Laki-- a fissure volcano that tears across the landscape for 17 miles. She last erupted in 1783, wiping out a fifth of Iceland's population. Hekla-- a menacing peak almost 5,000 feet high.

Island on Fire, by Alexandra Witze and Jeff Kanipe, was recently released in the U.S. It is an excellent book that tells the story of the 1783 eruption of the Laki fissures in Iceland, an event ...

We have even seen a number of these large-scale (>2 km ^3) fissure eruptions, including the Laki eruption, so another fissure eruption isn't out of the realm of possibility. None of these fissures ...

In April 2010, Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted, with ash from the event sweeping east towards United Kingdom and mainland Europe. Let alone trans-Atlantic flights, the eruption had ...

An enormous eruption of the Laki fissure system (a chain of volcanoes in which the lava erupts through a crack in the ground instead of from a single point) in Iceland caused the disruptions.

The Laki fissure system is a chain of volcanoes in which lava erupts through a crack in the ground instead of a single point. A hole in the ice above Grímsvötn Volcano, Iceland; formed during ...

IN JUNE 1783, lava and gases began pouring from the Laki fissure in Iceland in one of the biggest and most devastating eruptions in history. Poisonous gases and starvation killed a quarter of ...

Left: Part of the 16-mile-long Laki fissure today. When this volcanic ridge opened in 1783, altered weather patterns led to the greatest famine in Iceland's history.

Laki, a fissure in the basalt lava fields of Iceland's southeastern fringe embraces 140 volcanic vents that seem to march in a neat row, 27km long, towards massive Grmsvötn in the north-east.

Recently I was given a copy of New Scientist in which a photo of the Laki fissure in Iceland caught my attention (23 January, p 25). The fissure is the remnant of a massive volcanic event between ...