tomsart, 2 months ago

Further #Iceland sights! A couple spots #hiking around Reykjavik, including actual trees! On the whole I saw many more trees in Iceland than I had been led to believe existed, though I'm sure there were way more before the vikings and their sheep.

A clear sky sunset on the coast near Reykjavik with golden colors on along the horizon above the ocean. In the distance is a puff of clouds emanating from the ongoing eruption near Grindavik.
An extremely sketchy wooden mountain bike path through the forest near the Perlan Museum. Bits of the path have fallen down, but I'm sure it was very exciting once upon a time.
At the Recycled House at Laugarnes, looking into the ocean with a rusty desk in the foreground, which has a rusty spiral chain rising off the desk and over the horizon.

tomsart, 2 months ago

Frozen #waterfalls, such as Sjávarfoss along Hvalfjörður in Iceland.. Quite a nice fjord! Started in Akranes, which has a lighthouse you can go up for a great view. Ended up at Hvammsvik hot springs, at which you can go from steaming pools right into the freezing ocean! I still have to work on my freezing dunking will power, I only got in the ocean up to my knees. Maybe next time! Plus I'd love to go back to hike up the Akrafjall mountain, which to me looks like the top of a giant owl.

Lots of icicles and other flows of frozen water oozing out of the walls near the river that feeds Sjávarfoss.
Looking down at Sjávarfoss. The river is mostly frozen, but there is still some flowing water to be seen down the middle, adding to the blobby icicled crusting of the waterfall itself.
The view from the Akranes lighthouse, looking back toward Akranes. There banks of land that kind of look like dikes on the left, and a giant fish drying rack on the right. Past the town on the right is a dramatic Akrafjall Mountain with a sort of double ridged shape.

tomsart, 2 months ago

Some more #waterfalls in #Iceland! Öxarárfoss along plate tectonic rifting, also Þingvellir which was Iceland's parliament location for roughly 1000 years. Plus Gullfoss. Utterly amazing.

Þingvellir, a tectonic spreading rift. Vertical basalt cliff on one side of the rift, slight lower and sloping down to the right on the other side, with some nice pahoehoe (i think) patterns in the rock.
Gullfoss! A gigantic blue green waterfall raging down a canyon, cutting diagonally through the river and twisting off into the distance. Steep columnar basalt walls alternate with eroded, sloping sedimentary layers.
Alternate view of Gullfoss showing the falls cutting diagonally to the left through sedimentary layers along one fault line, then cutting diagonally the opposite way across the river again along a different fault line!