IGNIS Young Reporter
Lagoon is great although don’t lose anything in
there as the water is murky. Also, don’t get your
hair wet in it because it makes a weird crackling
sound!
Hellisheidi Power Plant is one of the many
renewable power stations that populate Iceland.
Iceland is the only country in the world with
100% of its energy made from renewable
sources, an achievement that will hopefully
be mi rrored by other countries in the future.
Geothermal power uses the natural heat from
the ground (Iceland being a volcanically active
area) to heat water, to turn a turbine, to then
turn a generator. This warm water is then reused
in cities cheaply, also reusing energy which
would otherwise be wasted. About 87% of
energy is created by hydroelectric power stations
and the remaining 13% from geothermal power
stations.
Kerid Crater is an explosion crater filled with
water (not from rainfall but by the level of the
water table). There are two theories as to how
this was formed – the usual one is by a volcanic
explosion - however a second theory is that
the cone volcano’s magma chamber emptied,
leading the cone to collapse into the chamber.
Either way, it is still a very big crater and a very
impressive site.
Þingvellir (Thingvellir) National Park is a UNESCO
World Heritage Site. It was the site of Iceland’s
ancient parliament from as early as AD 930, until
the late 18th century. Here, you can see the gap
between the North American and Eurasian tectonic
plates; you can be in Europe and touch North
America! This gap between the plates is growing
by about 2cm a year, not a lot but in 100 years, that
is a 2m widening and responsible, every few years,
for earthquakes.
IGNIS
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