The lagoon is fed by the water output of the nearby geothermal power plant Svartsengi and is renewed every 2 days. Superheated water is vented from the ground near a lava flow and used to run turbines that generate electricity. After going through the turbines, the steam and hot water passes through a heat exchanger to provide heat for a municipal water heating system. Then the water is fed into the lagoon for recreational and medicinal users to bathe in.
Iceland – the land of fire and ice. Situated on the boundary between the Eurasian and North American Plates, it’s defined by its dramatic landscape with volcanoes, geysers, hot springs and lava fields.
On this short trip I only managed to see the South-Western corner and definitely want to explore more. However I did see the Northern lights!
A bubble of water just at the point of exploding as the geyser erupts
The northern lights wave across the night sky with the star Vega shining brightly above them.
The black sand beach at Vik
Part of a door in alocal museum this piece of wood is carved with various symbols and letters.
A small local church
A group of people stand behind the water and show the true scale of the falls
An isolated house sits below a snow capped volcano which peeks out above the ground mists
A dairy farm nestles in the hills below the volcano that became famous after shutting down most European airports
A statue (reminiscent of Antony Gormley) stands on Vik beach looking out to sea
A close up of the geothermal plant next to the blue lagoon
A hot geyser erupts into the chilly morning air
The front edge of the huge glacier that runs down from Katla volcano
A tunnel of blue under the glacier that runs down from the volcano Katla
The mighty Gullfoss falls. It was so cold the mist and spray produced by the falls had frozen making the surrounding paths extremely slippy
The mighty Gullfoss falls. It was so cold the mist and spray produced by the falls had frozen making the surrounding paths extremely slippy
The largest church in Iceland and the sixth tallest architectural structure in the country. The design is said to resemble the basalt lava flows of Iceland’s landscape and took 38 years to build.
A view inside one of the traditional houses
The native Icelandic horses are more stocky and have thicker hair in orer to cope with the barren and cold terrain