SEEKING the world תור את העולם: אוגוסט 2012

31 אוגוסט, 2012

Earthquake in Southwest Iceland

30.08.2012 | 12:30

מתוך אתר

http://www.icelandreview.com

Earthquake in Southwest Iceland, No Damage Reported

An earthquake measuring 4.6 hit near Bláfjöll, Southwest Iceland, around midday today. There have been no reports of damage.

earthquakemap

The red star indicates the location of the earthquake.
From the website of the Meteorological Office of Iceland.
Bláfjöll is located a half hour drive from the capital and is a popular destination for skiing during the winter (being autumn, the ski resorts are currently closed). The earthquake could be felt in the capital area.

According to Einar Kjartansson from the Meteorological Office of Iceland, the epicenter lay at a depth of 5.8 kilometers. Einar says that aftershocks can be expected, ruv.is reports.

Seismic activity in the nearby Reykjanes peninsula is common but no unusual activity had been detected prior to the latest earthquake.

הכותב יוסי לוי joseph levy הינו מומחה לאיסלנד iceland, המלווה קבוצות בנהיגה עצמית בלבד, והמתכנן מסלולי טיול לפי מידת המטייל,והמשמש כמומחה באתר http://www.gotravel.co.il/.

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Snæfellsness Glacier Peak Ice-free

29.08.2012 | 11:58

מתוך אתר

http://www.icelandreview.com

Snæfellsness Glacier Peak Ice-free

Rapid melting of Snæfellsjökull glacier has left its highest peak bare for the first time.

snaefellsjokull-from-air_ps

Snæfellsness glacier. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
Volcanologist Haraldur Sigurðsson flew over the glacier on August 26 and says he believes this is the first time that the peak, which lies at 1,446 meters, is completely ice-free, mbl.is reports.

According to Haraldur, the new development will allow scientists to explore the peak’s sedimentary strata and learn more about the glacier’s volcanic history.

31.08.2012 | 16:15

Iceland’s Glaciers to Disappear in 150-200 Years

Iceland’s glaciers will vanish within 150-200 years according to glaciologist Helgi Björnsson at the University of Iceland.

snaefellsjokull_ps

Snæfellsjökull. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
Helgi says that models show that if the melting rate of the last two decades continues, Snæfellsjökull, which has an average thickness of just 30 meters, will disappear in as many years.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Snæfellsness’ highest peak is ice-free for the first time after rapid melt this summer.

According to Helgi, Iceland’s glaciers are melting at an accelerated rate, at 1.3 to 1.8 meters per year, ruv.is reports.
Helgi points out that climate change forecasts predict a warming of two degrees by the end of the century.

Similar predictions on the melting of Iceland's glaciers have been made in the past.

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Northern Lights Start Dancing

28.08.2012 | 00:30

מתוך אתר

http://www.icelandreview.com/

Northern Lights Start Dancing Across Iceland’s Sky

Even though the summer hasn’t come to an end in Iceland yet, the evenings are growing dark and northern lights have been spotted dancing across the sky.

Archive photo by Páll Stefánsson.

Photographer Olgeir Andrésson caught a picture of the aurora borealis in Borgarfjörður, West Iceland, on Friday, which can be seen on visir.is.
Solar flares, which cause northern lights, are expected to peak this coming winter, which are likely to result in many sightings of the phenomenon, “and more tourists,” added Olgeir.

Click here to visit Olgeir’s website and here to read more about the sun flares.

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Rare Corals and Animal Species Found off Iceland

26.08.2012 | 17:00

מתוך אתר

http://www.icelandreview.com/

Rare Corals and Animal Species Found off Iceland

The Icelandic Marine Research Institute (Hafró) found varied species of rare corals and marine animals during its recent underwater photographic expedition. Some of these organisms have seldom or never been photographed off Iceland before.

One of the coral species photographed. Copyright: Hafró.

