Grímsvötn is an active volcano with a fissure system located in Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland. The volcano itself is completely subglacial and located under the northwestern side of the Vatnajökull ice cap. The subglacial caldera is at 64°25′N 17°20′W, at an elevation of 1,725 m (5,659 ft). Beneath the caldera is the magma chamber of the Grímsvötn volcano.
Grímsvötn and the Vatnajökull glacier, Iceland, July 1972
Satellite images of the November 2004 Grímsvötn Eruption. The lower image assigns a false color (red) to the surface ice.
Satellite image from 22 May 2011 of the volcanic plume above Iceland
View of Icelandic landscape beneath the ash-cloud during the 2011 eruption
Laki or Lakagígar is a volcanic fissure in the western part of Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland, not far from the volcanic fissure of Eldgjá and the small village of Kirkjubæjarklaustur. The fissure is properly referred to as Lakagígar, while Laki is a mountain that the fissure bisects. Lakagígar is part of a volcanic system centered on the volcano Grímsvötn and including the volcano Þórðarhyrna. It lies between the glaciers of Mýrdalsjökull and Vatnajökull, in an area of fissures that run in a southwest to northeast direction.
Center of the Laki fissure
Kirkjubaejarklaustur, an important church farm in South Iceland, was the home of the Rev. Jón Steingrímsson (1728–1791), who left contemporary eyewitness accounts of the effects of the eruption and its aftermath. Today, Kirkjubæjarkaustur is a small village.