Heimaey

Heimaey
	Heimaey in February 2009. Looking north-east
Geography
Location	Iceland
Coordinates	63°26′N 20°16′W / 63.433°N 20.267°W
Archipelago	Vestmannaeyjar
Total islands	15
Area	13.4 km2 (5.2 sq mi)
Highest elevation	200 m (700 ft)
Highest point	Heimaklettur
Administration
	Iceland
Demographics
Population	4,500

Heimaey (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈheiːmaˌeiː] ^ⓘ), is an Icelandic island. At 13.4 square kilometres (5.2 sq mi), it is the largest island in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago, and the largest and most populated island off the Icelandic coast. Heimaey is 4 nautical miles (7.4 km; 4.6 mi) off the south coast of Iceland. It is the only populated island of the Vestmannaeyjar islands, with a population of 4,414.^[1] The Vestmannaeyjar Airport and the Westman Islands Golf Club taken together cover a good portion of the island.

Heimaey

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Heimaey off southwest Iceland

View from the Helgafell, looking north-west

In January 1973, lava flow from nearby Eldfell destroyed half the town and threatened to close its harbour, its main income source. An operation to cool the advancing lava with sea water saved the harbour.

History

First settlers

In tradition, Herjólfur Bárðarson was said to be the first person to settle in Heimaey. According to the Landnáma, he built his farm in Herjólfsdalur (literally: Herjólf's valley) about 900. The archaeological excavation in 1971 of ancient ruins in Herjólfsdalur revealed that there had been settlement nearly 100 years earlier.^[2]

Turkish raid

In 1627, three Arab pirate ships from the Ottoman-controlled Barbary Coast raided several towns on the south coast of Iceland and outlying islands.^[3] They attacked Grindavík and Heimaey. In Grindavík, townspeople could flee into the lava field of Reykjanes and hide indefinitely. Heimaey was so isolated that it was vulnerable and people suffered. Many heroic stories were told of the people who survived the invasion, most notably Guðríður Símonardóttir. Better known as Tyrkja-Gudda (Turkish-Gudda), she was taken by the pirates from her home at Stakkagerði on Heimaey to the slave market in Algeria. She was eventually ransomed back to Denmark by King Christian IV of Denmark and was re-educated by and later married the poet Hallgrímur Pétursson. The Hallgrímskirkja Lutheran church in Reykjavík is named in his honour.

Eldfell

Sketch showing the changes to Heimaey caused by the eruption of Eldfell

At 01:00 on 23 January 1973, a volcanic eruption of the mountain Eldfell began on Heimaey. The ground on Heimaey started to quake and fissures formed. The fissures grew to 1,600 metres (5,200 ft) in length, and lava began to erupt. Lava sprayed into the air from the fissures. Volcanic ash was blown to sea. Later, the situation deteriorated. When the fissures closed, the eruption converted to a concentrated lava flow that headed toward the harbour. The winds changed, and half a million cubic metres of ash blew on the town. During the night, the 5,000 inhabitants of the island were evacuated, mostly by fishing boats, as almost the entire fishing fleet was in dock.

The encroaching lava flow threatened to destroy the harbour. The eruption lasted until 3 July. Icelanders sprayed the lava with six million tons of cold seawater, causing some to solidify and much to be diverted, thus saving the harbour.^[4] During the eruption, half of the town was crushed and the island expanded in length. The eruption increased the area of Heimaey from 11.2 km² (4.3 sq mi) to 13.44 km² (5.19 sq mi). Only one man died in the eruption.^[5]^[6] The eruption is described by John McPhee in his book The Control of Nature.^[6]

Present day

Heimaey is home to around 4,500 people, and eight million puffins every summer.^[7] Many millions of other birds migrate there for breeding and feeding.

The island is connected to the rest of Iceland by a ferry and Vestmannaeyjar Airport.

Most people on the island live off fishing. During an annual festival, people are allowed to catch a few puffins to share at the festival, or to eat at home.

In popular culture

Some final shots of Chris Marker's film Sans Soleil are of stark white Heimaey houses slowly buried by the deep black volcanic ash of the eruption. The backdrop reveals splashes of red lava as it flows into a steel-grey sea.
Heimaey is mentioned in the song "Island" by American progressive-metal band Mastodon. The line is "Lava goddess, Ice and fire, Settling down, Ocean Geysir, Gullfoss, Heimaey 73." This refers to the eruption of Eldfell.
Keiko the whale from the Free Willy films was in real life flown to Klettsvik Bay on Heimaey as his final home before being freed.
Ashes to Dust by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir (2007, English Translation 2011), the third of her murder mysteries set in Iceland, is largely set on Heimaey and focuses round the Eldfell eruption of 1973, and discoveries resulting from excavation, more than 30 years later, of a house buried in the volcanic ash.
Heimaey features in Bruce McMillan's photo-illustrated children book Nights of the Pufflings (1995). In the story a tradition of rescuing young birds, pufflings, by local children is told. The pufflings take their first flight on August nights, and get accidentally stranded in the village streets. The children then set them free at the beach at daytime.
The 1973 album Sumut by Greenlandic rock band Sumé features a song called "Heimaey erĸaivdlugo" (English: "Ode to Heimaey").