The Westman Islands, viewed from the mainland, near the Seljalandsfoss Waterfall, Southern Iceland
The Westman Islands (Vestmannaeyjar), 6 miles (10 km) off Iceland's south west coast, are so-named after Irish slaves or 'Westmen', tracked down and killed in retribution for murdering an early Viking settler, Ireland then being considered the most westerly country in Europe. The islands suffered the trauma of the 'Turkish Abductions' in June 1627, when Barbary pirates from Algiers enslaved 242 islanders and took them on a 27 day voyage to North Africa. Heimaey or 'Home Island', in the centre of the view, is the largest of 15 islands and is the only one inhabited. in 1973 basalt flows from the Eldfell Volcano threatened to close the harbour entrance and destroy the island's fishing economy. The seasonal hunting of seabird eggs is another economic activity. The islands have formed along a 30 km long fissure in the ocean floor, associated with the divergence of the Eurasian and North American crustal plates. We view the islands across Southern Iceland's coastal lowlands, formerly part of the sea floor before isostatic uplift of the land, due to billions of tonnes of ice weight, overtook the postglacial rise in sea level at the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age.
Size: 5807px × 3812px
Location: Westman Islands, viewed from the mainland, near the Seljalandsfoss Waterfall, Southern Iceland
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: abductions, barbary, cliffs, coastal, eldfell, geography, geology, grass, history, horizon, iceland, irish, islands, lanscape, lowland, lowlands, mainland, peaks, pirates, profile, sharp, slaves, steep, tourism, travel, turkish, volcano, westman, westmen
