Iceland - made by volcanoes...

Iceland has been made by volcanoes. 

It developed along the point where a 'hot spot' or mantle plume coincided with a plate boundary.

Successive eruptions have laid layers of lava as flood basalts, spiked through with small effusive moments and the occasional larger eruption: Katla, Hekla, Laki etc.

Image: Natthagi Lavas - some people walking on lava just a few years old.

Do the benefits of this activity outweigh the potential risks and problems?

I asked my students to consider this question.

Do the Benefits of Volcanic Activity in Iceland outweigh the benefits? by Alan Parkinson

Happy Finland

Last Friday was World Happiness Day....

And the World Happiness ratings for 2026 were revealed - and once again the Nordic countries are the happiest in the world, taking 5 of the top 6 slots, with just Costa Rica sneaking into the mix.

This BBC Travel piece explores what makes the Nordic countries so happy.

Iceland has gone up to 2nd place as well, which is good news.

Links with the Discover the World Education resource on the Happy Nordics.

It was not such good news for the UK.

Nordics

We will be introducing a new unit to Year 7. 

This draws on some work produced by Karen Corfield from Discover the World Education.

You can find the resources here - and sign up to download them for free.

March 2024 - KEP Iceland trip

I'm recently back from a trip to Iceland with 50 students, which was rather good.

Góða ferð

We had a lot of highlights, including:

- The Lava Show down by the harbour (a new one for me) - where lava is poured into the room - melted from rock collected near Vik - models how lava behaves...

- Raufarholshellir - a lava tunnel which is almost 4km long and shows the layers in the sides as the lava drained from the tunnel and is currently full of ice pinnacles created during the winter - a look at some images from a group about a week later suggested they had mostly melted away.

- Grábrok - a row of craters from an eruption 3000 years ago - with a view towards a lovely snow capped peak called Baula - a new one for me

- Hraunfossar - a line of low waterfalls flowing out from a lava flow, with lovely blue colours to the water

Images: top to bottom

- Solheimajökull glacier

- Hraunfossar

- On the road in Thingvellir National Park

- Gullfoss detail

A Flickr album of over 450 photos is available here.

Of course, the main highlight was that the Reykjanes peninsula came back to life while we were there.

The eruption started on the Saturday night.

It is known as the Sundhnukagigar eruption.

More to come...

Iceland trip

After a successful previous trip to Iceland, we are heading back there next week with 50 students and 6 staff. We will be sharing images and other news before, during and after the trip.

Follow on #KEPIceland24 and @KingsElyGeog

We will be using Discover the World Education as our tour provider. They have provided the itinerary and the arrangements for the trip.

Iceland - a new volcanic era

"We just have to go with the flow.”

After centuries of peace, the Reykjanes peninsula has woken up with numerous earthquakes, ground inflation and several fissure eruptions - some lasting only a short time. Various management methods have been tried, but now the town of Grindavik has been evacuated. 

"How, then, is the country going to defend itself? How is it going to try and coexist with the temperamental beast that stirs below?"

For Dr. Robin Andrews, this is a new volcanic era and may require new adjustments. This is an excellent piece for Scientific American.

NEW: Iceland's Reykjanes Peninsula has entered a new volcanic era, featuring years, decades or even centuries of eruptions. How is the country supposed to react?

For @sciam, I looked into the options—from fighting against lava to moving entire towns.https://t.co/fuVQ6Y0gyD

— Dr Robin George Andrews 🌋☄️ (@SquigglyVolcano) February 13, 2024

As the piece says, airborne threats are also airborne:

Noxious volcanic gases may also be a problem—in particular, sulphur dioxide, which effuses from shallow magma. It can be an irritant at best and lethal at worst, especially if it pools in enclosed environments, such as basements, and displaces the oxygen there. Erupted metal pollutants can also leech into the environment, and fine particles in plumes can “penetrate deep into our airways,” says Evgenia Ilyinskaya, a volcanologist at the University of Leeds in England.

UK & Iceland Energy Mix compared

One for today.

Teaching about Iceland's geothermal and hydropower energy mix today.

For comparison, I will show the current state of the UK's energy mix, using this National Grid dashboard.

I hope students appreciate the massive difference between the UK and Iceland's energy mix.

Sundhnúkagígar Eruption

Of particular interest to those students heading to Iceland in March. 

A cross posting from the Fieldnotes from Iceland blog, which stores some reading and references linked to my work with Rayburn Tours.

This post is likely to be updated over the next few days and weeks - updates will appear at the bottom of the page.

The waiting is over for the residents of Grindavik and the Reykjanes Peninsula in particular.

The eruption began at 10.17 yesterday evening.

Live stream via RUV.

Paul Berry has produced a useful summary.

The eruption appears to be occurring exactly along the old crater line of Sundhnúkagígar (which is an old fissure) indicating that the magma likely exploited this weakness in the crust to find a way to the surface as it neared the surface (as indicated by the frequent earthquakes in the Grindavik area for the last few months).

There will be lots of people concerned about their flights and others who will be desperate to head out there, with flight prices likely to have been hiked with the news. The official line is that there are no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland and international flight corridors remain open.

The Guardian's page of updates.

