The unique geology of Iceland creates a hot spot for volcanoes. Iceland has about 22 volcanoes that are considered active (and 130 volcanic mountains), which is a very high concentration of volcanoes considering Iceland's small size.

Iceland's volcanoes have erupted a third of the total global lava output over a 500-year average. There even are submarine volcanoes off Iceland's coast, and newly created volcanic islands such as Surtsey and Jólnir.

Iceland is situated on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the continents of Europe and North America meet. In addition, there is a volcanic hot spot underneath the island.

Recent large eruptions of Icelandic volcanoes include Grimsvötn in May 2011, and Fimmvörðuháls and Eyjafjallajökull in April 2010 in southern Iceland.

(You can see the locations of volcanoes on our map of volcanoes in Iceland.)

The volcanic eruption of Eyjafjallajökull resulted in closure of European airspace for several days. The reason for this was that the eruption in Iceland occurred beneath a glacier, and the cold water from melting ice chilled the lava too quickly - which forms glass particles that end up in the volcanic ashes. Combined with the magnitude of the eruption, a cloud of ash drifted across Europe that can be hazardous to aircraft.

The following page contains a list of mostly active volcanoes in Iceland (which does not include submarine volcanoes) and a map of the volcanoes.