Hekla Erupts After 100 Years -- Great billowing clouds of smoke over Hekla. A lava stream is seen flowing into the left foreground. After a silence of more than a hundred years, the Icelandic volcano Hekla erupted with an explosion that sent a column of stones, lava and smoke almost six miles above the 5,500-foot peak. The earth remor caused by the eruption was felt in Reykjavik, the capital, 90 miles to the north-east. Chester Kronfelt, photographer of American Overseas Airlines, who flew to the volcano to make this picture, says that as the plane approached the volcano the turbulence caused it to toss violently. April 02, 1947.