Among these were pictures of a strange spiral-shaped animal which sticks out of a layer of sediment. It cannot be stated with any certainty yet what species the animal belongs to, but it is likely a coral that has never been registered in Iceland before, as stated on hafro.is.
Among species photographed during the mission listed by Hafró on its website are halibut, monkfish, redfish, sea pens, sea lilies, starfish, tunicates, black corals, cockscomb cup corals, zigzag corals and Lophelia pertusa, a cold-water coral which is the only species in the genus Lophelia.
The biosphere around stretches of coral is characterized by diversity and fish use the corals as shelter. They are ideal hiding places and the waters around corals are rich in nutrients.
Some areas in Icelandic waters that are known for extensive stretches of corals have been placed under preservation as they are very sensitive, for example to damage and disturbance caused by fishing gear.
Rubbish was also seen in some locations, including corrugated cardboard and a plastic bag at a depth of 500 meters.
The expedition was part of a project on mapping the ocean floor around Iceland and defining what animal and plant species can be found there.
The expedition was carried out on the research vessel Bjarni Sæmundsson June 21-26 in Háfadjúp and Reynisdjúp. Pictures were taken on the ocean floor in 15 locations at a depth of 110-730 meters.
Steinunn Hilma Ólafsdóttir led the expedition and Ingvi Friðriksson was captain.
During the expedition a massive underwater mountain that might be a volcano was discovered off West Iceland.

Click here to read more about that story.

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24 אוגוסט, 2012

East Iceland Archaeological Site Open

21.08.2012 | 17:30

מתוך אתר

http://www.icelandreview.com

East Iceland Archaeological Site Open for Public

The archaeological site of a medieval convent at Skriðuklaustur in Fljótsdalur, East Iceland, formally opened to the public on Saturday. The event marks the end of one of the most extensive excavation projects in Iceland in recent times; it has lasted a decade.

Skriðuklaustur. Photo by Geir Ólafsson.

Minister of Education Katrín Jakobsdóttir opened the site and a number of people were present. The ceremony was the final event of the local festival Ormsteiti, ruv.is reports.
Bishop of Iceland Agnes M. Sigurðardóttir led a sermon at the occasion. “A very notable operation took place here […]. The monks not only studied the Bible but were also responsible for social services, took care of the poor and others in need,” she remarked.
This summer facilities to display the convict were established. It also served as a hospital. “The buildings were much larger and more complex than we had expected,” said archaeologist Steinunn Kristjánsdóttir, who led the excavation.
“It is also the northernmost convent that has been unearthed in Europe and the only one in Iceland so it is an important milestone for us archaeologists,” Steinunn concluded.

Click here for other recent archaeological news.

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Quakes in South Iceland’s Katla Volcano

21.08.2012 | 11:00

מתוך אתר

http://www.icelandreview.com

More Quakes in South Iceland’s Katla Volcano

An earthquake at the magnitude of 3.1 points hit north of Hábunga in Mýrdalsjökull glacier, which covers the volcano Katla in South Iceland, around 7 am this morning. The epicenter lay at a depth of 1.1 kilometers.

Mýrdalsjökull. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.

On Friday, an earthquake at a magnitude of 3.8 points hit in the same location, visir.is reports.
The information was recorded by the Icelandic Meteorological Office’s automatic sensors. They showed that the earthquake this morning was followed by a swarm of minor quakes, all of which had a magnitude of 2.0 or less.
Katla has been subject to series of seismic activity lately.

Click here to read more about Katla and here to read about recent seismic activity in Krýsuvík, Southwest Iceland.

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Earthquake Swarm in Southwest Iceland

20.08.2012 | 11:32

מתוך אתר

http://www.icelandreview.com

Earthquake Swarm in Southwest Iceland

A series of minor earthquakes was picked up by sensor by the geothermal area Krýsuvík on Reykjanes peninsula in Southwest Iceland on Saturday. The strongest of the earthquakes had a magnitude of 2.1 but most of them were below one.

Krýsuvík. Photo by ESA.

The series started shortly before 4 pm and lasted for three hours. The epicenter of the earthquakes was below the southern end of Kleifarvatn Lake, ruv.is reports.
Geophysicist Kristín Waagfjörð at the Icelandic Meteorological Office said earthquake swarms like these are very common in the Krýsuvík area.
In 2010 and 2011 there was constant uplift at Krýsuvík of a total of eight centimeters. At the end of last year, the land started sinking again.
Earth scientists are monitoring the uplift closely. It might either be related to pressure from geothermal heat or magma which could lead to volcanic activity.
Volcanologist Haraldur Sigurðsson writes about the conditions at Krýsuvík in the latest issue of the print edition of Iceland Review, and the risk of lava flows reaching the capital.

click here to read more about seismic and volcanic activity in Iceland.

