 The
Kverkfjoll Mountains are at the northern edge of the icecap Vatnajökull.
Mts Kverkfjoll contain two vast calderas. The southern caldera is
ice-filled, but the rims of the northern caldera are mostly ice-free.
The highest part of the rims is the Skarphedin's Peak (1936m).
Mts
Kverkfjoll are divided into eastern and western halves by the Kverk, a
wide pass between the steep, rocky walls. Glacier Kverkjokull flows
through the Kverk pass. Massive glacier snouts extend from the icecap on
both sides of Mts Kverkfjoll.
Kverkfjallarani
consists of 5-6 parallel hyaloclastite ridges. The glacial river Kreppa
flows through an ice-filled valley, discharging the western edge of the
Bruarjokull glacier. Another glacial river, Jokulsa á Fjollum,
discharges the western part the Dyngjujokull glaciers just west of Mts
Kverkfjoll, but further west, other branches disappear into sanded lava
fields.
Routes
into the area
Ancient
sources and legends suggest that people travelled across the icecap in
medieval times. The route of those travelling south most likely passed
just east of Mts Kverkfjoll until it fell into disuse for centuries on
end. The Mts Kverkfjoll
area was first revisited during the latter part of the 19th
century, and in 1910 a German geologist, Trautz, was the first to climb
the mountains.
The glacial river Kreppa was bridged in 1970, and a track through
Krepputunga, across the Hvannalindir area and through
Pass Kverkhnjukaskard to Mts Kverkfjoll was opened. The Tourist
Association’s hut, Sigurdarskali, was built at the foot of Mt
Virkisfell in the summer of 1971. It is the result of the combined
effort of the touring associations of
Fljotsdalsherad, Vopnafjordur and Husavik.
The Icelandic Glaceological Society built a hut on the third highest
mountain of the country just above the so-called "Hot-spring Valley"
high up in the snowy mountain slopes.
Geology
The
enormous central volcano, Mts Kverkfjoll are located at and within the
northern edge of the icecap Vatnajokull.
They are a part of the active volcanic zone, extending to the
Oxarfiord Bay and the Melrakkasletta peninsula in the north and
Grimsvotn, Hekla and the Vestman Islands in the south.. Mts Kverkfjoll
extend southwest into the Vatnajökull ice cap, and Kverkfjallarani is
clearly visible as a gigantic row of peaks extending 30 kilometres to
the northeast from Mts Kverkfjoll. They were created mostly by about 40
volcanic eruptions during the last Ice Age. A great number of fissures
in the Kverkfjallarani shows, where they occurred. The Lindahraun lava
field, less than 2800 years old, is probably the most recent. The hills
in the Kverkfjoll range are to a large extent covered in black and
reddish scoria from nearby volcanic fissures.
During the past centuries, great floods of River Jokulsa á
Fjollum often followed volcanic eruptions in Mts Kverkfjoll and under
the Dyngjujokull glacier. A deluge of catastrophic proportions about
2,000 years ago is attributed to eruptions in this area or in Mt.
Bardarbunga further west.
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