Category Archives: 2018 Trip to Iceland

The most volcanic part of Iceland: Krafla

2018 Trip to Iceland

 

The Krafla area is an area with “fissure swarms.”  That meant there were a number of punctures of the earth’s surface through which volcanically heated water escaped in steam, mud bubbles, and odours. The area was only about 5 km from Lake Mývatn. Here we saw am amazing contrast in landscape from the green countryside we had passed until then. The vegetation changed from saturated green to barren yet a colourful variety of geothermal orange and ochre.

The Krafla area and the geothermal areas are all part of the same central volcano caldera that measures approximated 40 km2. It is divided into 2 main areas. The upper area reaches 1,000 metres in depth and reaches a temperature of 200ºC. The lower part reaches a temperature of 300ºC. The closer to the centre of the earth the hotter it gets.  The surrounding boiling mud pools and steam vents are clear evidence of volcanic activity below the surface. The surface activity is bound closely to areas above the magma chamber of the volcano.

There is little surface water in the region because it slips into porous lava. Hot spring areas like this are rare in the world but they create a unique ecosystem for microorganisms. Most are not visible to the naked eye. One of these is a green algae called Cyanidum caldarium. Another is the ancient (and I mean really ancient) bacteria called Archaea which is the most common in hot springs and is among the 5 oldest organisms in the history of the earth! Think about that. Could this be the original common ancestor of us all? Some of the organisms here are among the most temperature resistant on earth and can survive in temperatures of 60ºC. The results of these organisms are the colored displays.

Mount Krafla is not your classic cone-shaped volcano. It has been worn down and exploded beyond recognition. If you would not see the bubbling water, escaping gases you would not know you were in the presence of a volcano. This mountain was the source of a volcanic explosion in 1724 that blighted crop production for many years afterwards.

Underneath the Krafla field lies a magma reservoir between 3 and 8 km (2-5 miles). That reservoir is the source of all the volcanic activity which we witnessed or inferred in the region. Magma builds up in that reservoir and that pushes up the earth above that reservoir  until it is released as rock intrusions or volcanic eruptions. After that, of course, the earth sinks again until it again starts to rise.

The area is created because cold water drips down through the porous soil to the magma intrusions where that water is super-heated and transformed into steam which is ejected out again to the surface. The sulphur hydroxide is responsible for the hot spring smell we have come to know and love. Sulphur deposits are formed when fumarole gases mix with the air and a mixture of gypsum and silica also forms around the fumaroles. In the mud pots, fumarole gases rise through surface water creating sulphuric acid which makes the water very acidic. Rock and soil mix in the hot water and acid producing the mud of the mud pots.

In the early 1970s, “Krafla fires” began with a dramatic  spurt of molten lava that lit up the sky.  Over the next 10 years there were 17 eruptions. People in the nearby village of Reykjahlíδ were lucky because the lava flowed away from it. Ominously volcanologists are expecting Krafla to blow again. We hoped it would not blow soon.

Interestingly, in 1984 when the authorities put up a stern warning sign in the parking lot for tourists to stay away, it had the opposite effect and attracted tourists.  Tourists are not famous for being smart. Some of them are downright oppositionally defiant. This is particularly true of those who want to grab a photograph. I know some photographers like like that. They are stupid. And life is hard when you are stupid.  So what did the authorities doe? They removed the warning signs. Icelanders, unlike North Americans, are like that. They don’t worry so much about law suits. My guide book had some good advice about this region, “If you can forget the disconcerting possibility of being blown to kingdom come, this whole lifeless, primeval area gives as good a glimpse of the freshly formed earth as anyone is likely to get.”

There was a geothermal power station with long lines of above ground pipes in the region.  According to my guidebook, “Pipes from the Krafla geothermal power plant form a metal doorway to the area, which is strangely appropriate; the construction of the plant in 1973, with its many bore holes into the earth’s crust, is considered by some scientists to be responsible for triggering the eruptions that began here in 1975—the first since the 1700s.

