4-5 July 2018:
Reykjavik, Iceland:
A Hot Place with a Cold Name

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

We have made it to the always surprising city of Reykjavik, the capital of the island nation of Iceland.

Iceland is a hot place with what seems like a cold name.

To those guests leaving us here in the middle of the North Atlantic, I wish you safe travels until we meet again. To those joining us, welcome aboard.

We’re going to make a circle of the Ring Road, by ship, and then onward to the Shetland and Orkney islands, then eventually back to London.

Here’s our plan for the next voyage:

When we arrived, I went on a tour with guests on the Golden Circle, a tour that includes samples of much of the wonders of Iceland. The sun broke through as we arrived at Geysir, the source of the word geyser.

Here is some of what we saw:

All photos by Corey Sandler, 2018. All rights reserved.

Let’s get something out of the way right at the start: Iceland in the English sense is a misunderstanding of the Icelandic name of the country.

The proper name of the place is Ísland, which does not mean a land covered with ice. It simply means “Island.”

I said Iceland is hot. There are hot springs and geysers, many active volcanoes, and lava fields cover much of the land.

And when it does get cold, the majority of the nation’s heating comes from geothermal sources, piped hot water that directly or indirectly heats homes and buildings.

Why is Iceland hot?

In Geologic terms, it sits directly on the rift between the Eurasian and North American plates. Half the country is heading east and the other wants to go west.

The Mid-Atlantic Ridge moves about 2.5 centimeters or 1 inch per year; that doesn’t sound like much but we’re talking about a huge amount of rock pushing and grinding almost constantly.

The hotspot in that plume funnels hot stuff from the interior of the planet, which formed the island about 16 to 18 million years ago.

Iceland has 30 active volcanic systems, of which 13 have erupted since the settlement of Iceland in 874.

The combination of the plume and the moving plates brings volcanos, hot springs, geysers…and tourists.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

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