Gunnuhver
Gunnuhver is an active geothermal area of hot springs, mud pools and fumaroles on the southwestern tip of the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland. It lies within the Reykjanes UNESCO Global Geopark and close to the Reykjanesviti lighthouse. The site has been the focus of safety measures and occasional closures due to changing geothermal activity.
Geography and geology
Gunnuhver is located near the ocean at the southwestern point of the Reykjanes Peninsula, within the Reykjanes geothermal area and the Reykjanes UNESCO Global Geopark. The area is characterized by steaming fumaroles, bubbling hot springs and mud pots formed where hydrothermal fluids rise through altered volcanic rocks.The main mud pool has been described as the largest in Iceland, with a diameter of twenty metres. It is also notable for its hydrothermal fluids that are seawater-derived rather than freshwater, unusual in Iceland. Gunnuhver forms part of the tectonically active Reykjanes volcanic system at the landward end of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
History and folklore
Written descriptions of geothermal areas on the Reykjanes Peninsula appear in 18th-century travel accounts by Eggert Ólafsson, who documented Iceland's landscapes during a survey journey made between 1752 and 1757.An Icelandic folktale links the name 'Gunnuhver' to Guðrún Önundardóttir, a woman said to have quarreled with her landlord, Vilhjálmur Jónsson, over unpaid rent and the seizure of her cooking pot. After Gunna's death, the story relates that she haunted the area until the pastor Eiríkur of Vogsósar lured her spirit toward a hot spring using a ball of yarn; in many versions the ghost falls into the steaming pool, and the place thereafter bears her name. Variants of the tale differ on details but share the association of the springs with Gunna's ghost.