thumb|Aerial photograph

Eldey () is a small, uninhabited island about off the coast of the Reykjanes Peninsula in southwest Iceland. Located west-southwest of Reykjavík, the island of Eldey covers an area of about , and rises to a height of . Its sheer cliffs are home to large numbers of birds, including one of the largest northern gannet colonies in the world, with around 16,000 pairs. This colony can now be watched live via two webcams that are located on top of the island.

Volcanic system

The Eldey and Geirfuglasker volcanic systems together form the long Eldey volcanic system on the Reykjanes Ridge. The erupted rocks are from the tholeiitic magma series and picrite basalt. Eldey, and the smaller skerries of Eldeyjardrangur, Geirfugladrangur and Geirfuglasker are the tops of historic volcanoes in the system. The last pair, found incubating an egg, were killed there in June 1844, when Icelandic sailors Jón Brandsson and Sigurður Ísleifsson strangled the adults and Ketill Ketilsson accidentally cracked the last egg of the species with his boot during the struggle.

In literature

  • Eldey, and the fate of the great auk, are mentioned in The Water-Babies, A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby by Charles Kingsley.
  • Eldey is described in detail in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert.
  • The Great Auk, a novel by Allan W. Eckert, c. 1963, Library of Congress Cat.#63-18215
  • ”The Last of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction” by Gisli Pálsson, c. 2024, Princeton University Press

References

  • Eldey in the Catalogue of Icelandic Volcanoes
  • Live webcam