing to the harbour. Great footage! :)
Many thanks!
I remember it well, I saw the most amazing video of the whole story, from the first image of fire splitting the ground, in the back garden of a house. It’s fascinating to see what has changed. We had been given a book about Surtsey not long after the eruption. OMG, what a country! No wonder it was thought to be the moth of hell in the Middle Ages. (Maybe it is!)
It was the volcano Hekla thats responsible for this reputation in Europe, and thanks for stopping by :)
I was in the Museum on the island, i can very recommend a visit.
Thanks for sharing :) and greetings from Iceland
I remember watching this on tv.
I remember when this happened. Unbelievable!
Yes i ned to cover this better later, i have still some unseen footage to present
Bbc in the uk did a show about it. Volcano live. It was a 4 part show, but did a separate show about iceland; it was fascinating. The volcanologists Maurice and kattia kraft were there, they were watching that eruption...
Thanks for sharing :)
This struggle to save the harbour of westman is seared into my memory even though i was only 8 years old i remember it like it was yesterday it was my first time i seen a volcanic venting fissure The experience seeing the fissure spewing rock ,ash,lava, behind the houses it towered above those houses like they where match boxes in comparison it was all inspiring to me That's why i think i have always had a love for everything geology geologic in nature i notice strata from every geological age everywhere i go for i know volcanic processes had a hand in most of its creation The islanders never gave up and neither did i in the wish that they saved there harbour to carry on there way of life?
Thank you, friend. I didn't see this one.
Now I've forgotten my question... I'm looking forward to your next film on this island.
I left my family home as a teen also, but soon returned. Twice. Finally, in 1974 at twenty I managed to get away and discovered a way to support myself. A job!
That's what I was going to ask -- how far from the hot spot are the islands?
Wow. I’ve known about this for a long time, but I’d never seen any video or saw the details about it.
Plenty online about this :)
a question I always had, could tremors outside the Reykjanes Peninsula affect the separation of plates within the Peninsula? For example, there were some tremors of +4.0 magnitude these days in the sea on the path of plate separation that Iceland is on, these could influence a new eruption close to Fagradasfjall and Grindavik?
This is actually a question I would like to ask our experts, however, it's all the same plate boundaries and unrest outside the peninsula tends to migrate onshore so this is all linked
My grandparents lived there when it happened and they had to evacuate. My mom was also about 2 years old. I remember they told me they felt an earthquake and then they looked out the window when they heard a strange soumd outside and there was a volcano😅
Thanks for sharing :)
Hello Gylfi, I just read about the underwater volcano Kolombus near Santorini, which last erupted in 1760, they say the magma chamber now at 1.4 kubic kilometers. Do you have anything like that in Iceland? How many known underwater volcanoes do you have in Iceland?
It's somewhat hard to define the underwater volcanoes, then I mean each and every one, and impossible I think, however, there are 3 places where we get such eruptions, by Westman island, the Reykjanes peninsula and by the north coast but it's less of them there, On average, we get such eruptions every 100 yrs or so, but some are hard to locate perfectly so this remind a kind uf underworld to our scientists :)
I remember this from when I was a child. Living on a peaceful island this looked like a glimpse into hell.
Burned on your hard drive, was that back in 1973? The first hard drive I worked on in 1977 was a large 50 pound cabinet with a 40 MB cylinder pack of 6 12 inches plates and several thousand dollars (and had to be kept in a cool air conditioned room).
Welcome :)