Heimaey and Surtsey

 July 11: Heimaey

This morning we navigated into the narrow harbor of Heimay, a large island in the West... archipelago. Heimay has been a prosperous fishing town for hundreds of years. In January 1973 there were 5000 people living in Heimaey, when, in the middle of the night, a 2km rift opened up across the island (not near any known volcano and preceded by only two minor earthquakes that were assumed to be associated with an off shore active volcano). Gas and ash started to spew out, threatening the town. The seas had been so rough the previous few days that all the fishing boats were in port— nearly everyone in town was packed onto them for a harrowing but successful evacuation. 5000 refugees in a country of 200,000 was quite a challenge; this was the first ever eruption within a town in Iceland’s recorded history. Those that stayed behind began efforts to control the flow of lava from the cone rapidly forming from one section of the rift. The US Navy supplied pumps and personnel to help spray seawater onto the lava, building up walls to contain the ongoing flow. They originally tried to save the town, then they had to shift to saving the harbor (since it was the livelihood of the town residents).  This meant the center of the town had to be sacrificed. 

The eruption officially ended in July 1973, and residents started returning shortly after. 400 families lost their homes to lava slides, collapse or fire. It took years of daily work to excavate and begin to rebuild the town, which now (50 years later) numbers about 4300 residents. We walked around town with a young man whose grandfather was one of the firemen in 1973. We stood on 40 feet of ash and lava above what had been the town swimming pool, and looked down on houses that previously had an ocean view but now look onto a lava cliff. We hiked up to the top of the volcano and could see both where the lava engulfed much of the town, and the new land formed on the north and east edges. The town museum was built around a collapsed house, and contained amazing photographs of the destruction. One of the young diving staff on the ship told family stories as her father was 10 years old in Heimaey in 1973. 

This afternoon was spent cruising at slow speed around the islands south of Heimaey in search of whales; we saw three Minke Whales, and an amazing display of diving Gannets. The Gannets ( a large sleek seabird) would fly along, then suddenly fold their wings in and plummet into the ocean.  The adults would go straight in and generate very little splash.  Immature Gannets were not so graceful - clearly getting a much lower score in the diving competition.  We learned that the leading cause of death for Gannets is a broken neck from not diving properly. 

Just before the final dinner on the ship, we cruised around Surtsey, the youngest island in the world and the southernmost island in Iceland. It was formed by an underwater eruption in 1963-1967. Originally the island (at the end of all the eruptions) was 2 square kilometers but it is now smaller as sea erosion has reduced its size. It provides a rare opportunity to see how vegetation grows on a brand new island; it is a protected zone and only specific research scientists are permitted to go ashore. The island has beautiful and peculiar patterns to the basalt. 

As a final note, the times of sunrise and sunset have change dramatically over the course of the trip. Tonight sunset will be 00:30 and sunrise is not until 4:31... a big change from a week ago. This makes sense as by the equinox the whole world has to have 12 hours of daylight and here in the north they start at 24 hours of daylight at solstice, so the change 3very day must be larger than in New York. It still feels weird. 

Pictured: minke, surtsey, Heimaey