@earthstory / earthstory.tumblr.com
world_walkabout
Snorkelling the rift between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. The water was a little chilly at 2 degrees celsius but we were kept warm and dry in dry suits. The water was so crystal clear and at any time you felt thirsty, you can take out your snorkel and have a drink.
#iceland🇮🇸
yumiantikwok
Þingvellir Lake (Iceland's largest natural lake) at Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park, 40km northeast of Reykjavík.
A biking trip through all sorts of lava fields and flows, some of them moss covered, including Þingvellir National Park. Original caption:
That video was filmed with a DJI Mavic Pro, Lumix G70 and a few shots with an old GoPro 3. Total flight time was 176min.
I cycled from Keflavik Airpot the R1 to the Road 32 and then via the F26 to the North of Iceland. I had a great "all you can eat breakfast" just a few Kilometers before the Ring road in the north. Then i cycled to the Ring road westerly and down to the south near reykjavik. Did a few excellent gravel roads before i headed to pingvelur... Then i cycled to Reykjavik and enjoyed "big city" atmosphere ;). After that i cycled to the south coast and were really surprised how beautiful that area of Iceland is. Sadly after that i headed to the airport again...
Mor Info onFacebook: facebook.com/profile.php?id=100012308251732
Flosagjá-fissure, Þingvellir
©islandfeuer 2010-2015. All Rights Reserved Please leave captions + credits intact | Please respect, NO reblog to 18+
Original caption:
Wonder what traveling around Iceland on the Ring Road for 10 days is like? Follow along for a 12min extended version of our adventures!
Not enough time? Watch a 3min version here: vimeo.com/251913528 Visit ChrisGiordano.com/Iceland to see an interactive map with photos/video from the field! In September 2017 my mother and I completed a self drive tour circling the land of Fire and Ice with a dense 43-page itinerary that kept us on the move - often with 10-12 hour days - to see lots of iconic landmarks in a short period of time! Following a 7hr red eye flight to Keflavík we picked up our Kia Sportage (with built in GPS and additional Wi-FI router - these came in handy when navigating difficult locations!) and from there our adventure began! Landscapes ranged from epic sea cliffs with waterfalls or glacier tongues erupting from them seemingly every two minutes, to expansive rolling hill pastures, and moss covered rocky lava fields. We quickly realized N1 stations would be our best friends as they had petrol for the car, snacks, coffee, and friendly employees. Challenges arose with figuring out the order of destinations to navigate to in keeping up with the itinerary, and so as not to backtrack. Each night we would go over when we should wake up, visit Destination 1, when to leave Destination 1 to catch a tour at Destination 2, etc etc. Meanwhile I'd be offloading footage, charging different camera batteries, and posting daily summaries to Facebook. Overcoming these adventure travel challenges, however, let us experience a vast spread of Iceland, learn a lot of history, and meet wonderful people. Visiting in September had reduced crowds and surprisingly crisp weather; usually around 50°F in the day, with minimal rain and wind.
If you’ve been thinking of visiting Iceland I hope this helps solidify your decision - this place is life changing! We saw DOZENS of friends and young couples driving around in small “Happy Camper” vans spending the night wherever they could park. There were people like us following an itinerary and staying in hotels, and even many people backpack traveling and likely staying in hostels or AirBnB!
Huge thanks to all the tour companies and their excellent guides! ——————— SOME HIGHLIGHTS
The South Coast • Descending 120m into magma chamber of dormant Thrihnukagigur volcano on caving tour • Walking behind Seljalandsfoss waterfall • Amphibian boat ride on Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon where James Bond car chase on ice was filmed • Diamond Beach and Reynisfjara black pebble beach • Glacier hike with crampons and ice axe on Sólheimajökull glacier • Svínafellsjökull glacier tongue right outside window at Hótel Skaftafell
The Golden Circle • Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park, where Icelandic parliament was founded in 930 AD, and a beautiful landscape where the tectonic plays of Europe and America meet • The eruption of Strokkur the geyser at Geysir hot spring in Haukadalur valley • Staying in Hótel Gullfoss, seeing aurora borealis for the first time and a sunrise visit to Gullfoss, the Golden Waterfall the next morning
In the East • Driving through the East Fjords offered impressive cliffside views with scattered rock and grass encircled by seabirds above. Dramatic light and shadow! • Egilsstaðir, a nice town we spent a rainy night with great pizza at a warm little restaurant
In the North • Standing at the edge of Dettifoss, Europe’s most powerful waterfall and the filming location for the intro to the movie “Prometheus” • Mývatn, a volcanic lake surrounded by moss covered rock and nearby Hverfjall tephra cone • Whale watching tour in Húsavík • Turning 30 in Blönduós with beach sunset and aurora borealis • Visiting Nyibaer turf house in Holar
In the West • Kirkjufell, the most photographed mountain in Iceland and nearby Kirkjufellfoss waterfall • Driving the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, Lóndrangar basalt pillars • Staying in at Hotel Fransiskus, once a Catholic monastery turned hotel, in Stykkishólmur, near where a scene from “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” was filmed • Hvítserkur basalt stack on beach that looks like a dragon drinking • Walking deep into Langjökull glacier on the Ice Tunnel tour ——————— VIDEO Chris Giordano ChrisGiordano.com FB / IG: giordanomedia
Sony a7rii Canon 16-35L + 70-200L GoPro Hero5 DJI Mavic Pro
MUSIC EpidemicSound.com ——————— TRAVEL RESOURCES
Guide To Iceland (Overall 10-day self-drive trip itinerary) guidetoiceland.is/
Inside the Volcano (Thrihnukagigur magma chamber tour) insidethevolcano.com/
Troll Expeditions (Glacier hike on Sólheimajökull) trollaferdir.is/
Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon (Amphibian boat tour) icelagoon.is/
Into the Glacier (ice cave tour inside Langjökull) intotheglacier.is/
Gentle Giants (Whale watching tour in Húsavík) gentlegiants.is/
Bridge over 2 continents, Þingvellir National Park, Iceland
Die Almannagjá im Þingvellir National Park.
