🇮🇸 ICELAND 🇮🇸
the land of ice and fire
Volcanos
Iceland has around 30 active volcanic systems, comprising each volcano-tectonic fissure systems and many of them also a central volcano (mostly in the form of a stratovolcano, sometimes of a shield volcano with a magma chamber underneath). Thirteen volcanic systems have hosted eruptions since the settlement of Iceland in AD 874. In 2021, following a three-week period of increased seismic activity, an eruption fissure developed near Fagradalsfjall, a mountain on the Reykjanes Peninsula. Fagradalsfjall had been dormant for 6,000 years. The eruptive activity was first announced by the Icelandic Meteorological Office at 9:40 PM. Reports stated a 600–700-metre-long fissure vent began ejecting lava, which covered an area of less than 1 square kilometre. On 13 April 2021, 4 new craters formed in Geldingadalir within the lava flows.
Puffins
The puffins are stocky, short-winged, and short-tailed birds, with black upper parts and white or brownish-grey underparts. The head has a black cap, the face is mainly white, and the feet are orange-red. The bill appears large and colorful during the breeding season. The colorful outer part of the bill is shed after the breeding season, revealing a smaller and duller true bill beneath. Although the puffins are vocal at their breeding colonies, they are silent at sea. They fly relatively high above the water, typically 10 m as compared with the 1.6 m of other auks. In the air, they beat their wings rapidly (up to 400 times per minute) in swift flight, often flying low over the ocean's surface. Their short wings are adapted for swimming with a flying technique underwater.
Geysers
A geyser is a spring characterized by an intermittent discharge of water
ejected turbulently and accompanied by steam. As a fairly rare
phenomenon, the formation of geysers is due to particular
hydrogeological conditions that exist only in a few places on Earth.
Generally all geyser field sites are located near active volcanic areas,
and the geyser effect is due to the proximity of magma. Generally,
surface water works its way down to an average depth of around 2,000
metres where it contacts hot rocks. The resultant boiling of the
pressurized water results in the geyser effect of hot water and steam
spraying out of the geyser's surface vent (a hydrothermal explosion).
The English word geyser derives from Geysir, the first geyser
described in a printed source and the first known to modern Europeans.
Eruptions at Geysir can hurl boiling water up to 70 metres in
the air. However, eruptions may be infrequent, and have in the past
stopped altogether for years at a time. Geysir lies in the
Haukadalur valley on the slopes of Laugarfjall hill, which is
also the home to Strokkur geyser about 50 metres south.
