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Askja

Askja is a caldera and central volcano in the Dyngjufjöll mountains, north of Vatnajökull glacier. The caldera is a carved in bedrock located above a massive magma chamber, and is technically still ‘in the making’. Askja was virtually unknown until the tremendous eruption in the nineteenth century. In the massive eruption in 1875, the volcano erupted approximately 2 billion cubic meters of ash and pumice, and a new caldera was formed inside the older one. The caldera was filled with water through the following decades which now contains the 11 square kilometre Lake Öskjuvatn, one of the deepest lakes in Iceland (220m). Askja erupted a few times in the 1920s, but the latest eruption was in 1961.