A most successful expedition to Iceland was undertaken at the end of the Easter break by Mr Heathcote and Dr Lawson of the Geography Dept, accompanied by 11 Fourth Form boys. Having bathed in the geothermal springs that is The blue Lagoon (see photo) in a freezing gale-force wind with sleet on the first half-day, we were worried what we had let ourselves in for. However, the weather was fairly kind to us for the next three days, allowing us to marvel at a range of spectacular sites in SW Iceland.
We visited the rift valley being caused by the tearing apart of the earth as the North American tectonic plate moves away from the Eurasian plate. As magma is very close to the surface in this region, groundwaters are heated by geothermal heat, causing hot springs and geysers, both of which we witnessed. We also visited a glacier - including entering an ice cave at the glacier snout - and took a trip up onto the icefields around the Myrdalsjokull ice cap. At the southernmost point of Iceland we saw 4 metre high waves crashing onto the beach. We also spent a day on the nearby Westmann Islands, visiting the site of the 1973 Heimaey volcanic eruption - the volcano is still hot a few centimetres below the surface! For many of us, the extremely powerful waterfalls provided one of a number of highlights of the trip. We returned tired and overawed...!
A most successful expedition to Iceland was undertaken at the end of the Easter break by Mr Heathcote and Dr Lawson of the Geography Dept, accompanied by 11 Fourth Form boys. Having bathed in the geothermal springs that is The blue Lagoon (see photo) in a freezing gale-force wind with sleet on the first half-day, we were worried what we had let ourselves in for. However, the weather was fairly kind to us for the next three days, allowing us to marvel at a range of spectacular sites in SW Iceland. 
We visited the rift valley being caused by the tearing apart of the earth as the North American tectonic plate moves away from the Eurasian plate. As magma is very close to the surface in this region, groundwaters are heated by geothermal heat, causing hot springs and geysers, both of which we witnessed. We also visited a glacier - including entering an ice cave at the glacier snout - and took a trip up onto the icefields around the Myrdalsjokull ice cap. At the southernmost point of Iceland we saw 4 metre high waves crashing onto the beach. We also spent a day on the nearby Westmann Islands, visiting the site of the 1973 Heimaey volcanic eruption - the volcano is still hot a few centimetres below the surface! For many of us, the extremely powerful waterfalls provided one of a number of highlights of the trip. We returned tired and overawed...! 