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Children’s Graves Excavated in North Iceland

20.08.2012 | 00:00

מתוך אתר

http://www.icelandreview.com

Children’s Graves Excavated in North Iceland

Two children’s graves were discovered during an excavation at an ancient burial site by Hofsstaðir in the Mývatn rural area, northeast Iceland, this summer. Archaeologists believe the discovery supports the notion that those who died without having been baptized were buried outside cemeteries.

A different archaeological site. Photo by Bernhild Vögel.

Archaeological research of the Hofsstaðir burial site has taken place with intermission for the past 14 years. The site is believed to date back to the latter part of the tenth century. So far, archaeologists have unearthed 177 skeletons and two churches, ruv.is reports.
This summer archaeologists have focused on the cemetery wall and the area outside it. The project is far from finished; there are plans to excavate the entire burial site to obtain an integral bone collection from the Middle Ages and other information on burial ceremonies and churches from that time.
“I would guess that we have excavated more than half of the cemetery but we have to enlarge the area both to the south and west in the coming years to uncover all of it,” said archaeologist Oddgeir Ísaksen.

Click here to read more about archaeological projects in Iceland.

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Commission to Verify Iceland Lake Monster

19.08.2012 | 17:00

מתוך אתר

http://www.icelandreview.com

Commission to Verify Iceland Lake Monster Video

The district council of Fljótsdalshérað municipality in East Iceland has appointed a 13-person investigative commission to evaluate whether the infamous lake monster Lagarfljótsormurinn is the phenomenon filmed by Hjörtur Kjerúlf, farmer at Hrafnkelsstaðir, last winter.

Lagarfljót. Photo by ESA.

Hjörtur’s video of an object or creature that appeared to wriggle like a worm in the river Jökulsá í Fljótsdal which runs into the lake Lagarfljót, the monster’s alleged habitat, garnered significant attention, resulting in foreign television crews coming to Iceland to try and catch the monster on camera, ruv.is reports.

link to the video http://www.ruv.is/frett/er-thetta-lagarfljotsormurinn

This summer, Hjörtur has made claim to ISK 500,000 (USD 4,200, EUR 3,400), a prize in a competition the local municipality launched 15 years ago on photos of Lagarfljótsormurinn. The prize was never paid out because none of the photos entered were thought to show the monster.

However, the district council at the time promised that if the monster would ever be caught on camera, the photographer would be entitled to the prize.

“A man pointed it out to me so I decided to ask to check whether my video would be worth the prize,” Hjörtur told Fréttablaðið.

When asked whether he truly believes that his video shows Lagarfljótsormurinn, Hjörtur referenced a famous author: “Þórbergur Þórðarson said it characterized the inhabitants of Hérað that they never believed what they saw. I’m not like that.”

Another farmer in the region, Sigurður Aðalsteinsson from Vaðbrekka in Jökuldalur, has also entered a photo of what he claims is the monster to the competition.

“The same must apply to that photo as to Hjörtur’s video,” commented Mayor of Fljótsdalshérað Björn Ingimarsson, stating that the district council takes the competition very seriously.

According to ruv.is, members of the district council all stated that they didn’t doubt the monster’s existence. However, as guardians of public funds, they cannot pay out the prize money without carefully investigating the matter first.

And so a so-called “truth commission” was established to determine the authenticity of the video and the phenomenon it shows. The commission comprises of district council members, a natural scientist and a parliamentarian.

The commission will not be paid for its efforts but has been given a long time to complete the task, until the end of the current term.

Click here to read more about Lagarfljótsormurinn.

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17 אוגוסט, 2012

Earthquakes Hit Katla

13.08.2012 | 12:16

מתוך אתר

http://www.icelandreview.com

Earthquakes Hit Katla Volcano in South Iceland

An earthquake of the magnitude 2.7 hit just north of Goðabunga in Mýrdalsjökull glacier, which covers the volcano Katla in South Iceland, around 8:30 am yesterday morning. It was part of a swarm of minor earthquakes. The second-largest had a magnitude of 1.8.

Mýrdalsjökull. Photo by Geir Ólafsson.

