Exploring the World: My Travel Adventures - Iceland

ICELAND

A small Island north of the United Kingdom, known for its volcanic eruptions. Here you can swim, in ice-cold water, between the North American and European continents, explore the wilderness, and if you are lucky (I wasn't) see the northern lights (aurora borealis).

Various waterfalls and rivers form due to melting glaciers. The flow from the glaciers will differ depending on the time of year. When a volcano is active at or near a glacier, the volume of water flowing in the rivers and over waterfalls increases, adding to the majestic views and lending the opportunity for breathtaking pictures.

Many have driven in fog, mist, or stormy weather where it is visibility is not great. During the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, millions of tons of rock particles were spat out, drifting in the air steams (winds). These particles caused damage to plane engines, therefore, the grounding of planes in the European air space.

On the ground level, it looked like a cold misty morning. However, this mist was not caused by water droplets suspended in cold air, but rather by solid particles from the volcano. The particles were very fine when we entered the area, but the closer we got to the volcano the larger the particles became. I would say the largest particles collected by me were around 1 millimeter in size.