The first place we stopped was Víti, which means“mouth of hell.” That is enough to give anyone pause. There are two craters in the area called Viti. The one we saw  was formed by the steam explosion in 1724 during the Mývatn Fires. The one we saw was inside a dingy brown explosion crater with a pool of cold blue water which we should not confuse with the other Viti crater that is farther south. Its turquoise water were warm and full of bathers. The one we saw was empty of humans. No one was anxious to  go to hell.

Mt. Námafjall (485 metres above sea level) is coloured orange and yellow. It is one of Iceland’s largest sulphur spring areas. This was obvious from the smell. AO told us that if we had to release some gas this would the appropriate time.

One of the many geothermal areas of Iceland in the Iceland area that we passed in the Krafla region was called Hveraröndor Hverir. It covers some 4 km2. This area is extremely barren with big fumaroles, which are openings in the crust of the earth usually found in volcanic areas like were travelling through. We have seen them before in Yellowstone National Park in the US and in New Zealand. Fumaroles emit steam and gases such as carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen chloride and hydrogen sulphide. The steam is formed when superheated water condenses as its pressure drops when it emerges from the ground.

A fumarole can occur wherever there are tiny fissures, often in chaotic clusters or fields, and on the surface of lava flows or thick deposits of pyroclastic flows. A fumarole field is an area of thermal springs and gas vents where magma or igneous rocks at shallow depths release gases or interact with groundwater.

We stopped in this region for a walk to get a closer look at the boiling mud holes, fumaroles, and even a pile of steaming rocks.  The entire area is often called “eldhús djöfulsins” in Icelandic, or Hell’s (Devil’s) Kitchen because of these steaming pots and hissing sounds and the strong smell of sulphur.Sometimes the fumes can be overwhelming.

Dimmuborgir

2018 Trip to Iceland

 

Dimmuborgir which means black castles. This is a massive 2,000-year-old field of weirdly shaped volcanic pillars (not hexagonal) that extend as high as 20 metres (65 ft.).  I took an individual walk around the pillars because I got separated from the group. Again I enjoyed wild flowers while strolling around the area. That was how I lost the group. Distracted by beauty again!

I recognized these flowers because I saw them in Churchill Manitoba. They are called Arctic Avens. Appropriate name because we were on the edge of the Arctic Circle.

The weird pillars were not created by a god on psychedelic drugs but are formed when lava spill out over a lake and solidified right over the depression. The top layer solidifies first and the lower layer later. Magma heats the water underneath the sub-surface layer creating steam below the lava. Eventually the steam bursts through the vents while the surrounding magma solidifies. The lake breaches its dam causing molten lava to flow between the steam vents and the lava channel. The surface crust subsides leaving behind columns and ridges and left over steam vents that are caught between the dykes and gaps where lava once flowed. The remnants of this are these odd shapes. Nature is always odd. If you think its not odd, you are probably not looking  very closely.

Wherever I go I look for wildflowers. Sorry I don’t know what these are called.

Pseudocraters of Skútustaδagigar

2018 Trip to Iceland

 

We continued our exploration of the north part of Iceland. We saw more evidence of the the results of lava meeting water. We saw much of that at  Skútustaδagigar pseudocraters.

These were created when water was trapped under hot flowing lava and then boiled and burst up through the surface creating what look like volcanic cones. We stopped and went for a lovely stroll up the hill for a nice overlook of the region with its pseudocraters. We did not have time to take the long walk around

This area also had hordes of the tiny midges.  By Canadian standards these were tiny and feckless. (I have come to love that word.) These are actually found all around Lake Mývatn. By Manitoba standards the bugs were a minor nuisance, at least when we were there. After all insects that don’t bite are hardly fearful to people accustomed to black flies, no-see-ums, horseflies, deer flies and mosquitoes. Of course the insects attract predators and as result  birds in this region were abundant.

