By eevenden
Halló allir!
It’s Sunday again, almost time for Easter break! I have one more full week before I head to the U.K. to visit my Grandma. Before that though, I have a final project and two exams to get through!
This week, I spent a lot of time copying lectures I missed while Evan was here… but I was saved on Thursday night when my friend from GW, Katie, arrived for the weekend! Katie was visiting London this week for spring break and spent the last two days with me here in Reykjavik! Since Katie had such a short time here in Iceland, it was a bit difficult to decide what to do, but we managed! I’ll give a brief description and some photos of what we did over the last two days.
Friday (March 16th)
Katie arrived on Thursday night/Friday morning at 1 a.m. Though I am sure she was hoping for some rest, I would not allow that. The same morning, we got up at 6:30am to go on a field trip for my Volcanology class around the Reykjanes Peninsula. The field trip itself was a free, optional guided-tour by my professor to look at different lava formations outside of Reykjavik. Since it was optional, I figured there would be some extra seats on the bus. And since the trip was for a lecture of 60 people, I wasn’t worried about the professor recognizing a new face. We left the university around 9 a.m. (no attendance taken, so Katie just got on the bus no problem). The primary purpose of the trip was to learn to identify A’a and Pahoehoe formations. A’a and Pahoehoe are two types of non-explosive lava flows. A’a refers to faster moving lava which, when cooled, leaves lots of rubble. Pahoehoe on the other hand are slower lava flows which have very smooth surfaces when they cool.
One of our first stops was the “Bridge Between Two Continents”, a bridge built across an inactive section of the tectonic rift, seen below. While here, we were examining the layering of the cooled rock and discussing how you can distinguish different types of eruptions and their chronology based on the leftover geology.
Our next stop were the Hafnarberg Sea Cliffs. Here we were examining how lava interacts with water and the types of markings it leaves on the rocks. Typically, when molten rock meats water, it creates a much more explosive eruption as the water vaporizes into the magma (providing the enrgy and the means to send fine volcanic ash flying). Rocks here tend to have a lot of air bubbles in them whether the water vapor was caught as the rock cooled.
One two final stops were at volcanic craters, old eruptions vents which have since become inactive. The two craters differ since one is filled with water and the other isn’t. Theoretically, if they were to become active again, the water-filled crater would release a more explosive eruptions and leave behind more porous rocks.
Our next stop were the Hafnarberg Sea Cliffs. Here we were examining how lava interacts with water and the types of markings it leaves on the rocks. Typically, when molten rock meets water, it creates a much more explosive eruption as the water vaporizes into the magma (providing the energy and the means to send fine volcanic ash flying). Rocks here tend to have a lot of air bubbles in them whether the water vapor was caught as the rock cooled.
Katie and I were fairly tired after a day of exploring rocks. But, when we arrived back at the university, we drank a lot of coffee at the cafeteria and then met up with some of my friends for food.
Saturday (March 17th)
Saturday started as a bit slowly, but around noon Katie and I set off to walk around the city. The tour of Reykjavik was pretty similar to the one I gave Evan, though we skipped seeing the university since Katie had already been there. We started by walking along the ocean to Harpa, the opera house, and continued on to the Reykjavik town hall where they had an exhibit on Reykjavik’s development over the last century. While walking around the municipal buildings, we actually ran to a protest that was going on. From what we could figure out, the group was protesting Iceland’s involvement in NATO. After googling NATO current events, we stopped at a local bakery for cinnamon buns, and ended our tour by going to the top of Hallgrímskirkja in downtown Reykjavik.
After walking around for a while, Katie and I ate lunch/dinner at Vinyl café, a vegan café near my house. We spent a while there eating and resting our feet. Afterwards, we went back to my house before going to a party with my friends. Unfortunately for Katie, we didn’t get home until 5 a.m. Despite her exhaustion, she made it to the bus at noon to fly back to D.C. 🙂
Thanks for visiting Katie 🙂 Hopefully you got a fun view of the study abroad life. That’s all until next week!
-Emily