{"id":4630,"date":"2012-09-02T21:27:50","date_gmt":"2012-09-03T01:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=4630"},"modified":"2018-08-03T21:32:35","modified_gmt":"2018-08-04T01:32:35","slug":"sunday-september-2-2012-thingvellir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=4630","title":{"rendered":"Sunday, September 2, 2012 \u2014 \u00deingvellir"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>

The Law Rock at \u00deingvellir<\/p><\/div>\n

I was dri\u00adven direct\u00adly to \u00dein\u00advel\u00adlir by Ingi Bjar\u00adna\u00adson, a geo\u00adphysi\u00adcist who has done con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adable work on Iceland\u00b4s man\u00adtle plume. If you are going to study plate tec\u00adton\u00adics, you could hard\u00adly pick a bet\u00adter spot than this, where the Amer\u00adi\u00adcan and Euro\u00adpean tec\u00adton\u00adic plates are simul\u00adta\u00adne\u00adous\u00adly sep\u00ada\u00adrat\u00ading and shear\u00ading.  Ice\u00adland is built up from the many lay\u00aders of lava erupt\u00ading from this crit\u00adi\u00adcal spot along the mid-Atlantic ocean ridge. This vio\u00adlent action is why vol\u00adcanos are con\u00adstant\u00adly erupt\u00ading here. The Surt\u00adsey erup\u00adtion cre\u00adat\u00aded a new island in 1963. Eld\u00adfell buried part of a town in lava and ash in 1973, events that fig\u00adure in Yrsa Sig\u00adur\u00addard\u00ad\u00f3t\u00adtir\u2019s excel\u00adlent mys\u00adtery nov\u00adel Ash\u00ades to Dust<\/em>. Eyjafj\u00f6l\u00adl\u2019s ash plume paral\u00adysed Europe\u2019s avi\u00ada\u00adtion in 2010. In 2011, Gr\u00edmsv\u00f6t\u00adn\u2019s erupt\u00aded under\u00adneath the Vat\u00adna\u00adj\u00f6kull glac\u00adi\u00ader. An erup\u00adtion of Kat\u00adla could be a mon\u00adu\u00admen\u00adtal dis\u00adas\u00adter, on the scale of the dis\u00adas\u00adter at Laki in 1783, which killed a quar\u00adter of Ice\u00adland\u2019s pop\u00adu\u00adla\u00adtion and approx\u00adi\u00admate\u00adly six mil\u00adlion peo\u00adple world\u00adwide through its effects. Kat\u00adla has been show\u00ading some men\u00adac\u00ading behav\u00adiour through satel\u00adlite imagery. How\u00adev\u00ader, Alain told me that anoth\u00ader erup\u00adtion of Hekla, which pops off on a reg\u00adu\u00adlar basis, is the most imme\u00addi\u00adate and like\u00adly dan\u00adger. Hekla is in tra\u00addi\u00adtion the \u201cgate\u00adway to Hell\u201d, and fig\u00adures in the works of Her\u00adman Melville and William Blake.<\/span><\/p>\n

Alain was a charm\u00ading guide to the feast of geol\u00ado\u00adgy that rolled past my eyes, answer\u00ading all my ques\u00adtions and guess\u00ades expertly.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>

Two con\u00adti\u00adnents at \u00deingvel\u00adlir. To the left is the North Amer\u00adi\u00adcan Con\u00adti\u00adnen\u00adtal Plate. To the right is Europe.<\/p><\/div>\n

In the broad val\u00adley of \u00deingvel\u00adlir, you can plain\u00adly see the crack between the West\u00adern Hemi\u00adsphere and the East\u00adern. A long, solemn wall of lava forms the east\u00adern side, crenelat\u00aded like a cas\u00adtle. At one spot, a round boul\u00adder is frozen, pinched between two cres\u00adcent arms of rock. A low\u00ader, more bro\u00adken up wall forms the west\u00adern wall. The trench between the two is the his\u00adtoric site of the Al\u00fein\u00adgi<\/em> (Allth\u00ading), Ice\u00adland\u2019s medieval par\u00adlia\u00adment. Here, the con\u00adtentious Ice\u00adlanders of the Sagas gath\u00adered annu\u00adal\u00adly to leg\u00adis\u00adlate and try legal cas\u00ades, with\u00adout any King rul\u00ading over them, for three cen\u00adturies. While the medieval Ice\u00adlandic state was not demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic in the same way as a mod\u00adern elect\u00aded gov\u00adern\u00adment, it is nev\u00ader\u00adthe\u00adless impor\u00adtant as an impor\u00adtant land\u00admark in the his\u00adto\u00adry of the demo\u00adc\u00adra\u00adt\u00adic idea. Giv\u00aden the sub\u00adjects of my writ\u00ading, it would be impos\u00adsi\u00adble for me to vis\u00adit Ice\u00adland with\u00adout see\u00ading \u00deingvel\u00adlir, and I was deeply moved by the experience.<\/span><\/p>\n

A dra\u00admat\u00adic water\u00adfall pours over the cliff at the west\u00adern end. There\u2019s a pic\u00adturesque church near\u00adby, in the sim\u00adple, unadorned Ice\u00adlandic style. There was a group of nuns pick\u00ading berries, and a sprin\u00adkling of tourists, but noth\u00ading like a crowd. A few sheep wan\u00addered about. Sun\u00adlight flood\u00aded the val\u00adley, and all was qui\u00adet. Moun\u00adtains and glac\u00adi\u00aders in the dis\u00adtance in every direc\u00adtion. To the east, the bright blue of a large lake, \u00deingvel\u00adlir\u00advatn. Across the lake, a string of geot\u00adher\u00admal plumes were clear\u00adly visible.<\/span><\/p>\n

I saw no sign of exploita\u00adtion or vul\u00adgar\u00adi\u00adty at \u00deingvel\u00adlir. A foot\u00adpath, some wood\u00aden steps, a dis\u00adcrete ser\u00advice build\u00ading, a few explana\u00adto\u00adry plaques, and a flag\u00adpole on the Law Rock com\u00admem\u00ado\u00adrat\u00ading where Ice\u00adland\u2019s inde\u00adpen\u00addence was declared con\u00adsti\u00adtute the only human med\u00addling in the scene, and these were all prac\u00adti\u00adcal and jus\u00adti\u00adfi\u00adable alter\u00adations for a place of such his\u00adtoric importance.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I was dri\u00adven direct\u00adly to \u00dein\u00advel\u00adlir by Ingi Bjar\u00adna\u00adson, a geo\u00adphysi\u00adcist who has done con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adable work on Iceland\u00b4s man\u00adtle plume. If you are going to study plate tec\u00adton\u00adics, you could hard\u00adly pick a bet\u00adter spot than this, where the Amer\u00adi\u00adcan and \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,932],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-ao-blog-2012"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4630"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7579,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4630\/revisions\/7579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}