Today was one of my favorite days yet as it was an amazing day for sightseeing. We started off by first visiting Skógafoss waterfall where we did a short hike up the mountain along the river that is fed from the glacier many kilometers away. The weather was close to as bad as we’ve seen it with super strong winds and hail blowing straight into our faces.
After the hike, we headed over to the Skógar Museum. This was one of the coolest museums I’ve ever been to. There were artifacts from every single time and age throughout the history of Iceland and it was super cool to see how the country has developed and evolved throughout the years. My favorite section was definitely the technical part of the museum where we got to see vehicles from snow mobiles to cars to airplanes and many more.
For the last sight of the day, we stopped at Sólheimajökull Glacier which is an outlet glacier from the main one which wasn’t visible from there. Talking with Ólöf, she mentioned that global warming is having a very detrimental effect on not only this specific glacier but all of them in Iceland. The glacier has gotten thinner and thinner each year and continues to recede further in. It has melted so much that a lake has begun to form in the surrounding area. This is very dangerous in Iceland because there are volcanoes underneath the glaciers. When the glaciers melt and get thinner, the pressure from underneath keeping the volcanoes dormant will release and there will be an eruption. Due to the thinning of the glacier, people in Iceland are very concerned about this happening and know that it’s only a short amount of time until it does. All of the local communities have had to put in precautions in case this does happen and are afraid that it could destroy their towns.
Obviously global warming is the problem here and there needs to be better ways to cut down on carbon emissions. Something I noted in Iceland is there is barely any public transportation and everyone pretty much drives their own car. This causes a much greater amount of carbon emissions and seems like this is definitely one of their problems. Something they could do is possibly install some sort of rail system that would more easily allow people to travel to different parts of the country without using a car or bus. I know this is extremely expensive and everything is kind of scattered all over the place but I’m sure it could help a little bit to reduce emissions. Also, the trains could be used to do tours for tourists which would take many buses off the roads. However, this would also take away many jobs so there would have to be some middle ground. It’s definitely not a black and white subject and I understand why there isn’t a good solution yet.
All in all, today was a great day and I’m really hoping to see the northern lights tonight!
Swanson School of Engineering 