on the way to Surtsey

 

 

photo credit: Le Jhe

 

photo credit: Bruce McAdam

 

photo credit: David in Derbyshire

Here we go, Surtsey. It's Surtsey for Surtsey Island, but wait, it is not open to visitors. It's only open to scientists, particularly those who are searching for life forms. How about visitors with scientific inclination? If it's a sort of scientific laboratory where cutting-edge technology is currently being developed with the race for some patent, then I don't think casual visitors are allowed. There's even confidentiality agreement in this type of research. So probably cutting-edge and crucial is brewing in that island, not to mention probably dangerous and unstable. This sounds like an isotope during the development of the atomic bomb. Anyway, we don't want to exaggerate things such as thinking about an island to be on the same level as the atomic bomb, but there are indeed novel things in that island.

As one may have read about this island, Surtsey is a brand new island in Iceland. Yes, there is this thing as a "brand new" island, and moreover a "geologically young land" description also exists. So that makes Surtsey Island a brand new island within the territory of a geologically young land called Iceland. From science books, a geologically young land during the early years of the planet Earth is characterized by boiling and molten substances. No wonder Iceland is characterized by geysers and active volcanoes. That's a sharp contrast to its sub-polar climate and name as "Ice" land. Also add to the mixture the names Hekla, Eldgjá, Herðubreið and Eldfell, which are the notable volcanoes in the territory. Given these, Iceland is indeed another interesting place on Earth.

Surtsey Island was formed in 1963 during a series of volcano eruptions from late 1963 to mid 1968. The geological developments in the island sort of surprised the scientists since varied land features like sandy beaches, lagoons, cliffs, and canyons were created in less than a decade. This is in contrast to what was believed to take thousands of years to develop geologically.