Greetings all -
So sad to leave New Zealand but now we're here in the surprisingly lovely Krafla, Iceland (65°42'N, 16°48'W)! We arrived two days ago and have done nothing but explore since. We swam in a couple hot springs, hiked, biked and got to learn all about the divergent boundary that is Iceland! A divergent boundary is when there are two plates are moving away from each other. Here in Iceland, the Eurasian plate and the North American plate are splitting on the mid-ocean ridge causing a rift to form. As these two diverging plates are moving, they form a rift valley. As the two plates are moving away from each other, the less-dense magma coming from the asthenosphere (the part of the mantle in which the crust moves) rises up through the rifts (cracks). The rising magma obviously creates many active volcanoes. In this case, Iceland is located directly on a divergent boundary causing some really interesting things to happen! Krafla is in a fascinating location that is directly on the boundary causing it to be very active with 29 eruptions throughout history with 1984 being it's most recent episode. Along with volcanoes, divergent boundaries experience many earthquakes as the plates move apart. Krafla isn't the spot for the largest earthquakes in Iceland, the largest one there being 5.0 in 1976. But, the largest recorded earthquake in Iceland was a whopping 7.1 in 1963! Fun fact: Krafla is currently being used to produce geothermal energy!
I'm so sad to say this but this is our last destination until we're back home in Seattle : ( Leah and I have had the time of our lives traveling around the world in preparation for next year in science class. Thanks to all of the amazing people we met, you guys were truly awesome.
I'll write to you one last time when we're home!
- Kathy
(FYI: The first photo is of me and Leah at a hot spring!)
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| We're so sad we have to leave!! : ( |
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