Blast from the Past: Soloheimajokull

Sorry today's entry is a bit late! The Labor Day festivities here in America kind of put me behind. :)

Sólheimajökull (Soh-loh-HAME-a-JOH-kult) is a glacier that we visited during our trip to Iceland. This glacier is part of the larger Mýrdalsjökull ice cap. I'd always thought that glaciers would end in a mile-high wall of ice, like the one that covered much of the American Midwest at the end of the last Ice Age, but I was mistaken. Sólheimajökull is a retreating outlet glacier, which means that it is melting. As we approached the glacier, we could see the moraines that marked where the glacier had once stood in the past. Another thing we found was quicksand! Luckily, the worst that happened was that Yours Truly got mud in her boots when she fell in, though a few other students found some quicksand as well.

If you want to learn more about glaciers, check out this fun program that allows you to play with different climates to create or melt a glacier!

Buckin' Ohio at Creek Bend Ranch

First post of September! I hope you're enjoying reliving some of my past trips as much as I am. :)

Today we're going to take a break from Iceland and look at something closer to home. Every summer, the good folks at Creek Bend Ranch host Buckin' Ohio. Buckin' Ohio is a rodeo featuring bull riding, ladies barrel racing, and children's Mutton Bustin'. It's a lot of fun and what makes it better is that we get to support a local business at the same time!

In this photo is Stitch, Yours Truly, and rodeo clown Craig Miller, one of the funniest guys East of Missouri! Rodeo clowns don't just entertain the crowd or throw freebies; they have the most dangerous job at any rodeo: keeping the cowboys safe. Luckily, there were only one or two close calls when we went, and everyone went home in one piece. After the rodeo, a local country group serenaded the crowd as we ate ice cream and BBQ, the competitors signed autographs, and the ranch hands bedded the bulls down for the night. It's a nice way to end the summer and pretend that you're a cowboy too, if only for one night!

Blast from the Past: Vik

Today's Blast from the Past brings us to Vik, the southernmost town in Iceland! Rock piles like this one are common throughout Iceland, and many serve a cultural purpose (which I will explain in detail at a later date.) As far as I know, this one was just for fun.

The sand at Vik is black because of the basaltic rocks that form the area (and most of the island, to be honest!) From here, one can see the famous Westman Islands poking up from the ocean. There is also no landmass between here and Antarctica! If the world were flat, you'd be able to see the southernmost continent from this beach. It really is a remarkable and pretty place.

Blast from the Past: A Geothermal Energy Plant!

I thought it was awfully brave of me to sit on a drill for this photo. Why a drill you ask? I'm at the Orkuveita-Reykjavikur Geothermal Energy Plant! The plant was established in 1987, but didn't start providing hot water to Reykjavik until 1990, and electricity in 1998. This drill is one of several that the company uses to drill into the rock where there are energy hotspots.

Geothermal energy provides Iceland with most of its power. It is used for everything from producing electricity to de-icing roads to heating swimming pools! There are many swimming pools in Iceland, and one of our most bizarre experiences was swimming in a comfortable 80-degree swimming pool while it snowed around us! The Blue Lagoon, one of Iceland's most famous resorts, was created when a geothermal plant closed down.

Blast from the Past: Kot

Continuing my trip down memory lane is the brief stop we had at an old, abandoned farm in Iceland called Kot (pronounce like "coat".)

While Iceland isn't a terribly big country, with a population of about 319,000, this farm was quite in the middle of nowhere! It had been abandoned due to the scarcity of water in the area, but the old foundations still remained.



Here you can see the old foundations of the farmhouse that had once stood here. Because of its northern location, Iceland doesn't have many good trees for timber, so houses were made of stone and sod. This house had one interesting feature: a bath for sheep! Sheep were, and still are, an important part of Iceland's culture and economy.


In this photo, you can see how truly isolated this place is. In the background is the volcano Hekla. She's one of Iceland's most famous and unique volcanoes. Many Icelanders believed that she was the opening to Hell!

Blast from the Past: More Thingvellir!

Today, we continue reminiscing about my trip to Thingvellir National Park in Iceland. As I said before, this place is pretty special for a lot of reasons. Last time we talked about its natural history, and today we'll talk about its culture!

Thingvellir is most famous for being the place where the Thing would meet every year. Waaaaay back in the day, "Thing" actually meant a government! Everyone from all over Iceland would travel on foot or on horseback to meet for a few weeks every summer. At the Thing, the Lawspeaker would recite the law and trials would be held. It was also a chance for people to see friends and family, arrange marriages, and that sort of thing.



This pool reminded me of Ariel's Grotto. There are tons of coins down there, from all over the world! It all started when the King of Denmark came to visit, back when Denmark had control over Iceland. The water is so clear that it's hard to judge its depth, so the king threw a coin in to see how deep it was. Hundreds of years later, people are still doing it! Every once in a while, a staff member will suit up and go down to collect the coins. He or she must be very brave, because that water is from glacial runoff, and is very, very cold!



This pool was kind of creepy and sad, because this is where convicted witches were drowned. Men who were convicted of witchcraft were hung nearby. Magic in Iceland wasn't nearly as big a deal as it was in Europe, and by time the witch burnings got to Iceland, it had pretty much petered out on the mainland anyway. Women have many magics they would perform, but it was considered un-manly if a man tried to do magic. And in Iceland, being called "argr" (ar-kur) is a pretty bad thing. Men have killed each other over this!

Blast from the Past: Thingvellir

Today's flashback looks at Thingvellir National Park. This park is absolutely gorgeous, and it's huge! There's many reasons why it's one of the most famous sites in Iceland. In this photo, you can see both the North American and Eurasian plates. This is the only place in the world you can see a plate boundary- all the others are underwater!



The rocks in and around Thingvellir are volcanic basalt. Due to the way that basalt cools, it often forms these honeycomb-shaped columns. Basalt is the most common rock on Earth! The waterfall here has a story behind it; according to the stories, early Icelanders took it upon themselves to change the coarse of the stream and actually created this waterfall. There is actually some archaeological evidence that suggests this may be true!