The Katla area has been rather quiet in the past weeks. There was more activity in the area in the spring when two small glacier outbursts flooded the river Leirá in Kötlukriki and Emstrur, to the west of Mýrdalsjökull, ruv.is reports.

The seismic activity then subsided and GPS monitors showed decreasing tension in the lithosphere.

Yesterday’s quakes were not connected with any volcanic activity and there has not been any increased flow in glacial rivers originating in Mýrdalsjökull.

However, glacial water in the vicinity has smelled of sulfur, according to geophysicist Benedikt Ófeigsson at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, such as in the river Jökulsá at Sólheimasandur and Leirá in Kötlukriki.

Katla has been monitored closely by scientists since a major glacial outburst, possibly caused by a minor volcanic eruption underneath Mýrdalsjökull, tore a hole in the Ring Road in South Iceland in July 2011.

Click here to read more about seismic activity in Katla and download the free IR Street Edition for a thorough report on the volcano.

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Giant Mushroom Found in West Iceland

12.08.2012

מתוך אתר

http://www.icelandreview.com

Giant Mushroom Found in West Iceland

A mushroom weighing 2.6 kilograms and measuring 33 centimeters in height was found in Borgarfjörður in West Iceland on Friday.

Borgarfjörður. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.

“It must be the biggest mushroom in Iceland,” said Raimundus Valasinavicius on finding the giant fungus, Frettablaðið reports. Valasinavicius has more than thirty years’ experience picking mushrooms.

Mushroom expert from the Institute of Natural History Guðríður Gyða Eyjólfsdóttir commented that the particular kind of mushroom found can grow very big but confirmed that this is likely the largest to be found in the country.

Click here to view a photo of the mushroom.

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11 אוגוסט, 2012

Fires Continue to Burn in West Fjords

11.08.2012

מתוך אתר

http://www.icelandreview.com

Fires Continue to Burn in West Fjords

Firefighters in Laugardalur in the West Fjords have been struggling to contain fires which have been burning in the area for eight days.

The West Fjords. Photo by Geir Ólafsson

According to the Fire Department in Ísafjörður, conditions have been warm, sunny and windy, and the rain forecast for a week now has not shown, visir.is reports.

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10 אוגוסט, 2012

Dalvík Celebrates Fish Festival

10/08/2012

מתוך אתר

http://www.icelandreview.com

Dalvík Celebrates Fish Festival Tomorrow

The annual Great Fish Day in Dalvík, North Iceland, is being held tomorrow.

From a previous Great Fish Day. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.

The feature of the event is the seafood buffet on offer at the town harbor between 11 am and 5 pm. The menu changes every year.

Other festival attractions include exhibitions, street theater, music, and a cruise on the fjord.

An estimated 30,000 visitors attended the festival last year, multiplying the population of Dalvík, which has less than 2,000 inhabitants.

Heavy traffic has been reported on the roads heading to the north of the country, according to ruv.is.

Click here for more information on the festival.

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Underwater Volcano Found off West Iceland?

05.08.2012

מתוך אתר

http://www.icelandreview.com

Underwater Volcano Found off West Iceland?

A mountain which the Icelandic Marine Research Institute (Hafró) discovered on the ocean floor west

off the Snæfellsnes peninsula in West Iceland during an expedition earlier this summer may turn out to be a previously unknown volcano.

A fishing ship with Snæfellsjökull, the glacier-covered volcano on the tip of Snæfellsnes in the background. Copyright: Icelandic Photo Agency.

“

Multi-laser measurements […] revealed a large underwater mountain deep off the foot of the continental shelf approximately 120 nautical miles west of Snæfellsnes,” a statement from Hafró reads, according to Fréttablaðið.

The mountain, which is at a depth of 950 to 1,400 meters is around 450 meters high, similar to Ingólfsfjall in south Iceland. However, it extends over 300 square kilometers, which is ten times the square measure of Ingólfsfjall.

The shape of the mountain is very similar to that of table mountains and it appears to be geologically young.

“The analysis of a rock sample from the mountain will determine whether this is the case or whether it is a volcano connected with an old drift belt, which might mean that it is 20 million years old,” the statement continues.

During the expedition multi-laser measurements were made between West Iceland and Greenland to map the shape of the ocean floor in these commonly-used fishing grounds and explore the environment of powerful ocean currents.

A total of 9,000 square kilometers were covered during the 11-day expedition.

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