Vestmannaeyjar
Town and municipality in South Constituency, Iceland / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Vestmannaeyjar?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Vestmannaeyjar (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈvɛstˌmanːaˌeiːjar̥] ⓘ, sometimes anglicized as Westman Islands) is a municipality and archipelago off the south coast of Iceland.[1]
This article needs additional citations for verification. (August 2012) |
Vestmannaeyjar | |
---|---|
Town and municipality | |
Coordinates: 63°25′00″N 20°17′00″W | |
Country | Iceland |
Constituency | South Constituency |
Region | Southern Region |
County | Vestmannaeyjar[nb 1] |
Government | |
• Mayor | Íris Róbertsdóttir (2022–present) |
Area | |
• Total | 17 km2 (7 sq mi) |
Population (2024) | |
• Total | 4,639 |
• Density | 250.82/km2 (649.6/sq mi) |
Time zone | UTC+0 (GMT) |
Post code | IS-900, 902 |
Website | www |
The largest island, Heimaey, has a population of 4,414,[2] most of whom live in the archipelago's main town, Vestmannaeyjabær. The other islands are uninhabited, although six have single hunting cabins. Vestmannaeyjar came to international attention in 1973 with the eruption of Eldfell volcano, which destroyed many buildings and forced a month-long evacuation of the entire population to mainland Iceland. Approximately one-fifth of the town was destroyed before the lava flow was halted by application of 6.8 billion litres of cold sea water.[3]