We started our day pretty early. We left the hotel by 8:30 after a small breakfast our our guesthouse. Our first challenge was filling up with gas. The credit card machine at the gas station has been the only language barrier so far! I somehow put the equivalent of $20 worth of gas in the gas and we were on the road!
If you think of Iceland like a clock, we were driving from 6:00 to 4:00 today. (We are going counterclockwise around the country.) Our first stop was at an unusual rock formation at Dyrholaey. It is made of basalt entirely. This formed when magma cooled about 2 million years ago in the valley. The strange thing, like you see in picture 1, is that the bottom is made of columns and the top is irregular. Scientists think the bottom cooled into these common columns from the bottom up. The top of the formation is irregular because water filled the valley before it could completely cool. The present is the key to the past... You examine formations in the present and you can solve the puzzle of the past. This would be right up James Hutton's alley. (Remember meeting him? Old, bald guy...) Our first stop was quick, leaving plenty of time for our two big adventures today. The first of the two adventures took us into Vatnajokull National Park. We hiked up to on of the many glaciers in the park called Skatafell. Picture 2 is Skatafell glacier. Beautiful scenery there. We would have hiked a bit more, but we are doing a hike on a glacier tomorrow morning and we had to get to a boat ride by 2:00 today. Our main event today was a speed boat ride in the Jokulsarlon Glacial Lagoon. It was awesome! You didn't see anything from the road but piles of gravel. Once I walked on top of the gravel I realized that humans did not place the gravel there. I was looking at the terminal moraine that marked where the glacier used to be. This lagoon is being created by glacial melt. Due to global warming, the lagoon size is increasing a lot in recent years and they expect more increase this year due to the mild Iceland winter. As you can see in picture 3, the lagoon is dotted with icebergs that have broken off of the main glacier. This is a very dynamic situation. Our guide told us that even the biggest chunks of ice will melt in a week or less. In the hour we were on the water, we saw two big chunks break and flip! The boat ride itself was a lot of fun. I forgot to mention today is in the 60's and sunny! Perfect weather to see the glacial lagoon sparkle. The guide took us very close to the main glacier and he had to go quite fast navigating ice chunks the entire time. We had to wear a suit that would help us float if we fell in. Picture 4 shows Donna and I ready to go! Picture 5 shows the boats we rode on. We just sat on the edge and held on! Pictures 6, 7 & 8 are pictures of icebergs I took close up. Picture 9 is one of two seals we saw basking in the sun on an iceberg. Our hotel tonight is very nice. We are in a decent sized town named Hofn. Click here to check out our hotel. Picture 10 is the view out of our hotel room. We are situated in a harbor surrounded by mountains. We are heading to dinner in a few minutes. This place by the Atlantic is known for its lobster so we may not be able to pass that up! We are at the halfway point of our journey now.
3 Comments
Mom
6/29/2017 05:05:48 pm
When your 7th grade teacher told us that you had an amazing love for science, she knew what she was talking about. More awesome pictures to share with us and for you my "science excited" daughter, memories that will last a lifetime. Love you, HUGS
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Debbie
6/29/2017 07:49:52 pm
My favorite picture is #6. The colors are stunning! I took some time tonight to google and read about some of your locations. How amazing that you two are hiking on glaciers! Keep having fun!!
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Scott
6/30/2017 05:21:46 am
Awesome again other than your comment about an "old, bald guy"... and no pictures of dinner! Keep the adventure pictures coming!
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