mindsawandering:

Dyrhólaey / Door Island - Mýrdalur, south coast Iceland (by skarpi - www.skarpi.is)

(via inspiredbyiceland)

(via icelandpictures)

(Source : inourdefence, via nicelandic)

(Source : all-is-ash, via icelandpictures)

icelandpictures:

The Grímsvötn Eruption is Over

Well hopefully at least. The eruption began calming down yesterday evening and has dwindled down to a puff of steam today. A group of people drove across the glacier last night to experience the last breaths of the volcano. Kristján Kristjánsson from Mountain Taxi was part of the group and took the above picture. It shows the middle of the crater burping up small spouts of steam and ash. This small crater in the middle is essentially a new island. Grímsvötn is a very peculiar volcano, as it is situated in a lake under a glacier. Lakes of course do not normally form under glaciers, but due to the constant geothermal heat, there is a large lake under the ice cap. This lake is usually not exposed, but covered completely by the glacier. It is only exposed when an eruption occurs.

I have been up to Grímsvötn a few times, but never shortly after an eruption. I hope I’ll have an opportunity to go up there this summer. On top of the volcano, there is a mountain hut, the most unique mountain hut in Iceland. To get there you either have to ski for 2-3 days or drive up on super modified 4x4s. Once you get there you can go into the warm hut and relax. The Icelandic Glaciology Society which owns the hut has harnessed the heat of the volcano to keep the hut warm all year long. It even has a hot sauna heated up by the volcano. The temperature of the sauna varies depending on the activity in the volcano. I’m guessing that in the past few days, the sauna has been very very hot.