Land of Fire & Ice

2018 Trip to Iceland,

There are few places in the world more interesting than Iceland. Iceland, is one of the most volcanically active places on the planet because it straddles a divergent boundary between two tectonic plates that is called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates are being pulled apart. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge actually runs from the Arctic Ocean to the South Pole dividing the North American and European continental tectonic plates and cuts right across Iceland  from the southwest to the northeast. I believe that some day, as a result Iceland will be split apart. This ridge is marked by a belt of volcanic craters, hot springs, steam springs, solfatars (areas of high temperature activity) and earthquakes.  Frankly, in this region, it always felt as if a volcano or some immense power from deep in the earth would erupt at any moment or an earthquake would make its presence felt. This belt is about 40 km (25 miles) wide in the north and up to 60 km. (40 miles) across the south. About 25% of Iceland is covered by this belt. It is everywhere.

Evidence of subterranean unrest has been felt in many places, but in particular Mount Krafla near Lake Mývatn where we drove through on our exploration of Northern Iceland.  This area was free from volcanic activity for more than 200 yeas until 1724 when it experienced a massive eruption that lasted for about 5 years. That lava flow did not stop until it got to near to  Reykjavik right where a church congregation had gathered to pray for deliverance and got it. A miracle? Divine intervention?

Much of the island conceals seething mass of volcanic and geothermal activity.  When you think about it, that is a little scary. There are more than 100 volcanoes in Iceland. 35 of them have been active in the past 10,000 years, which of course in geological times is the blink of an eye. In the past century Iceland has experienced an eruption every 5 years.  Many of them are called “tourist eruptions” because they last for a short time and excite the tourists, like the eruption of Mount Hekklain 1991.

Others cause more trouble, like the eruption in 2010 of the volcano Eyjafjallajökull that erupted under a glacier.  The ash cloud that was produced reached a height of 10km. (6mi.) and brought airplanes to a halt across Europe for 6 days. That episode cost an estimated €4 billion. About 20 countries closed their airspace to commercial jet traffic and it affected approximately 10 million travellers. It was the largest disruption of air travel since the Second World War.

At the time Chris and I were on a trip to China and feared our travel plans might be disrupted but we were far enough away to miss most of the excitement, except that in Chongqing where we waited about 10 hours in the airport while all planes were delayed or cancelled. I wonder if the two incidents were related. At the time we were never told anything other than that the delay was weather related. From April 14-20, ash from the volcano covered large areas of northern Europe.

This is just one way that this tiny little island of Iceland ,with less people on it than in Winnipeg, has punched above its weight in terms of effect on the planet. As my Guidebook says, “It has been estimated that one-third of all lava that has erupted on earth in recorded history has come from Iceland.”[1]

One of the world’s most catastrophic eruptions occurred in the south of Iceland when Lakagígar exploded in 1783. According to my Guidebook, “it poured out the largest lava flow ever produced by a single volcano in recorded history, with a volume of about 12 cubic km (3 cubic miles).  But that was not all of it. After that it also poured out noxious gases that poisoned crops, livestock and blocked out the sun to such an extent a disastrous famine followed. At least 20% (10,000) of the people in Iceland died, and many more around the world.  Much of the loss of life was caused by the subsequent “Haze famine.” Actually it led to famines around the world for years, and helped to cause the French revolution and other uprisings around the world.

The big problem with volcanoes on Iceland is the fact that so much of Iceland is covered with ice (about 11%).  When fire meets ice all hell breaks lose!  According to my Guidebook, “Eruptions from subglacial volcanoes often cause more damage than those from open-air volcanoes. Hot lava melts the ice triggering sudden floods—jökulhlaups—with unpredictable results. Mount Katla, the volcano lying dormant under the glacier Mýrdalsjökull, is Iceland’s largest caldera, at 80 sq. km. (30 sq. mi.) When Katla erupts the scientists have calculated that the jökulhlaups can be 200,000 cubic metres (7 million cubic ft.).

