I was on a glacier!

May 16, 2016

Today was a very interesting day because our first event took place after our bus broke down near a shopping center. However, this event (which no student actually knew about until hours later), allowed us to have a small break and enjoy some simple shopping and lunch. Exploring the shops was a very rewarding experience because I was surprised to see just how expensive items are in Iceland compared to other places that I have visited such as China and Cancun. One wool sweatshirt will cost around $200! Now, I do realize that somebody handmade these sweatshirts, but a Micheal Kors shirt doesn't quite cost even $200. I thought they they were all very pretty, but I'm not sure I would ever buy one since wool is a very itchy material for my sensitive skin. After we did some shopping, Dr. Suresh told us to work up an appetite by pushing the bus to move it out of the way. We all thought that he was just kidding, as usual in these type of situations, but he was in fact very serious. So, while a few of us tried our best to move the bus, the others watched and recorded our poor progress. Dr. Suresh helped of course with the strength of his pointer finger! We might have moved the bus a foot, but probably not any further than that, even when all 20 of us were working together... I guess we need to hit the Icelandic gym! However, the hard work definitely paid off when it came to be lunch time because I ended up splitting a 16 inch pizza with one other person! 

 

 

Once a new and much bigger bus arrived, we were once again off to explore before our adventure on top of a glacier. After a small drive, we arrived at Deildartunguhver, which is a thermal spring that produces 180 liters of water per second (at 212 degrees Fahrenheit). This type of output is the largest in the world and has been used for central heating since 1925. When looking at these hotsprings, I could definitely feel the heat from the water from many feet away and the egg-smell of sulfur had once again returned. The water was extremely powerful when it hit the surface air and would many times reach my height or even higher! The reason for this force is because of amount of pressure the water is forced to deal with underneath the ground. As water underground pours into a hot water area, it is put under great pressure and tries to escape through any openings or cracks it can find. In this case, the opening is the surface of the ground, so the water shoots up in liters at a time in order to make room for the water continuing to pour into this enclosed area.  Another reason for this extreme force occurs when cold water meets hot water and causes a large amount of steam to rise up the cracks. As the steam rises, water is forced to rise with it and exit the spring. I was a bit afraid of getting too close to the springs, even though there was caution tape blocking access to these areas. Just the heat from the steam was overwhelming and it's impossible to predict when wind could blow water in your direction. 

 

We then went to a church that was on the same location as "The Old Farmstead". This property was very interesting to me because it was once the first hot pool created from hot springs. There were 3 parts to this "house" that were all connected together by a long tunnel with a spiral staircase at the end. The floors were made out of geothermal rock and the pool, which was at a lower elevation than the house, was supplied with hot water from underground ducts connected to the hot spring. We were not able to stay at this location very long because we had to make our appointment at the glacier, but before we left, we lost track of one of our classmates! We sat on the bus for around 10 min., but there was still no sign of her. We knew that we didn't leave her at the last stop because we always do a roll call everytime we get on the bus... So where did she go? Did she decide to go for a swim in the hot pool? Two other classmates and I decided to split up and go search for her to try to see if we could find out what happened. Another 10 minutes later went by and still no luck. We were all getting very worried and anxious at this point because there was no sign of her anywhere! We were all very relieved when we eventually found her inside the basement of the church in one of the restrooms. Everybody was present and accounted for and we were ready for our adventure on the glacier! 

 

At around 5 pm, we arrived at the base camp for the short journey up the mountain to get to the glacier's cave. I was shocked at how interesting the automobiles were that were going to soon transport us up to the top. They looked liked some kind of truck you would see in a Star Wars movie! They had huge tires and were obviously very heavy machines. We started our trek up the valley with an introduction of the history of the 4 glaciers, 1 that was considered to be no longer a true glacier in 1940. The glacier that we were planning on exploring existed on the highest mountain in the west of Iceland, known as Tabletop Mountain. The glacier was called Langjokull. As we were entering the cave of the glacier, the first thing that popped into my mind was Star Wars again! It reminded me of entering the base camp on planet Hoth, which is completely covered in snow and ice. The ice in the cave seemed to be very compact, but surprisingly, it was still not compact enough to be considered the actual glacier itself. Layerings could be seen in the ice showing the amount of growth in each year, some years being thicker than others because of volcanic activity existing around that time. There were so many rooms that were created inside the cave, which all served as different purposes. There was a rave room, a bar made out of ice to keep the drinks cold, a chapel, and several other rooms that were just there for rest stops. As we continued to explore and make observations inside cave, we ended up in the chapel room where the mood became more serious. We talked about global warming and the fact that the glacier will most likely be completely gone in approximately 80 years. This is unsettling to think about because Langjokull is currently the 2nd largest glacier in all of Iceland! We could actually see and hear the ice melting when we were quiet enough. 

 

 

After all of our adventures on top of the glacier (including taking pictures, racing, sliding like a penguin, and building a snowman), it was time to head back down to our bus. On our journey down, we were given Icelandic donuts and chocolate milk to snack on in order to hold our stomachs over until we arrived back at our hostel (which was about 1 hour and 30 minutes away from the base camp). When we got on the bus, we all agreed that we would make chili together as a bonding activity, even if it was completed at midnight. We stopped at a beautiful waterfall area on the way back our hostel for what felt like 30 minutes but was actually 1 hour! This out our timing to be back at the hostel 30 minutes behind. About 30 minutes on the bus, everyone (except the driver of course), was knocked out from being so sleep deprived the last couple of days. I don't even remember walking back into the hostel that night. All I wanted to do was go straight to my bed and sleep for the next few days. Since we were so tired, but still had not had dinner yet, we chose to each make a sandwich really quickly instead of spending 30 minutes or more trying to get the chili together. I ate a peanut butter sandwich with an apple and that's all that I remember from this night.