Note 282 — Chapter XL · THE MODERN VOLCANOES OF ICELAND AS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE TERTIARY VOLCANIC HISTORY OF NORTH-WESTERN EUROPE
Reading edition
Op. cit. p. 24. Mr. Helland allows an average thickness of 30 metres for the mass of lava which issued in two streams, one 80 kilometres (nearly 50 miles), the other 45 kilometres (about 28 miles) long. He estimates the total volume of lava discharged in the 1783 eruption at 27 milliards of cubic metres, equal to a block 10 kilometres (6 miles 376 yards) long, 5 kilometres (3 miles 188 yards) broad, and 540 metres (1771 feet) high; op. cit. p. 31. Mr. Thoroddsen remarks that the older estimates of the volume of lava discharged by this eruption have been greatly exaggerated. He puts the area covered by lava at 565 square kilometres and the contents at 121/3 cubic kilometres. Verhand. Gesell. Erdkunde Berlin, 1894, p. 296.