GEOLOGY
Mineral Encrustations
On Surtsey a large amount of richly colored
encrustations formed around the craters, both during the eruption and
for a few years after it had ended. 
These
surface encrustations have now disappeared due to weathering. There
are numerous caves on the island, most notably lava tubes, but they
have not been studied in depth. In some of the caves, there can be found
a large quantity of mineral encrustations that formed out of hot gases
of 30-300°C. Halite, thenardite, gypsum, calcite and opal are common
there. A total of 18 different kinds of mineral encrustations have been
found on the lava and in lava tubes on Surtsey. Some of these are quite
rare and have not been found elsewhere in Iceland. Two of the minerals
are likely to be new to the world.
(author: Sveinn.
P. Jakobsson – sjak@ni.is)
- last
updated
06-May-2007
