Mt Fagradalsfjall

About Mt Fagradalsfjall

Mt Thorbjorn (Thorbjarnarfell) is a free standing, hyaloclastite mountain north of Grindavik. It offers great panoramic view over most of the Reykjanes Peninsula on fine days.

The northeastern part of the mountain depicts thermal activity and to its north and northeast is an extensive high temperature area. It is split by a fissure called “The Thieves’ Gap” (Thjofagja), occupied by 15 thieves according to the legend. They were eventually overwhelmed and killed by trickery.

Mt Fagradalsfjall is the westernmost of the of the low mountains of the Reykjanes peninsula, a 385m high hyaloclastite table mountain created during the last part of the lates cold period of the ice age, which lasted about 100.000 years.

C. Andrews, the commander in chief of the American forces in the North Atlantic Area during World War II, and several other high ranking officers, were killed there in a crash. They were arriving from the USA and preparing for landing on Keflavik Airport. Only one man survived the crash at Fagadalsfjall.(Mountain) He had to wait more than 24 hours for rescue. The Aircraft had the name Right Stuf 

Because of Gen. Andrews’s death, the job of Supreme Allied Commander was assigned to Gen. Dwight Eisenhower seven months later in December 1943.

Dwight David “Ike” Eisenhower GCS CCLH KC was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, he became a five-star general in the Army and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe. He was responsible for planning and supervising the invasion of North Africa in Operation Torch in 1942–43 and the successful invasion of Normandy in 1944–45 from the Western Front.

After Dwight David “Ike” was John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK the next 35th president of the United States.

DID YOU KNOW:

that both Lincoln and Kennedy fought for civil rights ?
that Lincoln was elected president in 1860 ?
that Kennedy was elected president in 1960 ?
that both were murdered on a Friday with their wives by their side ?
that both were shot in the back of the head ?
that the men who took over the presidency after both were named Johnson and were Democrats from the South. Andrew Johnson was born in 1808 and Lyndon Johnson in 1908 ?
that John Wilkes Booth was born in 1839 and Lee Harvey Osvald in 1939 ?
that Booth and Osvald were from the South ?-
that the wives of both presidents lost a child while they lived in the White House ?
that Lincoln’s private secretary, whose name was Kennedy, warned him against going to the theater ?
that Kennedy’s private secretary, whose name was Lincoln, warned him not to go to Dallas?
that John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln in a theater and fled to a warehouse ?
that Lee Harvey Osvald shot Kennedy from a warehouse and fled to a theater ?

On March 19th 2021 an eruption started just north west of the hiking trail Sudurlandsvegur ( R 427) to Mt. Fagradalsfjall. Earthquakes and tremours had been monitored for few weeks before the eruption. You can see film from the third day of the eruption filmed by Runar Geirmundsson Eruption at Reykjanes peninsula.

August 3th 2022 ups!! an eruption started again near Fagradalsfjalli

Geldingadala/Fagradalsfjall eruption number 3, July 10th 2023. Here we go again and again in 2024 !!!

Mt Fagradalsfjall in Icelandic

Nato Base at Keflvik Airport 

Gelogy South West Iceland

Reykjanes Saga

Reykjanes Travel guide

Photo Credit: Visit Reykjanes

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