Today, we traveled from the remote regions of Iceland’s southern coast back into the hustle and bustle of Reykjavik. Before heading back towards the city, we stopped at Dyrhólaey. Here, we had beautiful views of sea stacks, massive crashing waves, and basaltic cliffs dropping off into the ocean. We were lucky enough to have clear skies and comfortable temperatures at this location, so I strolled around and collected some more volcanic rocks. Today, I found pumice, scoria, rhyolite, and of course, more basalt (my rock collection is really starting to weigh down my backpack).
From here, we departed for the Hellisheiði Geothermal Power Plant, one of the highlights of our trip. The Hellisheiði plant is operated by a company whose English name is ON Power; in Icelandic, the name is Orka náttúrunnar, which means “energy from nature.” We saw the Geothermal Exhibition within this power plant, where we learned how this plant is harnessing energy underground to generate electricity and supply hot water to towns in Iceland. Another company within ON is Carbfix, a Carbon Capture and Storage operation that takes CO2 in the atmosphere, dissolves it in water, and pumps it underground where it forms solid minerals over time. We journeyed out to a borehole location where this process is occurring, and saw the system that combines the gases and water before injecting it into the bedrock to mineralize. After learning about carbon sequestration in my coursework, it was quite exciting to witness it in action!
Swanson School of Engineering 