History
Hot springs at the eastern fringe of Hengill volcanic massif some 40 kilometers from Reykjavik were noticed long ago. In the 20th century here, around Varmá river, more and more houses appeared.

Already in 1929 here was started commercial production of vegetables and in 1930 here was built the first greenhouse, using the energy of Bakkahver – a hot spring which is covered with a pyramidal roof. In 1940 in Hveragerði was mastered the use of geothermal energy from a pipe. Step by step the town and areas around it are turning into a green paradise – people are planting the trees and other plants and, well, the climate is changing too.
Today Hveragerði might feel like a little city, with its own resort industry, numerous glowing greenhouses, shops and… more and more greenery.
Geothermal park
Geothermal area in the center of Hveragerði (Hveragerdi) town exists up to this day.
On the 29th May 2008, a powerful earthquake changed the geothermal fields around Hveragerði – several new fields formed. Meanwhile, in the geothermal park, the hot springs almost disappeared. The nearby hot springs and geysers (see Grýla and Leppaluði borehole) did not change much.
Thus, what some decades were attractive natural landmarks, nowadays sometimes are just muddy holes in the ground. Nevertheless, this still is an interesting area.

Park includes the following natural attractions:
- Bláhver – “Blue hot spring”. This spring has a pool of deep blue (a bit muddy) water and in earlier times it was much more active.
- Dynkur – “Blowing spring”. This is “almost” geyser. Currently, this is a steam vent but earlier it was erupting a fine spray of water.
- Eilífur – “The eternal one, everlasting”. A geyser that erupts on a regular basis, every 20 – 25 minutes. Wondermondo is looking for some more information about this feature because before 2016 there was no active geyser in this location, but now: there is “the eternal one”!
- Gróuhver – named after Gróa Þordardóttir who lived nearby. This former hot spring is weak now.
- Manndrápshver – “Man killing hot spring”. Here during the night in 1906 fell a local resident and died from scalding. After this tragedy locals installed the street lighting.
- Önnuhver, also Ruslahver – “Busy hot spring” or “garbage hot spring”. Locals for many years threw their garbage in this spring but after an earthquake in 1947, the spring turned into a geyser. It returned all the trash with noisy, wild explosions and locals had to find another place for it. Now here is just a dry hole.
Icelandic scientists are looking in the ecosystem of the Hveragerði hot springs – here is made research of heat-resistant ecosystems and biochemistry.
Hverasvæðið – Hveragerði Geothermal Park is included in the following article:
Geysers of Iceland

Some of the world’s most popular geysers are located in Iceland. But few know about ALL active geysers in Iceland.
This article lists all the known active geysers in Iceland – some 20 – 29 of them. Here are listed also some 38 other places where geysers have existed in the past or features, which are similar to geysers but are not genuine geysers.
References
- Dirk Niemann, Hveragerði and Grændalur, Volcanic Springs. Accessed on June 25, 2019.
Hverasvæðið – Hveragerði Geothermal Park on the map
If you see this after your page is loaded completely, leafletJS files are missing.
Location, GPS coordinates: | 64.0010 N 21.1885 W |
Categories: | Thermal springs, Geysers, Geothermal fields, Parks and gardens |
Values: | Geology, Visual |
Rating: | ![]() |
Where is located? | Europe, Iceland, Suðurland, approximately 45 km drive west from Reykjavík, in the centre of Hveragerði town |
Alternate names: | Hveragarðurinn |
Video of Hverasvæðið – Hveragerði Geothermal Park
placesofinterest, January 2013
Landmarks of Iceland

Geysers

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