moment's notice
Across the Great Divide, an Assembly of Men
Our May 8th flight began with a wing salute to the Front Range of the Rockies, headed north and east over the land of a thousand lakes, over Hudson Bay, past the shelf of Greenland, and 6 hours later, landed on the SW edge of Iceland. After refueling with coffee and pastry at a hip Reykjavík Kaffi, we began our journey around Iceland at Þingvellir National Park and World Heritage Site. Þingvellir is truly the site of nation building, both geographically and culturally. Located in a rift valley at the crest of the mid-Atlantic Ridge where the American and Eurasian continental plates are drifting apart at the rate of 8mm./year, Þingvellir marks the site where in 930 A.D. early settlers gathered in assembly and formed the Icelandic Parliament (Althing), with people coming from all over Iceland to participate annually through 1798, when the Althing moved to Reykjavík.
Trying to make sense of a new landscape, in this large view we see the Almannagjá , or All Men’s Gorge, into which all the first Althing participants allegedly fit, winding down to the valley. The river Öxará flows through and was rerouted to provide a water supply for the assemblies. Þingvellir lies on the northern shore of the rift valley lake Þingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland with a depth of 374 ft. The shield volcano Skjaldbreiður looms in the background.
We didn’t know it then, but this first stop included many elements we would see throughout Iceland: sweeping views, volcanic geology, beautiful waterfalls, thermal hydrology, sun, snow, glaciers and ice sheets, and tourists making selfies.
Across the Great Divide, an Assembly of Men
Our May 8th flight began with a wing salute to the Front Range of the Rockies, headed north and east over the land of a thousand lakes, over Hudson Bay, past the shelf of Greenland, and 6 hours later, landed on the SW edge of Iceland. After refueling with coffee and pastry at a hip Reykjavík Kaffi, we began our journey around Iceland at Þingvellir National Park and World Heritage Site. Þingvellir is truly the site of nation building, both geographically and culturally. Located in a rift valley at the crest of the mid-Atlantic Ridge where the American and Eurasian continental plates are drifting apart at the rate of 8mm./year, Þingvellir marks the site where in 930 A.D. early settlers gathered in assembly and formed the Icelandic Parliament (Althing), with people coming from all over Iceland to participate annually through 1798, when the Althing moved to Reykjavík.
Trying to make sense of a new landscape, in this large view we see the Almannagjá , or All Men’s Gorge, into which all the first Althing participants allegedly fit, winding down to the valley. The river Öxará flows through and was rerouted to provide a water supply for the assemblies. Þingvellir lies on the northern shore of the rift valley lake Þingvallavatn, the largest natural lake in Iceland with a depth of 374 ft. The shield volcano Skjaldbreiður looms in the background.
We didn’t know it then, but this first stop included many elements we would see throughout Iceland: sweeping views, volcanic geology, beautiful waterfalls, thermal hydrology, sun, snow, glaciers and ice sheets, and tourists making selfies.