When a volcano in the Bárδarbunga-Grísvötn fissure erupted  in 1996 beneath Vatnajökull the largest glacier in Europe it pushed such massive amounts of ice and over a 100 sq. km. (60 sq. mi.) area. When the ice started to melt because of the power of the volcano the melt-water flowed into a caldera beneath the glacier. When that caldera filled up the water spilled over the brim creating massive flooding across the sand plain south of the glacier (where we later travelled) washing away any roads and bridges in it path. It dropped icebergs as big as apartment blocks that turned the sand into quick sand when they melted. Life is never simple when fire and ice mix.

In 2015, the Bárδarbunga-Grísvötn volcano became active again throwing 12 million tons of sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere and creating a lava field as big as Manhattan.

Volcanic eruptions occur about every 5 years in Iceland. There were more than 20 in the 20thcentury. Most of them go unseen beneath Vatnajökull the largest ice cap in Europe. 2 famous ones did not go unnoticed. The first was in 1963 and occurred off the south coast. When it erupted it created an entirely new island called Surtsey and we could see it faintly on our trip in the south part of Iceland. The second, a decade later, surprised everyone because it blew up in a volcano that was believed to be extinct. It was located on an island called Heimacy but the people were lucky because the fishing fleet was moored in the harbour that night and everyone of the 5,200 inhabitants was successfully evacuated. It extended the coast by about 5 km. The effects of fire and ice are profound.

 

 

 

 

[1]Insight Guides:Iceland(2017) p. 21

Where the Earth is being Pulled Apart

2018 Trip to Iceland

 

We walked where the world is breaking up.

Iceland is one of the most recently formed places on earth. That is because it is so volcanically active. Steaming lava fields are common. So are inactive lava fields, glaciers, hot pools, and geysers.  This makes Iceland unforgettable.    Much of that elemental handiwork is the result of the awesome power of volcanoes and tectonic plates. As my guide book explained,

In geological terms, Iceland is a mere baby.  No more than 20 millions years have passed since volcanoes on the floor of the far northern Atlantic Ocean began to spew lava, laying the foundations of what would become Iceland. Today it is still one of the most volcanically active spots on earth—giving geosciences the chance of observing a land still in the making.

What really astounded me is how Iceland makes visible for all to see, how tectonic platesoperate. The earth’s surface comprises a number of massive plates. There are thought to be 7 major plates and many more minor plates. Those tectonic plates are not static. Instead those tectonic plates float on the mass of superheated magma beneath them. These plates, for example, have caused the earth’s crust in many places to form huge mountain ranges. The earth is not inert, it is alive and constantly moving.

Nick Eyles and Andrew Miall have described rather well how these plates move:

“We now know that planet Earth is a giant engine fuelled by the heat generated by the radioactive decay of uranium, thorium, and potassium in its interior. In effect, Earth is a giant nuclear reactor. We live on its thin wet and brittle crust that is broken into rigid plates like panels on a soccer ball. These plates move over the Earth’s surface atop giant convection currents stirring deep within the mantle. Carrying continents as passengers, these migrating plates crate a dynamic, always changing jigsaw puzzle as one plate interacts with its neighbours. The term plate tectonics refers to the creation of new plates and inexorable destruction of old ones. .[1]

Scientists are still trying to unravel how the continents have moved. It boggled my mind when I first learned how Newfoundland was attached to north Africa and how that was discovered by Canadian geologists . Tectonic plates move, but they don’t move fast. They move at the speed that your fingernails grow (2 cm (0.75 inches) per year.

