Jökull - 01.01.2001, Page 82

Tómas Jóhannesson and Þorsteinn Arnalds

  


  




  

  
  
 


 



 


  



 
 

 
 
Figure 1. The most important villages in Iceland that are threatened by avalanches and landslides. – Mikilvæ-
gustu þorp og bæir á Íslandi sem búa við hættu á snjóflóðum og skriðuföllum.
avalanches have been reported in Iceland since then
(Jónsson et al., 1992; Björnsson, 1980). Unaccounted
deaths may be assumed to have been several hun-
dreds, especially during two gaps of a total of 250
years in the written records before 1600.
Before the middle of the nineteenth century, the
population of Iceland lived almost exclusively in rural
areas. Many of the accidents occurred on farms, when
avalanches hit farmhouses or farm workers working
or traveling near the farms. Many accidents also oc-
curred during winter travels, for example from farms
to coastal fishing stations and to church. Near the end
of the nineteenth century, a number of fishing towns
were established in deep fjords in western, northern
and eastern Iceland (Figure 1). Parts of these towns
turned out to be located in avalanche prone areas and
several catastrophic accidents occurred in the years
1880–1920, a period of relatively harsh winters.
An expansion of the fishing towns in western,
northern and eastern Iceland into areas further up
into the mountain slopes occurred during the decades
from 1930 to 1980 and led to a dramatic increase in
the number of buildings in avalanche exposed areas.
Records of the avalanche activity in most of these ar-
eas do not exist as the areas had not been inhabited,
and avalanches which did not cause damage were not
recorded in Iceland until recently. Relatively mild cli-
mate between 1925 and 1965 led to fewer avalanche
accidents during this period compared with the period
around the turn of the century. Climatic deterioration
after 1965 has brought an increase in the avalanche ac-
tivity. Several catastrophic avalanche accidents have
occurred in recent decades in relatively new neigh-
bourhoods in towns and villages in western and east-
ern Iceland.
Figure 2 shows locations where avalanches have
been reported to cause damage or deaths since the
settlement of Iceland in the ninth century (based on
Figure 6 in Björnsson (1980)). Although the con-
centration of the accidents is highest in western, cen-
tral northern and eastern Iceland as mentioned above,
avalanche accidents have occurred at scattered loca-
82 JÖKULL No. 50