You can’t get away from the results of the Eldfell volcanic eruption. It’s visible all over the island. Most of our time walking around Heimaey, we were noticing the presence of the volcanic eruptions.

But first, a note about the eruptions and their fight to save the town and harbor. One Icelandic scientist came up with an idea that they could stop the flow of lava from the harbor and houses by spraying the lava flows with ice cold sea water. The scientific world thought he was crazy but the Icelandic government gave him a thumbs up. They wanted to save the harbor which is the best fishing port in Iceland. Anyway, the United States gave them something like 100 large pumps to pump the seawater on the flowing lava - and it worked. I have a friend, Tom Jenzen, who was in the Air Force at that time and remembered flying those pumps to Iceland in early 1973 on a C-141. US soldiers, returning from Vietnam, also helped in the efforts. Small world.

Join me on a walk around Heimaey.

This photo is from the lower portion of the volcano. The lava flowed right over some 300 to 400 houses which are now buried below here where I am standing to take this photo.

You can see that this house was right on the edge of where the lava stopped flowing. Their old neighbors houses are under the lava.

This is at the very bottom of the lava flow but it is still quite high. We are standing on top of the houses that were in this part of the island.

This house is the white house on the lower right in the photo above. This sign is in front of the house. You can also see this house in the photo on the sign and see that it was covered with ash during the eruptions, clear to the top of the house, but it survived.

Vicky is standing across the street from our hotel. You can see the Eldfell volcano cone in the background. The pole next to Vicky represents how high the volcanic ash was at this location. This ash was not like what we call ash. It was hard and chunky and had to be hauled away in dump trucks. The town used the ash to extend the airport runway and for the foundation for 200 new houses.