The morning found us cruising towards the 15 Westman Islands and Heimaey the only one inhabited.
First we had a lecture on Iceland Today.
The captain of our ship found several whales. He seems to have a special knack for it. After watching whales for about an hour, we continued on our journey.
The Westman Islands were formed by volcanic activity and most were not formed until 5,000 years ago. The most recent, Surtsey, was formed in 1963 and has been changing shape ever since. It is a protected nature reserve as it is being carefully monitored to see what wildlife begins to settle there.
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| Surtsey Island |
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| Gannets inhabit this island |
We entered the narrow channel to the harbor on Heimaney Island. In 1973 a volcanic 1.2 mi fissure opened up and lava spewed out rolling towards the capital of the island. Since the fishing boats were in the harbor because of a storm during the night. Within hours all were evacuated, no deaths. The eruptions continued from January to July. The island grew by .8 sq mi and 1/3 of the town was buried under lava. 2000 of the 5300 evacuees returned that summer. A new volcanic mountain was created: Eldfell.
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| Eldfell formed 1973 |
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| House partially exposed filled with lava and ash |
A bus tour took us through the desolate areas where ash defines the landscape. We visited the Eldheimar Pompeii of the North Museum.
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| Excavations of Early Settler's Home near a golf course |
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| Creative advertizing |
We took a boat tour around the island, viewing the cliffs where puffins nest and also entered a cave where the captain of the boat played a saxophone! We saw most of the birds on our list.
We disembarked the boat and reboarded our ship leaving for Reykjavik.
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| Students painted people who helped after the eruption |
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| Stave Church |
We took a boat tour around the island, viewing the cliffs where puffins nest and also entered a cave where the captain of the boat played a saxophone! We saw most of the birds on our list.
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