Volcanos (Exploding and otherwise) on Stamps

Mt Hekla in Iceland on a 1948 stamp from an Icelandic set issued to mark a big eruption in 1947-8. The eruption lasted 13 months. Hekla is one of the most active European volcanoes, and in medieval times was nicknamed the Gateway to Hell. I saw an eruption start in the early 1980s - I was sitting on a ridge having a snack lunch with a walking group some 6 miles from the seat of the eruption, and within 30 minutes ash was falling on us. We went in as close as we dared - the mountain's slopes were being evacuated - and the noise and heat were incredible, with the ground vibrating under our feet even though we were 2 or 3 miles away. I returned a couple of years later, and valleys where I had walked were covered in several hundred metres of lava and clinkers: the landscape looked totally different. Awesome. Hekla is mentioned in Moby Dick, and, according to Wikipedia, Hekla pastries are sold in Boston, Massachusetts: they are cinnamon rolls covered in white icing to look like the snow-capped volcano. A 20th-century Icelandic composer called Jon Leifs wrote a composition called Hekla, which is thought to be the loudest classical musical work ever written: it calls for four sets of rocks hit with hammers, steel plates, anvils, sirens, cannons, metal chains, choir, a large orchestra, and organ!

Galeras in the Andes is the most active volcano in Colombia, and there have been a number of significant eruptions in the last decade. Six scientists and three tourists died in an eruption in 1993. Here it is on two 1954 stamps from Colombia.

A 1989 Iceland stamp showing Skeggi, the highest summit of the volcano Hengill in the SW of the country. The last eruption was some 2000 years ago, though there are plenty of hot springs and fumaroles. The volcano is an important source of geothermal power.

Herðubreið (Herthubreith when transliterated into the English alphabet) in NE Iceland on a 1972 stamp. Herðubreið is a tuya - a flat-topped volcano with steep sides formed when lava erupted through a glacier or ice sheet (in the case of Herðubreið, when Iceland was totally covered by an ice cap during the last ice age). Because of the angle of the slopes, and the instability of the scree, it was not until 1908 that the first recorded ascent of Herðubreið took place. When I was on a trip to the interior of Iceland in the early 1980's, what particularly struck me was the way clouds zoomed in on the mountain from all directions, gathering pace as they got nearer. I suspect this is due to magnetism in the mountain's mineral composition.

This 1978 Iceland stamp shows a painting of Mt Hekla, one of the most active volcanoes in the world (sometimes nicknamed in medieval times "the gate of hell") with lava formations at its foot. On the first day of the first of two trips to Iceland, I saw the start of a Hekla eruption from about 6 miles away.

Kverkfjöll, a volcanic mountain range on the NE edge of Vatnajökull, Iceland's biggest ice cap. There was a series of major eruptions in the 1720s, causing melting of part of the ice cap, leading to jökulhlaups - abrupt flooding of the neighbouring region.