Gudrun's photos

seen from Sprengisandur (highland road F26) At 925 km² Hofsjökull is Iceland's 3rd largest glacier. It lies in the geographical middle of the country and covers a large shield volcano with a massive caldera.

On the spit sheltering the lagoon of Lónsfjörður from the open sea. Apart from the many attractive pebbles (among them semi precious stones like jasper) there is also plenty of birdlife- thousands of whooper swans in the lagoon and seabirds like fulmars, puffins and guillemots out at sea. Lónsfjörður not every young swan survives, ravens and skuas also want to live... Fulmarus glacialis

Eystrahorn ( 756m) lies at the eastern end of Lón lagoon and just like Vestrahorn at the western end is part of an ancient volcano, consisting of gabbro and granophyr. de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krossanesfjall

seen from Höfn Vestrahorn consists of gabbro and granophyr, it was once part of the magma chamber of a long extinct volcano.

CMT9- Sailing/ Ships/ Boats Not many boats around here, no shipping on the river because of drought and the one pleasure boat that's usually moored wasn't there. So here's my attempt at launching a paper boat, first in the bathtub (see note) and then on a blue IKEA tray;-) By that time the boat had turned a bit soggy....

in the rift zone between the Eurasian and American plates. The jump isn't quite as harmless as it looks, see note. hFF, folks!

Herðubreið, the queen of Icelandic mountains - and seat of the gods (many believe this is the Asgard of the sagas). Herðubreið is a 1682m high table mountain (tuya) which erupted under ice age glaciation. At the very top (here covered by cloud) is a crater and some basalt whch made it out of the ice. The mountain with its steep and near symmetrical shape rises 1000m above the vast surrounding highland desert and is visible from afar.

Panorama stitched from 4 photos EXIF: 1/1000 • f/5.6 • 28.0 mm • ISO 100/ LEICA CAMERA AG LEICA Q2/ SUMMILUX 1:1.7/28 ASPH. Askja is a big central volcano in the middle of the Icelandic highlands, consisting of 3 nested calderas. Öskjuvatn (in the background) is Iceland's 2nd deepest lake (220m) and developed in the years/decades after the 1875 eruption when the magma chamber had emptied and the caldera slowly collapsed and filled with groundwater. Viti (Icelandic for hell) in the foreground is a maar, an explosion crater from a phreatic explosion which also happend in 1875. The water is sulphurous and people used to bathe in it. At the moment this is forbidden, as Askja seems to be slowly warming up towards another eruption. There has been an uplift of 35cm in recent times and the alert level has been raised to yellow. Snowfall when we arrived Swiss National Day is celebrated on 01.08, even in Askja;-)

Part of the northern Laki crater row with Síðujökull (part of Vatnajökull) in the background. The Laki fissure eruption of 1783/84 was one of the greatest natural disasters of the last 1000 years. A total of 14,7 km³ of lava flowed from 130 vents, eventually covering 600km². 122 million tonnes of SO² and 15 million tonnes of fluorine were emitted. In Iceland 80% of sheep and over 50% of other livestock died of fluorine poisoning, more than 20% of Icelanders died of starvation. The poisonous cloud covered much of Europe as a dry fog, leading to high excess mortality, crop failures and famine. Temperatures dropped by an average of 1,3°C for 2-3 years, causing an extremely cold winter and enormous flooding after snow melt in spring. www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2007/12/19/the-summer-of-acid-rain whc.unesco.org/en/list/1604 de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laki-Krater

EXIF: Canon EOS 6D/ EF24-70mm f/4L IS USM/ 1/80 • f/8.0 • 38.0 mm • ISO 250 Fagrifoss (literally: the beautiful waterfall) is near Road F206 to the Laki craters. Here the river Geirlandsá drops 80m into a canyon which is shot through with basalt dykes

SSC/ MM: Spraydose/ spray can

CMT8: Gardening A tough one living in a flat in town with no balcony and no houseplants whatsoever! I gave up on them long ago because they either died from neglect or thrived so well that they grew much too fast;-) All I have left is a watering can.

A steady procession of visitors, 10.000 in the first 48 hours of the new eruption;-) www.visitreykjanes.is/en/volcano-eruption/eruption-information/webcams-from-the-eruption-site hFF, folks!

Warning sign at the start of the path to the Reykjanes eruption Icelandic and English are to be expected but the third language shows just how many Poles there are working in Iceland!

Before you can enjoy the mild microclimate and the birch forests of Þórsmörk you have to ford at least one really serious river. The first and unavoidable obstacle is Steinholtsá, a glacial river coming from Eyjafjallajökull (see PiP). There have been fatal accidents because unprepared tourists tried crossing with small 4x4. When we got there, 2 big 4x4 were waiting and only followed after they had watched our bus successfully manage it. Kudos to our experienced and calm driver! This video mainly shows how not to cross (ignore the promotional bits), it's quite fun to watch: www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2y4Co9Mb_U

Road (F)249 branches off from the ring road and runs between the river Markarfljót and the slopes of Eyjafjallajökull. There are numerous river and stream crossings and especially some of the glacial rivers are notoriously unpredictable. Most of the streams are constantly changing their course so no reliable fords can be marked. We saw several exhaust pipes and number plates which careless motorists had lost in crossings;-) www.dangerousroads.org/europe/iceland/9850-f249-%C3%BE%C3%B3rsmerkurvegur.html The mountain/ glacier in the background is Mýrdalsjökull with Katla volcano underneath. www.katlageopark.com/about-katla

MM: Dessert/ Nachtisch

Panorama stitched from 10 verticals. EXIF: Canon EOS 6D, EF24-70mm f/4L IS USM- 55mm, ISO 400, F13, 1/320 Gigjökull (Crater Glacier) comes down from the top of Eyjafjalljökull and can be seen from the F-road to Þórsmörk. The photos were taken from the end moraine. Before the notorious 2010 eruption this was a famous beauty spot with pristine blue-white ice and a glacier lagoon with icebergs swimming in it. After the eruption the lagoon had disappeared, in its place were ash and volcanic debris and the glacier was a black stump. 12 years later it has started to recuperate though there's still plenty of ash. www.katlageopark.com/geosites/eyjafjallajokull-gigjokull-steinsholtsjokull