Iceland. What’s good with it?

The Regrowth Project
5 min readSep 6, 2021

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We are going to chronicle you a fact or two about what’s going on in Iceland, which happens to be one of the wildest spots out there. Not only is there ice, but also volcanoes, waterfalls, grasses, space lights and powerlifters. An absurd combo if you really think about it. We will delve into the geologic history, lifting history, and show you some cool pictures of the area by the time it’s all said and done. Let’s cook.

Somehow a real place on Earth, pictured above

It would be pretty hard to debate that the above picture is not a stunning, spectacular, mesmerizing view, but how did we get here? Why is it that Iceland metaphorically fucks? The answer is geology. Iceland sits on the border of two tectonic plates, as well as a hotspot called the Iceland Plume. Know some other spots that sit on hotspots? Try Hawaii and Yellowstone. Yeah, these places are pretty sick. As recently as 1783, a big ol’ volcano on the island called Laki erupted and killed about 25% of stuff on the island as well as lowering global temperatures and maybe causing droughts in India? First of all, thank you wikipedia. Second of all, speak softly and carry a big stick. Iceland doesn’t get much rep but it is not afraid to punch you in the nose.

Laki

Here we can see Laki undeniably going hard. Dangerous to be around but it also helps create some of the amazing formations we see present today. With the good comes the bad. Now we transfer to the other end of the spectrum and talk glaciers. Not only does Iceland have a huge amount of volcanic activity, it also has yuge glaciers. Really playing both sides of the temperature game. The largest of these glaciers is (get ready for it) Vatnajokull. It covers a cool 8% of the entire country, which is actually down from all time highs. Glaciers as a whole cover about 11% of Iceland. However, an extra cool fact is that many of these glaciers lie on top of active volcanoes. Therefore, when they erupt, they cause the glaciers to melt and create massive floods. Definitely not so cool for the people directly affected but absolutely bananas to think about.

Views from Vatnajokull National Park
Road destroyed by volcanic flooding

Above we have some tight water falls from Vatnajokull National Park, and below we got the shady underside of this wicked volcano/glacier wombo combo. Top looks like Niagara Falls without the pandering to tourists, while the bottom is a straight up natural disaster you’d expect to see after some kind of tsunami. But there was no tsunami. There was a volcanic eruption. The wildness of nature does not cease to amaze.

P.S. Look at that poor guy’s house at the top of the picture. Probably some of his neighbors’ cribs got washed out by that thing. Absolutely unfortunate although they do evacuate these places so hopefully everyone was chillin.

Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis)

Now this phenomena pictures above isn’t exclusive to Iceland, but it is exclusive to North. So Iceland qualifies. For all my nerds in the crowd, the science name for this is Aurora Borealis, which is described in a book (the dictionary) as a “natural electrical phenomenon characterized by the appearance of streamers of reddish or greenish light in the sky, usually near the northern or southern magnetic pole.” Aka particles make atmosphere go brr. It’s actually solar wind interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field to release light in the form of energy. Whichever definition you choose to abide by, it’s pretty sick. Something that needs to be seen one day. October through April around midnight are prime season to check ‘em out in Iceland. Contact a solar forecast provider near you for more information!

The Gym

Who would go on vacation without the proper assurance that they could get a fat lift in every once in awhile??? While Iceland is known for its decent nature, it is world famous for its world class dedication to fitness. Statistics show that Iceland’s citizens work out at twice the European average. This is because they are savages and may the most incredible natural phenomenon out there. I read somewhere that Reykjavik has the most gyms per capita of any city on Earth, but I can’t find any relevant statistics to verify this, so it’ll have to stay up to speculation.

Also The Mountain from Thrones is from Iceland. Dude is ludicrously jacked. To be honest, I’ve never seen anything like it in my entire life. It would be many dudes dream to be this swole.

The Mountain

Credit where credit is due. Absolute unit. In an alternate universe, he’s the best O-Lineman of our generation.

This has been an in depth analysis of the nature and natural phenomena of Iceland, from volcanoes to glaciers to science lights to a breed of people who are simply #builtdifferent. It’s a pleasure to provide you the cutting edge info on a natural subject each week. The Regrowth Blogject stays in the game.

As always, to support you can visit our website, donate to the patreon (where you can help elect the next blog topic) or give us a follow on Instagram @theregrowthproject. And if you’re not seeing this on Twitter, @TheRegrowth.

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The Regrowth Project
The Regrowth Project

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