The history of how the science of plate tectonics developed is deeply fascinating. As Eyles and Miall explained,

“The concentration of radioactive elements in the mantle (such as uranium, thorium, and potassium) is very small but the mantle’s volume is so large that even after 4.5 billion years, more than 10 trillion Watts of power continues to be produced radioactive decay every second! Cooling of the Earth’s surface and heating of the interior forces motion in the mantle—a process known as mantle convection—where enormous slabs of cool dense rock sink deep into the planet below subduction zones. In addition to its own radioactive heating, the mantle is warmed by trillions of Watts of heat released from its underlying core. The core’s own heat produces 200-kilometre thick hot layer at the base of the mantle …. Gigantic columns of hot buoyant material known as plumes, rise from this layer and slowly creep upwards towards the surface. Diamonds ejected to the Earth’s surface through kimberlite pipes originate in this layer.  Convection of the Earth’s deep interior drives the relentless motion of tectonic plate of the Earth’s crust.  Despite its long history, the Earth has an enormous reserve of heat yet to be realized: consequently, the process of mantle convection, and thus plate tectonics will continue for billions of years to come.[2]

Most geological activity around the world is concentrated along boundaries between plates as, for example, the famous Pacific Rim or Iceland. This is caused by the dynamic interaction of one plate with an adjacent plate or plates.

Volcanoes and earthquakes are symptoms of these moving plates colliding with each other at the place where tectonic plates meet. The boundaries of the plates can be convergent or divergent. Where the plates move together they are called convergent plates. Where the plates move apart they are referred to as divergent plates. Where plates are divergent they tear apart and then magma rises to the surface of the earth at that place. As a result this magma forms a new crust of the Earth. Where the edge of one plate the edge of one plate is forced underneath another plate mountains can rise up. This is what we saw first hand in Iceland as these photographs clearly show.

Iceland straddles a divergent boundarycalled the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates are being pulled apart. We saw that clearly in Pingvellir where a UNESCO world heritage site has been declared as a result of that and its unique contribution to world culture (the world’s first parliament). It was astounding to see. According to our guide AO this and Africa are the only two places on the planet where this can actually be seen as clearly as this.

 

Pingvellir is the place where the two halves of Iceland and a good part of the part world, are breaking apart. The Eurasian and North American tectonic plates tear apart right here.    We actually walked right through the place where the world seems to be splitting apart!

Iceland created the world’s first commonwealth or Parliament at this same site in about  930 A.D. . This was the first Parliament in the world and the Icelanders are justifiably proud of it. While the rest of the world was “governed” by the feudalism system as in Europe or even worse in many other places, Iceland had a commonwealth though it was not yet democratic.  Icelanders wanted to make sure they were not rule by one king.  Some countries now seem to be in danger of going back to such a system.

[1 & 2]Nick Eyles and Andrew Miall, Canada Rocks, (2007)

Northern Iceland is Seldom seen.

2018 Trip to Iceland

 

It is a pity that few tourists in Iceland see the north part.  It is beautiful and thanks to the Gulf Stream is actually the warmest part of the country.

 

We spent 2 days exploring the are around Akureyri.  It is wonderful area.

 

Of course I am a wild flower guy, so I had to pay attention to them even in Iceland. They were extremely hard to photograph because it as so windy. Someone said, “Iceland is the third windiest country in the world and no one lives in the first two.”

Few people visit the north. That is a pity.

I was very surprised how beautiful Iceland was, even though friends who had been tried to tell me.

I can hardly wait to go back to Island

Strange Food in Iceland

2018 Trip to Iceland, ,

 

Part of menu from a restaurant in Iceland

Icelanders are strange. In many ways, and not least in the things that they will eat. Here is a partial list of things that they eat:

Fermented shark

Happy marriage (a pie with oatmeal crust0

Love balls (a desert)

Moss soup

Kleina (twisted pastry)

Sheep’s head soup

Black death ( schnapps made from fermented potatoes and caraway seeds.

Sour ram’s testicles

Blood pudding

Fish stomach

Added to that, horses are popular in Iceland. So is horsemeat. Many people cringe at the thought of horsemeat, but the fact is that 90% of that horsemeat is eaten by tourists!

Of course what seems  strange to us is natural to others.

