In the summer of 1783, a fissure opened in southern Iceland that would unleash one of the most devastating volcanic events in recorded history. Known as the Laki eruption, it produced not a single towering explosion but eight months of continuous fire fountains, lava flows, and toxic gas emissions that blanketed the island and drifted across the Northern Hemisphere. For Icelanders, the event marked the beginning of a catastrophic period known as the “Mist Hardships”, a famine and environmental collapse so severe that it reshaped the country’s population, agriculture, and social landscape for decades.
The eruption began on June 8, 1783, when a 27-kilometer fissure tore open near the Grímsvötn volcanic system. Columns of fire shot more than a kilometer into the air. Lava flowed at extraordinary rates, consuming pastures, farmsteads, and river valleys. Yet the greatest danger did not come from the lava itself, but from the poisonous gases rising in dense, shifting clouds. The eruption released vast quantities of sulfur dioxide, fluorine, and ash, producing a dry, blue-tinted haze that soon covered the entire island. Contemporary accounts describe the air as choking, metallic, and thick enough to blur the sun.
The effects on livestock were immediate and devastating. Fluorine-laced ash settled on grazing land, and animals ingesting the contaminated grass developed a condition now known as fluorosis: swelling, bone brittleness, and internal hemorrhaging. Cattle, sheep, and horses died by the tens of thousands. Icelandic pastor Jón Steingrímsson, whose detailed writings remain the most important contemporary record, described fields littered with the bodies of animals that had succumbed within days. Without livestock, farms collapsed. Milk, meat, and working animals vanished simultaneously.
Crop failure soon followed. The haze blocked sunlight during the crucial summer growing months, stunting barley and hay yields and causing widespread crop rot. Rivers filled with dead fish. Drinking water grew foul. By autumn, most farm families faced the winter with empty stores and no animals to slaughter. Those who attempted to preserve the remaining livestock saw them grow weak despite careful feeding; the poisoning had already taken hold. Many households slaughtered the last of their sheep or cows simply to prevent prolonged suffering.
By the end of 1783, famine had begun in earnest. The Icelandic population, then around 50,000, suffered catastrophic losses. Over the next two years, an estimated 20 to 25 percent of the population perished from starvation, disease, or secondary effects of malnutrition. Some farming communities were almost entirely wiped out. Families abandoned traditional homesteads and moved inland seeking better air or remaining grazing zones, only to find the same deadly haze settling across the highlands.
What made the famine even more tragic was its slow, suffocating progression. The eruption ceased in February 1784, but the atmospheric effects lingered. Toxic fog continued to cloud the island through the next spring. Livestock herds that survived the initial fallout remained too weakened to recover quickly. Pastures required years to replenish. Iceland’s fragile agricultural system, already vulnerable to harsh winters, was unable to rebuild at a pace that matched human need. Many families migrated internally, while others boarded ships to Denmark or Norway in hopes of finding food.
Beyond Iceland, the Laki eruption produced global consequences. The sulfuric haze spread across Europe, causing blood-red sunsets and what observers described as “dry fog” thick enough to obscure distant hills. In the summer of 1783, temperatures across Europe soared, followed by a severe winter believed to have been exacerbated by the aerosol cloud. Crop failures and elevated mortality were reported in France, England, and the Scandinavian countries. Some historians have suggested that the hardships in France contributed to political unrest that culminated in the French Revolution. Across the Atlantic, Benjamin Franklin wrote that he believed a “constant fog over all Europe, and great part of North America” had dimmed the sun and altered weather patterns.
For Iceland, however, the disaster’s legacy was personal and immediate. The famine reshaped settlements, family lines, and economic patterns. In some regions, entire farms were abandoned permanently. Religious leaders such as Jón Steingrímsson became central figures not only for documenting the events but for guiding their communities through the chaos. His “Fire Sermon,” delivered as lava approached his church but stopped short of consuming it, became an enduring symbol of the resilience Icelanders sought to maintain amid overwhelming loss.
Modern volcanology has confirmed the scale of the Laki eruption: one of the largest effusive eruptions in human history, releasing an estimated 122 million tons of sulfur dioxide, more than any single event in recent centuries. Its effects on climate, air quality, and agriculture underscore the vulnerability of human societies to volcanic activity that may unfold slowly instead of explosively. Today, the Laki fissure and its surrounding lava fields remain a stark reminder of the months when the earth opened, the air turned poisonous, and a nation was brought to the brink of collapse by forces beyond its control.
Sources & Further Reading:
– Jón Steingrímsson, contemporary accounts of the 1783–1784 Laki eruption (“Eldrit”)
– Icelandic National Archives: agricultural loss and mortality records from the “Mist Hardships”
– Climatological analyses in the *Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research*
– Historical studies on European climatic anomalies of 1783–1784
– U.S. Geological Survey summaries of the Laki fissure eruption and its sulfur output
(One of many stories shared by Headcount Coffee — where mystery, history, and late-night reading meet.)
