Wandering Around Reykjavik

Iceland's Cultural Center

After spending almost a week exploring the geologic history and waterfalls of Iceland, we were left with a free day in Reykjavik.  We and no definitive plan, just to wander around the city.  That was all the plan we needed to learn about Iceland's human history.  There were enough monuments and plaques to teach us about Iceland's human past without us having to spend much effort to search it out. 

I pose with a statue of Ingolfur Arnarson, the first settler of Iceland.

Iceland's Waterfalls

All of Iceland's Most Waterfalls

Visiting Iceland I intended to see all of the famous geologic sites.  I paid little attention to visiting its waterfalls ahead of time, but as the trip wore on we stopped to see waterfall after waterfall after waterfall.  Every water fall the the most something.  By the time my trip was nearing, I was bored with waterfalls.  At point when we pulled into another waterfall's parking lot I refused to even leave the car, that was at least until I found out we could walk behind the waterfall.  I begrudgingly got out of the car for the hike.  Here I've made a list of some of the most impressive we saw.

The first waterfall we visited in Iceland Hengifoss was beautiful, but required ascending a steep hike the end of which was more jumping from rock to rock across freezing cold water than hiking.

Iceland's Volcanic Past and Present

A Geologist's Wet Dream

Iceland is literally like no other place on earth; I mean that from a technical point of view.  Let me explain.  The earth is made up of layers, the outermost of which is the hard crust we live on.  Just underneath the crust is the molten mantel.  The crust is broken up into sections on the surface of the earth called tectonic plates.  On some areas of the earth these plates bump against each other creating mountains and earth quakes, and in other areas these plates pull apart, with new crust constantly forming between them from the molten mantle.  Areas where the plates pull apart are called divergence boundaries, and every single one of them is completely submerged miles beneath the ocean, except for the small portion that rises above the surface of the ocean.  That place is called Iceland.

Evidence of volcanic activity is all over Iceland.  Here I present a fumerole, a crack int he ground from which superheated steam fueled by hot magma beneath the surface escapes.