Before there was an island, the crew of Ísleifur II, fishing off Geirfuglasker, smelt sulphur. Columns of volcanic matter called tephra leapt from the water to a height of 200 ft at 8am, and by 11am the black column reached 12,000 ft, creating concentric waves. The rock itself erupted from the sea at 3pm. The column of tephra accompanying the rock was visible from Reykjavík, 70 miles away, for many months, shining white in the long daylight and borrowing the dramatic pink glow of sunrise and sunset.