Lake Mývatn

The lake and its landscape were shaped by intense volcanic activity. According to geological accounts, a large basaltic fissure eruption about 2,300 years ago created the lake, and steam explosions where lava met waterlogged ground produced the pseudocraters. Later eruptions in the area, including the Mývatnseldar fires of 1724 to 1729 and the Krafla activity of 1975 to 1984, continued to remake the land.

The name means lake of midges, after the swarms that appear in summer. Lake Mývatn and the Laxá river that drains it are protected under a 2004 law as a nature conservation area and are listed as wetlands of international importance under the Ramsar Convention.

Mývatnssveit is a farming community whose life has long been tied to the lake: fishing, farming and grazing sheep on the lava. Reykjahlíð is the main settlement. Local people have lived alongside eruptions, notably the Krafla events within living memory, and today balance tourism and geothermal energy with protecting a fragile ecosystem.