Today we started with a nice morning walk. We walked to see a basalt church floor in Kirkjubaejarklaustur. The columns are hexagonal which makes the floor look man made, but they are not. Rapid cooling from the top of the rock creates these columns that reach all the way down.
We then stopped on the side of the road to see Icelandic horses. Icelandic horses have unique genetic factors that adapt them to the cold. They have thicker hair than regular horses and have distinct gaits. The horses were very cute!
After this, we went to the Dverghamrar cliffs. According to legend, dwarves live in these cliffs. Their voices can be heard throughout the basalt formations.
Next, we visited the Skeiðará Bridge Monument. This monument has the remains of a bridge that once spanned the entire river. A volcano erupted in 1996 which melted portions of the Skeiðarárjökull glacier. This caused massive flooding that flowed at a rate of 50 million kilotons/second.
We then visited the glacier Breiðamerkurjökull from two perspectives. The first was a smaller portion of the glacier wedged between two mountains. The second was at the black sand beach and diamond lagoon of Jökulsárlón. It was beautiful outside. The sun shined as the waves crashed on the coastline and seagulls searched for fish within the shallow waters.
While at Jökulsárlón, there was suspension bridge that spanned the length of the banks across the outlet. The bridge was unlike bridges within the United States. It had concrete columns that did not extend deep into the ground. In the US, most bridges break into the bedrock to ensure that the bridge is stable. However, this bridge was fixed on top of concrete pillows in Iceland. The concrete pillows acted as counter balances to the bridge itself. Pillows were used because the sand is unstable and the area is prone to flooding because of the glacier.
Our second to last stop was a crater leftover from a glacier.
The final stop was Hofskirkja, one of the last churches built with a traditional turf roof. The church was originally pagan, but is now Christian.
Swanson School of Engineering 