Snæfellsjökull

Snæfellsjökull (1446 m) is a stratovolcano with a glacial cap at the tip of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in W-Iceland. It is one of the best known mountains in Iceland, not least due to Jules Verne's story, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, which started at the top of the mountain (as did the recent eponymus Brendan Fraser movie, although it will hardly be considered a classic like Verne's novel). About 30-40 eruptions are known to have occurred in the mountain and associated vents in its flanks since the end of the last glacial age, some 10,000 years ago, including two or three explosive eruptions in the cone itself. The last eruption was some 1,800 years ago, 700 years before the settlement of Iceland. Scientists do not consider Snæfellsjökull to be an extinct volcano, however, although the likelihood of an eruption soon are slim. This view is over farmland and grazing land from the east, the mount to the left is Stapafell.