Reykjanes

Reykjanes is a peninsula and a volcanic system situated at the south-western end of Iceland, near the capital of Reykjavík.

The peninsula is marked by active volcanism under its surface, and large lava fields, allowing little vegetation.

Reykjanes is a very important region from a geological point. It is created on the boundaries between Europe and America where the occean plates drift from each other. Thus Iceland expands as Europe and America grow apart from each other. The Reykjanes peninsula draws it´s name from Reykjanes on the southwest corner of the peninsula, which Suðurnes is a part of. At the end of tha last ice age there was a series of eruptions which lasted for a long time andi n fact it´s the main foundation of the landscape as it is today. All this laca is very visible today and it covers the land from the point of Reykjanes to Hafnarfjörður, but are though partly covered by more recent lava which has flowed through the ages. The older lava is very fractured because of earthquakes and continental drift.

Four fissures are on the peninsula; Reykjanes-, Krýsuvíkur-, Brennisteinsfjalla- and Hengilsfissures. Each of them consists of hundreds of open fissures. Then there is multiple of craters and chains of craters. Craters which we can see on Reykjanes are lava domes like for example Þráinsskjöldur on Strandaheiði, or lapillicraters like Búrfell at Hafnarfjörður and tephracrters like Grænavatn at Krýsuvík.

The Reykjanes peninsula is on an active volcanic area and o nit are many geothermal areas and the principal are on the point of Reykjanes, Svartsengi, Trölladyngja andi n Krýsuvík. The main features of geothermal areas are diversity on colors. The clay gives a brown and white color, the fools´s gold seems dark grey, the sulphur has a beautiful yellow texture and the copper amalgamation are blue green. Fumaroles are common on the peninsula and tehy sometimes erupt with bluegrey clay splatters. On the Reykjanes peninsula the sea has infiltrated the earth and has heated up. There are many fissures and cracks on the peninsula andi n some of them there is natural growth such as brackens. There are big lava lanes where the lava has flowed in channels like Búrfellsgjá and the crater at Lágafell. The peninsula is marked by motions of crust where fault can be found f.e. on háabjalli and Hrafnagjá.