Booms follow Busts; Busts follow Booms

2018 Trip to Iceland, Economics, ,

 

 

The National Bird of Iceland: Cranes

 

Our coach driver, A.O.,  pointed out how Iceland was coming back from their recession that was brought about when  their 3 major banks failed in 2008.  He said that Iceland was the only country to have paid back its IMF emergency loans. He said that now the country was back in a big spending mode. I had already noticed that cranes were omnipresent. It reminded me of Shanghai, which at one time reputedly had 1/3 of all the cranes in the world. In China our guide had said the crane was China’s national bird. Perhaps that was now true of Iceland. I hope that this spending  spree does not mean that another bust will follow the current boom. Busts are not pleasant.  Yet that is how capitalism seems to work. Booms are followed by busts. Bust  cause a lot of pain. I remember what John Kenneth Galbraith had said, “A balloon never deflates in an orderly fashion.”

Emigration to Canada is not entirely a pretty Story

2018 Trip to Iceland, Indigenous Issues

 

We had a very interesting visit in Hofsós Iceland. It is a beautiful little fishing village. But there is more to this village than fishing.

Hofsós also has an interesting  Museum of Emigration. This museum told a very interesting story. In the second half of the 19thcentury Iceland experienced climate change. As conditions got colder, farmer got more difficult. Life was harsh. Many people faced starvation. This led to a sharp increase in poverty and deprivation. Many people longed for a better life. Many were attracted by stories from agents of the Canadian and American governments of better conditions in North America.

Canada offered migrants from Iceland free land.  This was very hard to resist. This was the time in Canada when the government wanted to populate the west with white migrants from Europe. Mennonites were also offered free land. Mennonites were even promised freedom from military conscription.  Unfortunately many of the migrants did not understand what they were getting into. Icelanders, for example, did not know what to do with trees. After all they came from a treeless island. They did not understand how to use the tools they were given. They had no experience with the type of farming that was required to succeed in North America. As a result times were very difficult for these migrants to North America.

Many in our group of tourists were amazed that Canada would offer these people free land. How generous! It was generous. However it was not all selfless generosity.

There is another side to this story. This was also the time during which the Canadian government was trying to “clear the plains” to use an expression used by James Daschuk in his fine book, by that name, Clearing the Plains.

The government of Canada, after it was formed in 1867, wanted to pacify the Plains Indians, as they were referred to at the time, and avoid the messy and costly wars of conquest in the United States. The American government in one year spent 25% of its budget on these wars. It was vital to the plans of the Canadian government that Indians be kept on their reserves. As a result it was unlawful for any of them to leave the reserves without the approval of the government Indian agents.  To encourage the Indians to go to the reserves and then to stay there the government employed draconian tactics. Those tactics did not exclude enforced starvation! As Daschuk said, “while the Indians were starving, in many cases to death, the authorities withheld food that was available.”[1]

Daschuk added, “Instead of supplying rations to famine-stricken populations, ‘in a national famine’, As Morris had promised rations were used as a means of coercing Indians into submitting to treaty.”[2]“Submitting to Treaty” meant, entering into a treaty with the federal government and then staying on the Reserve, keeping the plains clear instead for European immigrants. The Canadian government wanted to fill the plains with white Europeans, after first removing the natural impediments—i.e. the indigenous people. What makes this even more remarkable, is that many of the indigenous people wanted to farm the land. They wanted to learn from the Canadians how to farm. the Canadian government often stood in their way preventing that from happening.

Canada was remarkably generous to the European immigrants. To the indigenous people they had displaced they were not so generous. It was not all a matter of kindness and light. I do not criticize the Europeans for accepting the invitation to move.  I will criticize their descendants however, if they choose to ignore the fact that their opportunity came in part at the expense of local people. They should not forget that. None of us should forget that.

[1]James Daschuk, Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life, (2013) p. 113

[2]James Daschuk, Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life, (2013) p. 114