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Please excuse the pictures. The computer, the internet and I are talking to each other tonight.
Gullfoss Waterfall, Iceland's Old Faithful, North American Plate side of the Riff, The Mid Atlantic Riff
This morning we woke up in Reykjavik, Iceland. We knew that we would be getting off the ship as the weather was cloudy, there was rain, the temperature was in the low 50s and it was windy.
We joined our tour group of 14 other cruisers, boarded our van and headed for the Mid Atlantic Riff. The Riff is quite impressive and it is not a small crack in the earth, but about 10 kilometers wide. It developed when magna chambers under the crust collapsed and the ground above settled about 150 to 200 feet. This created sheer cliffs and a lake formed in some of the rift area. The Mid Atlantic Ridge is the location of where the Eurasia continent plate is moving east and the North American continent plate is moving west. This is causing Iceland to grow about 2 centimeters a year. As our guide said, “someday Iceland will be the biggest island”.
After taking in the Riff we moved on to the geyser fields. The term geyser comes from Iceland. The Nordic word Geyser, means gushing water, and that is the name of the oldest geyser in the park. The Europeans thought that this was probably the only one in the world, so they took this name back to their countries. When more were discovered they called them geysers and the common name for but the original is just geyser. In Iceland you are liable to find a geyser anywhere. You look up in the hills or in the valleys and you will see steam rising somewhere. The island is very volcanic and they average an eruption every 4 years. They are overdue as the last volcanic eruption was 7 years ago.
From here we moved on to Gullfoss, which is a beautiful waterfall. Here we stopped for lunch and then walked down to the falls. It is not as large as Niagara Fall’s, but remind you of it. This week is fall in Iceland and the plants (weeds) are turning like our trees. If the sun had been out it would have been very pretty with their yellow and brown colors. The saying in Iceland is “if you get lost in the forest here, just stand up”. They are reintroducing trees, but it is a slow process, so brush makes up most of the wild vegetation.
They are growing bananas, strawberries, tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables here now. They run the thermal heat through pipes under their greenhouses and then grow whatever they want. There is a lady in the northern part of Iceland that claims to grow bananas further north than anyone else. She is about 40 miles from the Arctic Circle.
We saw many Icelandic horses in the fields. They have not allowed horses to be imported since before 1000 AD. There was a plague in Europe and the Icelandic people did not want it to affect their stock and this law is the oldest continuous law on the books. They now keep in place, as they sell their stock to horse collectors for considerable sums of money.
We visited a thermal power station, which is quite unique. They take the hot water from wells and pass it through condensers. The steam rises into one pipe and the hot water settles into another. The steam is used to turn turbines to generate electricity and the water is piped to the city of Reykjavik for the use by the citizens. They do not own water heaters here as it is furnished by the power station. The loss of temperature for the 30 mile run through the pipes is only 2 degrees.
They have a lot of potential for energy production, from thermals and water. They are producing hydrogen for use in running automobiles. They already have a hydrogen filling station in Reykjavik, and hope to export it to the world in the near future for fuel for our cars. The new process makes hydrogen that is less vulnerable to fire than gasoline.
The economy is in chaos here. The black market and bartering is in full swing. The bankers took full advantage of the people and escaped with billions of dollars, while the islanders took it in the -----. The bankers, although guilty of sacking the country have new banking jobs with other countries. The banks there thought if they were smart enough to get away with it in Iceland, think what they could do in our country. Keep an eye on your banks.
We are now headed for Greenland, two sea days. The captain say to be prepared for a rough ride. Hope he is exaggerating.
We joined our tour group of 14 other cruisers, boarded our van and headed for the Mid Atlantic Riff. The Riff is quite impressive and it is not a small crack in the earth, but about 10 kilometers wide. It developed when magna chambers under the crust collapsed and the ground above settled about 150 to 200 feet. This created sheer cliffs and a lake formed in some of the rift area. The Mid Atlantic Ridge is the location of where the Eurasia continent plate is moving east and the North American continent plate is moving west. This is causing Iceland to grow about 2 centimeters a year. As our guide said, “someday Iceland will be the biggest island”.
After taking in the Riff we moved on to the geyser fields. The term geyser comes from Iceland. The Nordic word Geyser, means gushing water, and that is the name of the oldest geyser in the park. The Europeans thought that this was probably the only one in the world, so they took this name back to their countries. When more were discovered they called them geysers and the common name for but the original is just geyser. In Iceland you are liable to find a geyser anywhere. You look up in the hills or in the valleys and you will see steam rising somewhere. The island is very volcanic and they average an eruption every 4 years. They are overdue as the last volcanic eruption was 7 years ago.
From here we moved on to Gullfoss, which is a beautiful waterfall. Here we stopped for lunch and then walked down to the falls. It is not as large as Niagara Fall’s, but remind you of it. This week is fall in Iceland and the plants (weeds) are turning like our trees. If the sun had been out it would have been very pretty with their yellow and brown colors. The saying in Iceland is “if you get lost in the forest here, just stand up”. They are reintroducing trees, but it is a slow process, so brush makes up most of the wild vegetation.
They are growing bananas, strawberries, tomatoes, and other fruits and vegetables here now. They run the thermal heat through pipes under their greenhouses and then grow whatever they want. There is a lady in the northern part of Iceland that claims to grow bananas further north than anyone else. She is about 40 miles from the Arctic Circle.
We saw many Icelandic horses in the fields. They have not allowed horses to be imported since before 1000 AD. There was a plague in Europe and the Icelandic people did not want it to affect their stock and this law is the oldest continuous law on the books. They now keep in place, as they sell their stock to horse collectors for considerable sums of money.
We visited a thermal power station, which is quite unique. They take the hot water from wells and pass it through condensers. The steam rises into one pipe and the hot water settles into another. The steam is used to turn turbines to generate electricity and the water is piped to the city of Reykjavik for the use by the citizens. They do not own water heaters here as it is furnished by the power station. The loss of temperature for the 30 mile run through the pipes is only 2 degrees.
They have a lot of potential for energy production, from thermals and water. They are producing hydrogen for use in running automobiles. They already have a hydrogen filling station in Reykjavik, and hope to export it to the world in the near future for fuel for our cars. The new process makes hydrogen that is less vulnerable to fire than gasoline.
The economy is in chaos here. The black market and bartering is in full swing. The bankers took full advantage of the people and escaped with billions of dollars, while the islanders took it in the -----. The bankers, although guilty of sacking the country have new banking jobs with other countries. The banks there thought if they were smart enough to get away with it in Iceland, think what they could do in our country. Keep an eye on your banks.
We are now headed for Greenland, two sea days. The captain say to be prepared for a rough ride. Hope he is exaggerating.
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