The golden circle

The Golden Circle is composed mainly by:

- Thinvellir National Park,

- Geysir area (the geothermally active valley of Haukadalur) and

- Gulfoss waterfall.

We drove in this direction, so this is how I will explain the excurssion.

As I said on my previouse post, on the very first day I regreated not having knowledge about geology in order to better understand the nature of all the places we visited. Maybe this is the reason why, in this blog, I will try to explain both a bit of history and easy geology, not only for the reader but also for me, as an "excuse" to a bit better get to know and understand what I saw.

Thinvellir National Park

Thinvellir, which means "parlament plain" in Icelandic is considered historically as one of the most important places in Iceland. Here, in year 930 the Alping, the general assembly was established for the first time, and it continued until 1798. This place has seen the development and growth of the Icelandic Nation. There was a main person appointed as the Lawspeaker, he was responsible for applying the law and resolving conflicts.

For additional information about the national park and about Thinvellir, please do visit the following link to the park official web site: http://www.thingvellir.is/english

Thinvellir is located on the two tectonic plates, the american and the european. The landscape is eye-catching: Fissures, canyons, lava remains, basalt rock formations, the cold river, the extremely green nature.

Unfortunatelly, we visited this area too fast, so I guess that on our next trip we shall investigate deeper into this area.

Geysir

In the images you can see different types of explosions of the Strokkur Geysir. One going really up, and the other one a bit more humble... but still incredible. This explossions happen every 15 min. aproximately. The big explossion only happens after a small one... and when it is about to burst you feel under your feet the sensation like if something big is going to happen ... then, little by little, you see how the water seems to boil ... and the it happens. It is an incredible sensation. But it only lasts a few seconds, so be ready with the camera!

Geysir, an Icelandic word which means erupt was initially used to descirbe the first emerging water at the Haukadalur valley. Now a days, it is used to describe all the emerging hot springs.

Geysers erupt because the thermal water ascending throuh ther channels boils at some depth below the surface. As the water boils it flashes into steam, and as the steam occupies far greater volume than water the water above in the channel is thrown high up into the air. At about 23 m depth in the Geysir pipe the water is at 120°C temperature. It is in equilibrium with the pressuere of the water above in the pipe, i.e. the weight of the water above keeps the boiling down.

At a depth of around 16 m, the temperature of the water sometimes rises above boiling, seen as increased turbulence at the surface. This turbulence (boiling) can increase to the point where the water above in the pipe is lifted slightly, and a chain reaction starts - the pressure decreases making further boiling possible and the water flashes into steam, resulting in an eruption in Geysir. The boiling now extends down into the pipe, throwing more water into the air. When all the water in the pipe has been thrown away the water coming from depth changes immediately into steam and a steam eruption follows the water eruption, whith accompanying noise.
The water-phase lasts for few minutes and the steam-phase considerably longer, graduately dying out and the cycle starts again. As the steam-phase dies out the water has drained the channels deep into the earth and it will take 8-10 hours for Geysir to regain its water. Extract from http://geysircenter.com/index.php?lang=en&navi1=ga&navi2=ge

In the same area, there are as well fumaroles, one of them resembling a small house with a chimeney.

Please do visit the following link to find out more about the Geysir geology and history:
http://geysircenter.com/index.php?lang=en&navi1=ga&navi2=ge

Gulfoss

Gulfoss is Iceland's most famous waterfall. The word means Golden falls. It has a fall of 32m high in two stages, the first one of 11m and the second one of 21m. The water comes from the glacial river Hvitá. It is fairly easy, during the summer to see the rainbow crossing the waterfall. Be aware that you might get wet.