Brendan Conway was quick off the mark with a web map using Vedurstofan map data. Thanks also to Ben Hennig of course for some quick responses despite the fact that he is thousands of miles away.

🆕 Updated map 03.00
🌋#Grindavík volcano eruption🌋 Reykjanes, Iceland Dec 2023
Map georeferenced using #MediaLayers in @ArcGISOnline#IcelandVolcano
🙏 @Vedurstofan_IMO for map layer via @geoviews
Click Layers > 3 dots > Show properties > Transparencyhttps://t.co/aXo0icv88I pic.twitter.com/qIsEApoFhZ

— BC (@mildthing99) December 19, 2023

A webcam picked up the start of the eruption: 

Byrjunin á eldgosinu á vefmyndavél RÚV yfir Grindavík

0:13 pic.twitter.com/Jx3icbxuxx

— Birkir (@birkirh) December 18, 2023

Some information on the resilience of the population: 

Excellent information about the steps Iceland is able to take manage the impact of tectonic hazards, for those who use it as a #geography case study. https://t.co/C84lLdjUK1

— Denise Freeman 🌎🙋🏻‍♀️ (@geography_DAF) December 19, 2023

Iceland Trip with Rayburn Tours

 

As I mentioned in a recent post, I spent five days of the first week of my half term in Iceland. 

This introduced me to a couple of new locations which I hadn't visited before - including the car parks and tracks leading to the recent Fagradasfjall lava flows - and also reminded me of a great many that I'd been to previously before the pandemic and I enjoyed experiencing the power of Gullfoss (and the taste of the ice cream at Efstidalur).

There had been some changes in tourst infrastructure in familiar locations with others being constructed e.g. a nice new toilet block at Thingvellir for visitors, and new paths etc.

I will be working with Rayburn Tours to lead future tours through 2023 and beyond.

I've got a special Iceland blog which will host all the reading and planning I'm doing around these tours, which already hosts the year long 365 blog project which I completed in 2020 (when I was originally going to be visiting four times).

On future visits I hope to head up to the Westfjords to see some additional new locations which are being added to the itineraries, and which I will also visit on a planned visit with my own school during 2024.

Rayburn Tours have also updated their RAYBURN ICELAND SERIES set of resources.

There are two sections of resources:

Unit 1: Natural HazardsSlick looking PowerPoint presentation + Activity Sheet
Classroom Poster
Fagradalsfjall Case Study + Activity Sheet

Unit 2: Energy ResourcesSlick looking PowerPoint presentation
Classroom Poster
Iceland’s Energy Resources Issue Evaluation (Both digital form-fillable and printable versions)

There are many more to come as well:

Mr. P's been to Iceland

The Geography Deapartment have been on their travels this half term...

Mrs. M and Miss. S headed South

Mr. P headed North... to Iceland (not the freezer store) - here are a few geographical highlights.

Iceland and Palm Oil

The supermarket not the country...

BREAKING NEWS: We're the UK's first supermarket to commit to removing #palmoil from our own label products by the end of this year! Watch here to find out why...#PalmOilAlarmCall pic.twitter.com/hfGvH2QRDW

— Iceland Foods ❄️ (@IcelandFoods) April 10, 2018

Iceland and its connection with tectonic movement..

A BBC Earth interactive.

A lovely piece of work - scroll down to read...

Very useful for Year 9s and their assessment piece

Back from Iceland and getting ready for the next half term...

Here's the places we visited in Iceland last week on the King's Ely Iceland trip.

More pictures and other materials to follow...

Discover the World's new video

Later this year, 50 students and 6 staff will head out to Reykjavik for the Iceland trip. To get you in the mood, here's a video made by Discover the World: the company we are using for our trip.

Iceland 2015 #kejice15

Letters have gone home today via King's Post regarding the 2015 trip to Iceland.

We're going to be taking 50 students from years 7, 8 and 9.
The itinerary is packed...
Here are some photos from a previous trip that Mr. Parkinson made to Iceland to get you in the mood for a place that is unlike anywhere else...

Iceland from GeoBlogs

Iceland 2015

We've launched our proposed Iceland trip for 2015.
Details are on the Geography department's Firefly page....

Includes plans to:
- visit waterfalls such as Gullfoss and Seljalandsfoss
- walk on the Solheimajokull glacier
- travel along the coast, and to the area affected by the Eyjafjallajokull eruption of 2010
- exploring the city of Reykjavik
- seeing erupting geysers
- visiting the point where the North American tectonic plate meets the Eurasian plate
- a chance to see the Northern Lights if the forecast is positive

Bardarbunga Eruption

Some Year 7s were asking about this earlier today.
Here's some footage taken with drones of the ongoing eruption in the Holuhraun lava field....

Eyjafjallajokull....

How do you say it ?
Here's the video that refused to play this morning... on how to pronounce it...



Thanks to Tony Cassidy for the use of some resources that he created today.
You can access them by going HERE.

There's a 3D model that some groups have printed off and made as well.

Here's a rather good ITN video here from a helicopter... risky flight...

Iceland - living with volcanoes...

Useful for Year 9
Remember the end of term writing task: 'Why do people continue to live in risky parts of the world ?'