The Almannagja gorge in Thingvellir National Park.
©islandfeuer 2010. All Rights Reserved | Please leave captions + credits intact Please respect, NO reblog to 18+
Þingvellir | Iceland On my second visit to Iceland with a first-time visitor there was only one way to revisit the Golden Circle - in the magical light before and after midnight. Taken at around 11pm, we had the Þingvellir plateau to ourselves when this image was captured.
Drone flight along Þingvellir rift, Iceland - cracks are faults that are expressions of the mid-atlantic ridge running through Iceland.
10.4.17 || Iceland day two: Gullfoss, Geysir area, Þingvellir National Park and Faxi Waterfall
This trip to Iceland starts with a walk through a fracture related to the mid-Atlantic ridge system at Þingvellir National Park, then includes drone videos flying over the ocean, black sand beaches, Goðafoss waterfall, and a volcanic cinder cone, then tops that off with the aurora borealis exploding over Jokulsrlon and Kirkjufell
Freezing waterfall, mist, and morning sun, Þingvellir - Thingvellir National Park, Iceland
12 day, drone-present loop around Iceland’s coast road. The Causeway in the first minute looks amazing! Followed by a drone flyby of Kirkjufell and a columnar jointed lava flow falling apart at the edges, the Hraunfosser waterfall, the fault rift at Þingvellir national park, a flyover of Dynjandi Waterfall, hydrothermal features, canyons, Gulfoss Waterfall, Skogafoss waterfall, and others I don’t even know the name of.
Þingvellir – contintents breaking apart
It is well known that Iceland has one of the most fascinating and unique geological settings on earth. The island lies on top of a hot spot (stationary plume of magma) as well as on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The combination of these two features caused excessive volcanic eruptions. As the plates moved apart a continuous flow of lava was pushed out from underneath the earth’s crust. It eventually breached the surface of the sea and created the island of Iceland.
The plate motion produced several formations which allow us to see the effects of the North American and Eurasian Plates drifting apart. It can be best observed in the famous Þingvellir National Park (pronounced „thinkvetlir“) displaying a rift, which has produced dramatic fissures and cliffs on both sides of the valley.
The national park is enclosed on three sides by mountains and on the southern side by Iceland’s biggest lake called Þingvallavatn. The lake is very deep and with its maximum depth of 114 meters it even descends about 10 meters below the present sea level. It originated as a glacial lake about 10 000 years ago. Its size and shape was changed because of three big volcanic eruptions which filled the valley with lava. The lava leads to a high uptake of minerals in the groundwater and this is one of the reasons for the great diversity of life in the water. It also creates many hideouts and holes for animals in the lake, as well as along its shore.
The major feature of the park, however, is the graben running along the valley. It is characterized by blocks stepping towards the east on the west side (North American plate), while the situation is reversed on the east side (Eurasian plate). These almost parallel faults on both sides of the valley are deeply rooted, sometimes filled with crystal clear water and can cause occasional earthquakes in the area.
The floor of the valley is a linear block that has subsided as the plates were pulled away from each other. Currently the walls are moving apart at a rate of about 7 mm per year and the floor is subsiding at about 1 mm per year.
The Þingvellir National Park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site on cultural criteria because it hosted one of the first democratic assemblies ever, called the “AlÞing”. It was established in 930 and continued until 1798 in this very special location. During the AlÞing laws were proclaimed, charges made and verdicts announced. Remains from the assembly can still be seen in the national park.
All these factors make Þingvellir a site of historical, cultural, and geological importance and one of the most popular tourist destinations. Together with waterfall Gullfoss and the geysers it is part of a group of the most famous sights of Iceland, the Golden Circle.
Xandi
Image credits: http://bit.ly/1R9btda http://bit.ly/1P9IK1L Sources: http://www.thingvellir.is/english/ http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1152 http://bit.ly/1YPcQ4Z
Dive Between the Plates
Iceland is situated directly on the boundary between the North American and Eurasia tectonic plates. These plates move apart at around 2cm per year. As part of this spreading, giant fissures open up, and in some places fill with water. Silfra is one such place. Located in Thinvellir Lake in Thingvellir National Park, which was the first national park in Iceland and is also UNESCSO World Heritage Site. Silfra has remarkably clear water, which makes it an excellent diving location, with visibilities exceeding 100m. But the water is also very cold, ranging from 2°C to 4°C year-round.
The clarity of the water is a result of volcanic activity upstream of the lake. As water from Lángjökull glacier melts it trickles through the porous volcanic rock, taking between 30 to 100 years to travel the 50km from the glacier to the lake. This filters the water to a quality so pure that divers often drink right from the lake.
Despite the beauty divers must remember that this is area is tectonically very active, with large earthquakes occurring about every 10 years, the last one in 2008 measured 5.4 on the Richter scale.
Photo Credit: Alexander Mustard
References:
http://www.dive.is/Diving_Iceland.php?page=Silfra
http://www.silfra.org/the_geology_of_silfra.html
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1152
