Iceland 7 – Geyser and Waterfalls

We started today at a geyser field on the Golden Circle,  which were reminiscent of Yellowstone in the US, though much smaller.  There were busloads of people wandering through, making the photography a bit tricky.  From the parking lot markings though, I am glad I am not here in the summer, when there were spots for 50 buses to park, in addition to the cars.

Their is only one erupting geyser in the park. Similar to “Old Faithful” in Yellowstone, this one erupts every 5 to 7 minutes.  A gas bubble first forms (lower right), then the gas proceeds to force an upward rush of steaming water.  The time from the first bubble to the full eruption is roughly one tenth of a second, so it takes quick reflexes to catch the stages. 🙂

We next drove to Gullfoss Waterfall, which is the second largest falls in Iceland (the largest is far up North, where we did not reach on this trip).  This is an impressive display of multiple drop levels, carved from a glacier flood roughly 8700 years ago.

There are waterfalls at almost every turn in Iceland.  Many farms have multiple falls on their property.  Our last stop of the day was also the last stop of the originally arranged photo tour with Iurie.  One more waterfall before we headed back to our own barn (hotel) in Reykjavik.

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