As the year 1783 was ushered in, a wave of devastating earthquakes swept across Iceland's south and southeast, laying waste to 90 settlements. In June of that same year, another catastrophe that's become known as "The Fires of the Skafta River" began with enormous volcanic eruptions along a 15-mile-long fissure called Lakagigar, named after the mountain Laki at its midpoint. The eruptions were the single greatest catastrophe in the recorded history if Iceland. For the next nine months, ash and poisonous gases spewed out of the row of craters on the fissure, and so did the largest lava flow since the last ice age (420 trillion cubic ft. spread over 230 sq. miles)!

The unthinkable consequences, often referred to as "The Misty Hardships", were disastrous for Iceland and its' inhabitants. Seventy percent of domestic animals as well as twenty percent of the human population died during this period. The effects of the "Fires of the Skafta River" were felt worldwide. The northern hemisphere from Europe to California was shrouded in mist, causing climate cooling, a form of acid rain and crop failure. It's been suggested that the subsequent drop in living standards in Europe triggered the course of events that led to the French Revolution in 1789.