Surstey, nature reserve

Surstey, nature reserve is an Island south of Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland, which was declared a nature reserve in 1965 by the Environment and Food Agency. It was renewed in 1974 with reference to new nature conservation legislation. In 2006 the nature reserve area was enlarged.

Vestmannaeyjar archipelago Surtey island is a part of the the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago, which consists of 18 islands and a number of skerries, and is situated on the insular shelf off the central south coast of Iceland. Heimaey is the largest island (13.6 km²) and the only one to be inhabited (4,200 residents). It has one town which is also called Vestmannaeyjar and the most important fishing harbour along the south coast of Iceland.

Icelandic authorities have nominated the Surtsey Nature Reserve to the World Heritage List of UNESCO. Here you can see the nomination document.

Vestmannaeyjar constitutes a separate volcanic system at the southern end of Iceland's

Eastern Volcanic Zone. This is a young system, having probably commenced activity some 100,000 years ago, and its oldest part, the Norðurklettar Formation, is exposed on thenorthernmost end of Heimaey. Norðurklettar Formation was built up by small volcanoes which probably erupted through an ice cap, leaving behind palagonite tuffs and tuff breccias capped by lavas. No high-temperature hydrothermal activity has been discovered at the surface in Vestmannaeyjar (Sveinn P. Jakobsson 1979).

During the Holocene (during the last 12,000 years), volcanism has remained at low intensity in the Vestmannaeyjar system. Seventeen volcanoes, of which three are on Heimaey, have been identified above sea level. These volcanoes originally rose from the sea floor in the same way as Surtsey, even at similar sea levels. The largest of the volcanoes comprise the islands of Bjarnarey, Elliðaey and Suðurey, and include

Stórhöfði and Sæfell-Helgafell on the island of Heimaey. Two volcanic eruptions are known with certainty in historic times: the Surtsey eruption of 1963–1967 and the 1973 Eldfell eruption on Heimaey. A small submarine eruption may have occurred on the sea floor southeast of Hellisey in 1896. Furthermore, four young submarine volcanoes have been discovered, so that altogether 24 volcanic eruptions are known to have occurred within the Vestmannaeyjar system during the Holocene (Sveinn P. Jakobsson 1979).