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Bjarnarflag is a high
temperature area situated west of the Namaskard Pass in the
Myvatnssveit County. Eruptions occurred there during the periods
between 1725 and 1728, when the Jardbadsholar crater row was created,
and between 1975-1984, when the whole area was very tectonically
active, and in 1977, a little magma found its way to the surface
through one of the boreholes. Potatoes were cultivated in the warm
soil from the year 1930. This endeavour had to be abandoned soon
because of parasites.
In 1939 a factory house was build to process sulphur.
It burned down before work started in the sulphur mines. In
1968, a few boreholes were sunk there to supply steam for a
2,265 MW power station. Both the electricity and the steam
were used to manufacture diatomite in one of the most hideous
factory ever built in this country.
During the most resent tectonic
period, fissures created there swallowed the winter supplies of raw
materials of the factory and damaged its houses severely. The
earthquakes also damaged the boreholes and diminished their capacity
considerably, and fissures cut the
roads. |