In July my cousin and I took a trip to Norway. On the way we stopped in Iceland for a couple of days. We took a lot of pictures and I thought I’d share some of them with you. Hopefully it will not be too painful. The first two pictures are typical landscapes in Iceland. basically what you are looking at is hardened lava flow. The whole country is output from volcanos.
This next shot is a statue on the harbor in Reykjavik – the capital of Iceland.
As you may know the tectonic plate that Europe sits on and the plate that North America sits on meet at Iceland. The two are pulling apart and that is why there is so much activity (volcanos, earthquakes, etc) there. In the picture below I am standing on a cliff at the end of North America. below is a plane where the Icelandic legislature used to meet. On the far side is Europe. So not only can you see Europe from North America you can drive between the two. I found this to be pretty cool.
Speaking of volcanos – this one hasn’t gone off for a while. There is quite some pool of water in the bowl though.
Oh yes and there are water falls there. This one (next two pictures) is called Gullfoss or Golden Falls.
The term geyser was invented in Iceland. The pool in the back of this picture is called Geysir and is the one all the rest have been named after.
One last picture – The steam you see in the distance is all natural.
These steam vents are used to heat the whole city of Reykjavik. Geothermal power is pretty much the whole source of power for the country. Such a deal.