Iceland: Reykjanes Peninsula: BRIDGE BETWEEN CONTINENTS

Arrrgh! How could I talk about this with an eight year old when I am not completely clear about what's going on? Here are my "thoughts from the Bridge":

Remember?

There is a blue sphere travelling through the freezing Universe. The EARTH. 

Kind of like a nice rounded avocado tossed outside the window in the middle of Arctic December. I mean, the sphere is warm but it is travelling through freezing space.

Deep within Earth, like an avocado pit is the Earth's CORE.  Except this one is really, really hot and going crazy with all kinds of violent explosions and chemical reactions. 

Keeping the core in check is MANTLE - a soft coat, wrapped around the core. It is a burning semi-liquid that is slowly moving about because of the heat and reactions from the core within it

Exposed to the freezing Universe the mantle cools off and hardens into CRUST - the cold solid skin on the top. Unlike the skin on our avocado the Earth's crust is divided into large plates of different thickness, the floes, that are now surrounded by oceanic waters. The very thick floes stick above the oceans to form the land. But they can also thin down and, under the water, form the valleys and ridges and the sea bottom that holds the oceans in. It all looks like a big hot tub.

And where the sea bottom is really thin it is being ripped apart by the hot magma seeping from the ever moving mantle blow.

The floes (or plates) can be then pushed about a bit by the magma that is seeping from the mantle and all that movement can tear the sea floor and push the plates apart opening the vents for magma and allowing it to flow or explode up
Or it can take take the already separated ones closer to others.
Or it can suck them underneath each other causing the rumbling earthquakes and the rise of the mountain ranges as they move.
Wow.

That's what the people who posted this map had in mind .... to show us the weak connections (red) in the ocean floor.

The arrows on their map show the movement of the plates. 

As we can see, Iceland straddles one of those lines where the plates are being pushed apart.  

It sits right in the middle - with magma erupting from below. The part to our right belongs to the Euroasian plate, while the part, on the left, is on the North American plate.
Oh-oh!

All those yellow triangles are the famous Icelandic volcanoes, while the red shows the rip - so far being the way down below the surface - tearing this island apart. Iceland is like a loaf of bread with its 2 halves being slowly separated from the bottom

It is all happening S-L-O-W-L-Y; maybe a couple of centimeters per year. 
Nevertheless, in a couple of places, the seam is now visible. It is here, on Reykjanes Peninsula and in Pingvellir National Park not far from there.

And Iceland is one of only two places in the world where we can stop and witness such change. 
(The other one is The Great Rift Valley of East Africa.). 

Of course it is all more complicated than this, but it was enough to make us search for that one place where we could witness a milli-moment in a birth of new continents. 

"Bridge Between Continents"

Half an hour ago we left Hafnir, its charming church, the shipwreck's anchor and its cute horses behind, to search for this intriguing place. 

There are no more communities, just vast lava fields dating back to the 13th century AC. Not that old for lava fields, to think about it.

Knowing not what to expect, we are searching the landscape for a sign of a division. 

And when we see a dark path marked by a bunch of stone pylons we screech the car to a halt, jump out into the howling wind and make our way down to the info boards. 

This must be it!

Well, it is NOT!

A neat sign by the road informs us that we are MANY kilometers away from the planet Uranus so it would be too far to walk there.

According to the info board the marked pathway leads to the sea cliffs of Hafnaberg, famous for its bird populations and a location of a disputed claim that the last Great Auk, Pinguinus impennis, had been killed and eaten there. The year was 1844.


(No, it wasn;t here, some say, it was on an island few kilometers away. Sad story in any case.)

The wind is fusing our clothes to the skin and we beat a hasty retreat - no, this is not the place! We have no desire to walk a couple of kilometers to the shore to cater to our birdwatching ambitions. This, of course, is an unusual statement from me! 

Perhaps some other time.

Where, oh where? 
We keep on driving and....HOORAY! There is the sign!

Then we see it! 

A seam in the ground,  It is Nature-made and it leads to a bridge spanning its edges. This is it!

Here, slowly and patiently, the land is being ripped apart. 2 cm a year. 25 kilometers in one million years!

There in the lava field, just by the highway sign, is a narrow, paved road leading to a small parking lot.

And only a short walk from there is the bridge! 

Thanks Lucia for wearing that red jacket! A welcome bit of colour on the colour-void day.

But wait! There is more colour there - a pink cushion of brave Chickweed Willowherb, Epilobium alsinifolium along with Sea Campion, Silene spp , grasses, lichens and mosses is trying to colonize the lava field.

And here is the famous bridge.

A shootout - from one continent to another according to where we live:

Stan on the Euroasian, I on the North American plate.

Throw a rope - perhaps we can hold them together.

Or we can add a lock to the railing, maybe that will hold!






As mentioned above, this ditch will be some 25 kilometers wider one million years from now.


Can't wait to photograph that!

  

So, there we have it! 

Took a few pictures and plodded away - rain-and-wind caressed but richer inside. 

This whole lava field is a neat place - crazy for any photographer and amazing for everyone else who feels like bearing a witness to the history of Earth.

Leaving those few brave plants behind, we cannot keep but wonder if more life will have a chance to colonize the field before another eruption smothers them away. 

Worth every effort! 

And now we are off to the hot area of Gunnuhver