The Kerid Volcano Basin

In the last 10,000 years, when lava erupted in Iceland it covered one-tenth of this island's surface which is equal to about 400 kilometres.  It is everywhere....unbelievable landscape.  In some places it looks like what I would envision the moons surface is like.

Volcanic evidence can be seen as soon as your plane lands at the Keflavik Airport.  What you see are 'fissure eruptions' cones which are very common in Iceland and what you see on the landscape.  In one section, named the 'longest crater row, the Laki crater row,' there are apparently 100 craters visible along a 25 km long fissure!  Not the place to come to if you are nervous about Volcanos.  But for me, and Deb, I couldn't read enough as a kid about volcanos and the power behind them. 

Below is the Kerid Crater, which is one of the most beautiful crater lakes in the world.  It is an inactive volcanic crater that we visited on the 'Golden Circle Tour.'  We had a close up view of a volcano that was probably last active about 3000 years ago.  It left behind a huge hole in the earth by the power of this sleeping giant.  About 90 meters deep, 270 meters long, and 170 meters wide....with a crater lake now residing at the bottom.

So close to a real volcanic crater.

Beside the crater is a path filled with very red stones which I followed to get a closer look at the crater.  The red rocks, lava rocks, results when the iron minerals (in the rocks) are exposed to the elements and begin to oxidize or 'rust.'  Brilliant reds abound on the stark grey/black lava fields which go for hundreds of miles.

Iceland experiences an eruption approximately, on an average, one every five years.  But during the last 100 years there have been about 44!  The HUGE one was Eyjafjallajokull, which as you know caused the air traffic havoc in 2010.  We were told, at the end of one of our tours, that Grimsvotn volcano has been acting up a bit and due to erupted ANY DAY!  Yikes.  Our flight is 5pm today....hang on!!!

As well, every single day there is seismic activity on Iceland.  Earthquakes are measured, between 2-3 on the Richter scale, with many recorded in a day.  At that strength we don't feel them, but what the heck....the tour agent didn't share that with us?  Oh yeah...that is the tour agent below...."clean out your locker, you are fired."  

Not really...it feels energizing and invigorating to think about.

The main reason for all this activity on Iceland is that it straddles on top of the North America and Eurasian tectonic plates.  These tectonic plates move at a rate of about one centimetre per year.  Later I will share photos of the actual land that is coming apart in front of our eyes.  

A closer look at the 'red rocks.'  Amazing.  We do see much more in the way of volcanos during the rest of our visit to Iceland, but this is the only time we are this close.  

Love it!