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Click on the picture to watch an audio slideshow of the lambing season at Brimnes, a farm in the north of Iceland, in April 2008. Sheep farmer Arnar Gústafsson and his girlfriend Edda Björk take shifts watching over the nearly 300 ewes and helping them give birth 24/7 for about two months or until the last lamb is born. In Iceland, the arrival of lambs is synonymous with the arrival of summer. The lambing season is currently at its height.
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Located just 40 minutes by car and six minutes from Keflavík International Airport, Sandgerdi (“Sandy Hedge”) is a growing town of 1,700 with a storied history and loads to see. Read this special promotion about the hidden secrets of one of Iceland's most charming seaside villages.
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The Icelandic Coast Guard flew a team of scientists across Mýrdalsjökull glacier and the flooded area yesterday to examine the circumstances. They estimate that the two calderas in the southern part of the glacier from which the flood emerged are 50 meters deep.
One of the calderas. Photo posted on ruv.is. Copyright: Icelandic Coast Guard.
The scientists estimate the depth based on ash layers in the ice. The black stripe that can be seen in the walls of the calderas is ash from the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajökull last year, while the edges of the calderas are black because of the ash from the recent Grímsvötn eruption, ruv.is reports.
Their vertical walls indicate that the glacial melt occurred very quickly. It was caused either by a magma intrusion or a steam explosion. The cracks around the calderas are extremely deep and wide—they could swallow a whole house.
They are located in the southernmost part of the Katla crater, which measures 80 square kilometers. It is ten kilometers wide and 500-600 meters deep and is surrounded by mountains, the highest of which are 1,300 meters high.
A thick ice covers the crater, which makes Katla one of the most dangerous volcanoes in Iceland. In case of a large eruption in Katla, a significant amount of ice could melt and cause a huge flood, which could prove dangerous for people living in the area.
Katla last erupted in 1918, which was a large eruption.
The recent activity in Mýrdalsjökull does not indicate an immediate eruption and the activity in the glacier has subsided.
Click here to read an announcement in English and German about the situation.
Click here to read more about the current situation in Mýrdalsjökull.
Magnús Skarphéðinsson, principal of the Icelandic Elf School, has expressed his concern that Independence Party MP Árni Johnsen may be subject to an accident after relocating a boulder allegedly inhabited by elves to his home in the Westman Islands.
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The first music festival this summer, Reykjavík Live, kicks off with concerts in the center of Iceland’s capital tonight and will carry on through May 20. The venues are Gamli Gaukurinn, Glaumbar, Prikið and Frú Berlaug.
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President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson and his main rival for the presidential election on June 30, Þóra Arnórsdóttir, are supported by an almost equal number of voters, 41.3 and 43.4 percent, respectively, as indicated in a new survey.
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The West Fjords District Court ruled on Monday that a man found guilty of having drowned a Labrador by tying its front and hind legs, fastening it to car tires and throwing it in the ocean is to pay ISK 100,000 (USD 786, EUR 612) in fine.
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The current issue of the quarterly magazine Iceland Review includes interviews with fashion photographer Saga Sig and conceptual artist Rúrí. Also, we take you to Grímsstaðir á Fjöllum, that desolate land coveted by a Chinese tycoon, and also explore Icelandic archeological remains. We discuss the Icelandic Church, the flourishing gaming industry, debate the future of Iceland’s energy resources and interview the president of the Icelandic National League of North America. Subscribe now and receive a free photo book by IR’s editor Páll Stefánsson of the Eyjafjallajökull eruptions. Click here to subscribe to the magazine and here to buy a gift subscription.
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REVIEWS
The Reykjavík Shorts&Docs was held in Reykjavík from May 6 to 9 in Bíó Paradís, and what an enriching experience it was to attend the festival.
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Shedding light on Iceland’s thousand-year history, as manifested in remains ranging from Viking graves to enchanted sites, Mannvist is a fundamental piece of writing. Ásta Andrésdóttir met with its author, archaeologist Birna Lárusdóttir.
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“The House Project” currently on display in Hafnarborg, the Hafnarfjörður Centre of Culture and Fine Art, is a new artwork by Hreinn Friðfinnsson consisting of a photography series of the three houses. His work is described as “a poetic and philosophical exploration of every day human experience.”
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