Geography trip to Iceland October 2014

Day 1

We started off the trip by visiting a geothermal power plant. The power plant was built beside an active volcano that erupted 3000 years ago and is expected to erupt again in 2000 years. They drilled pipes down into the ground to heat the water. This water heats about 99% of the buildings and swimming pools in the capital city, Reykjavik. Because it is so cheap in Iceland to have hot water and electricity, they also have an underground heating system to melt snow and ice off roads, pavements and carparks. The pearl is a store of hot water which contains enough hot water to heat Reykjavik for 3 days!

That night, we went disco bowling in the bowling palace.

Day 2

That morning, we got up early to visit the canyon where the Eurasian and American plates separated. The plates move apart by 2 cm each year. Iceland is drifting apart every year and eventually, it will be in 2 pieces.

We then visited the Golden circle where we saw a huge waterfall.

In the golden circle, we also saw geysers and hot springs. Every 7 minutes one of the geysers erupts.

That night, we swam in the blue lagoon- a naturally heated pool rich in minerals such as sulphur. The blue lagoon also has great skin healing qualities.

Day 3

That morning we went on a glacier walk. We walked 45 minutes through the mountains to get to the glacier. We were fitted with crampons, a harness and an ice hack. On the walk, we climbed into an ice cave and saw lots of crevices and moulins.

After the glacier walk we went to two waterfalls. The water in the waterfalls were the melt water from the glacier. At the first waterfall, we climbed 414 stairs to the top of the waterfall! At the second one, we walked behind the waterfall.

We then visited an earthquake simulator, which measured 6.3 on the richter scale.

That evening we visited an outdoor heated swimming pool with smaller pools of up to 46 degrees celcius. These pools were heated by geothermal energy.

Day 4

On our last day, we went on a walking tour of Reykjavik. We first visited the biggest church in Iceland- a Lutheran church (Lutheran is the predominant religion of Iceland).

We then went to a local flea market where we saw traditional Icelandic market life.