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

Iceland: Reykjanes Peninsula: SANDGERDI and HAFNIR

Leaving the lighthouses of  Gardaskagi behind, we continue south along the short west coast of Reykjanes Penninsula.
On our right is the dark, unfriendly ocean, on the left, flat lava fields  old enough to be covered by a thin layer of soil.

Weather is not cooperating - what a while ago seemed like timid sunshine quickly disappears behind the low, speeding clouds.
Rain is starting to fall and the wind is picking up once more.


One must be tough to live here, we think.  Humans, animals and plants alike.

Only a few kilometers from the lighthouses is another small community.

Sandergi, I read somewhere, means "sand dunes".
There are no sand dunes to be seen from where we are, only an interesting harbour with small and large fishing vessels.







This community of a couple of hundred people is located near rich fishing grounds which makes Sangerdi one of the most important fishing places in Iceland. No wonder then,  that in the16th century the Scottish chose this area for their fishing and fish-processing enterprises.

It is also no wonder that this area, its cliffs and islands host a variety of bird species advertised by every publication we read.

According to Lonely Planet's excellent tour guide on "Iceland" there are several places to visit here; Nature Museum and the fish processing plant bring just a couple of them.

Unfortunately time is of the essence and in order to stick to our itinerary we must continue on.
Before our departure to this country we heard that Iceland had been rated as the number one regarding the standard of living - or one of the highest in the world anyway.
Perhaps its people do not rely on loans. (???)
 Just Google it for yourself. I got some very interesting answers.

We are slowly finding our way from Sandgerði to Hafnir: another small community where the lava fields seem to encroach ever closer to the coast. 

But first: HAFNIR:

This is a place believed to be the site of the first settlement in Iceland. At least the first to give some archaeological evidence dated to about 800 AC. If you go on Google Earth and zoom down into the village you might be able to find the site. 

I believe that it will show up near this green house in the vicinity of  Kirkjuvogur Church.

 
 Kirkjuvogur Church, one of the oldest in the area, was built in 1860 by a farmer named Vilhjalmur Hokanarson.
Which brings me to the Icelandic naming - if the surname ends in "son"  it means that we are reading about a man.
An ending "dottir" means a woman. 

It is always the father's name that the  "son" or "dottir" are affixed to.

 
The entrance to the church and the cemetery was locked and we had no means of checking who and when was buried there..

Which was just fine - let them all rest in peace.

A strange story is told about this place.
In 1881 a large American ship, fully loaded with wood and destined for England, ran aground here, by Hafnir. 
Strangely, there was no crew on board.
The locals salvaged the wood and put the anchor on display.
What could have happened to the sailors?
What happened to them?

There is a really good explanation there on Wikipedia.

Here, for the first time, we finally meet Icelandic horses! Those of you who follow my blog understand that I like to photograph wildlife. For the most of our trip these special horses and semi-wild, cute Icelandic sheep represented the land mammals of Iceland. 

Never mind - it was the love at the first sight anyway. The only problem was that they just kept on pulling the grass, hardly ever lifting their beautiful fully-maned heads to pose for a photo.

I will talk about the horses in one of my following blogs; for now we shall continue to Gunnuhver where the steam and bubbling mud rise up to the tortured surface from the depths of Earth.

Iceland: Reykjanes Peninsula: GARDSKAGI

 

 

It is day 2 of our trip to Iceland. The plan? 
To explore Reykjanes Peninsula on which we landed yesterday morning. We already know a bit about Keflavik and Blue Lagoon. 

See what we can learn today.

Only a stone-throw from Keflavik is a small place called Gardskagi. There are 2 lighthouses there, guarding the unfriendly shores of Reykjanes. 

Those, and a shipload of history washed away by the relentless waves, yet remembered by many await the visitors.

The following photo of a displayed poster can explain the place much better than I could ever hope to do.

This is the old lighthouse - unfortunately closed for the season. 

The 12 m lighthouse serves now mostly to birdwatchers and photographers.

The black-stone beach is rough but shallow for quite a distance; how far we cannot tell.  
We can see tiny specs of fishing boats far away on the horizon. 


It is windy and cold at 7C with rain just starting to fall. This certainly is no user friendly beach today.




Birds, mentioned by the poster above, are either hiding or gone somewhere else and save for a  bunch of hungry cormorants there is not a wild soul in sight.

The old lighthouse had been built too close to the ever eroding shore. that's why in 1944 a new one was built on the land much further away. WWII had probably something to do with this as well. 

Recognized as one of Iceland's favorite lighthouses it reaches 28 meters in height and it is now used also in connection with weather monitoring systems.

Just like at the old lighthouse the stairway to the top is also locked but the main entrance is open so we can peek in. 

On the wall inside rests a large bronze plaque commemorating an event of fifty years ago:

 The American ship named Alexander Hamilton had been torpedoed by the German forces and started to sink. Disregarding the danger, 3 small Icelandic fishing boats immediately set out to rescue the soldiers who were fighting for their lives in the frigid January waters.

Though some 20 lives were lost that day, more than 80 people had been saved by the heroic action of the Icelanders.

Next to the lighthouse and the displayed fishing boat is a small museum (closed) and a fitting statue of a fisherman's wife looking out to the sea.

It is difficult for us, the never sailing folk, to imagine what it must be like to be in a small fishing boat and out on the open unfriendly sea.

At one end of the area there is a small campground. No tents at the moment but a couple of RVs are cruising by.

We are impressed by a small utility shed - with toilets on one side and a nice washing space on the other. 

Like everywhere else we have seen so far, here too, everything is tidy and clean.

And to round things up we also learn about some of the local plants:

Arctic Sea Rocket, Cakile arctica is apparently the most common flowering plat here. Being a gardener I recognize the name. 

Surely enough, there is a clump, quivering amongst the rocks. 

Another plant, that grows wild here, surprise, surprise, is Caraway, Carum carvi. 
There is none now but according to the info board it covers the area in July.
Oh yes, the fragrant caraway! We use its seeds at home for cooking. 








Here, along with other herbs, they also use it for something that we discovered last night: a potent Icelandic spirit called Brennivin. 
It is not sweet and it is strong - jokingly the locals nicknamed it "black death". (Thus the label)

We liked the taste.

Time to go on. Leaving the northernmost point of the peninsula we are setting out to find some really wild places in the black lava fields of Reykjanes.

The last photo taken from our speeding car (50 km/hr) represents the body of water that probably serves all those birds who come here coming during Spring and Fall. 
For now, all is calm, only the rain and wind play their music to accompany us on our journey south from here.