Perpetual Motion - Iceland

Like no other place in the world, I’ve come to understand Iceland as a landscape in perpetual motion. The weather is constantly changing. Within the span of a day, you’re liable to see a little sun, some mist, a bit of drizzle and fog, and driving rain. It’s maddening but a drenching lurks at any time for the unprepared. Depending on the weather, your view of nearby valleys or glaciers or horizons may be cloaked in mysterious mists hiding all that is picturesque. Or the wind may pick up such velocity, the puffins that normally take flight for herring supper stand perched on cliff sides.

The tides rise and fall on daily cycles. At high tide, strong waves pound the shore and wash stray iceberg diamonds onto beaches. Treacherous sneaker waves conspire to pull people into the deep. At low tide, the waves are calm and gentle on most beaches... revealing coastal paths and hidden caves. But at rivers that feed into the ocean, the low tide creates a strong siphoning currents out of lagoons able to pull massive icebergs out to sea like small toys in an draining bathtub vortex. In the ocean, the waves are calm at times allowing for quick safe passage to islands, other times rolling and tempestuous causing unexpected ferry route changes and different types of sailing strategies.

The season changes and alters the experience of the land to the extreme. From 22 hours of sunlight in the summer to 4 hours of light in the winter. Some ice caves which form in winter vanish completely by summer.

The glaciers which descend from the mountains like massive 300 meter deep frozen rivers flow at an imperceptibly slow snail pace. During the dark winters, the layers of snow build them up inch by inch. During the summer, they melt in mercurial ways to form ice caves. Calving at their tongues creates thunderous noises in the valleys and iceberg flows into lagoons. The remnants of their inertia is the ubiquitous volcanic basalt sand that is produced by their massive grinding power. When their melting accelerates, massive flows of water wash out all in their path creating massive flood plains.

The volcanic eruptions are intense events which explode like atomic bombs and alter the island like no other force. Thankfully I haven’t experienced an eruption in person, but I can imagine the devastation by looking at the land. In the south, a single eruption laid waste to lush redwood forests... leaving behind crenellated lava fields, cratered mountain tops, and vast plains of basalt devoid of flora. On westman island, the eruptive force and fiery lava flows laid waste to entire sections of town. Their destructive force and trauma only softened by the cloak of soft lichen and moss.

The Eurasian and North American plates are drifting apart 3 cm a year, which over geologic time causing rifts and fissures in the landscape... routes for water to percolate and flow, cliffs that become amphitheater’s for parliament, or cracks in the rock for hot springs and geysers to surface. Some geysers blow off steam every 5 minutes, other hot springs bubble up constantly like the seconds hand on a clock.

Longer stays in Iceland offer the ability to see and understand the places in motion. The forces in motion here are like no other in the world and uniquely (for better or worse) shape your experience of the land.