I slept from 11:30 to 6:30! Yes, with the help of zzz quils, but at least since I had no nap yesterday, I feel like I’m finally getting on track with sleep. What’s on the schedule for today? The usual. Working tirelessly for all of these students of mine, striving to spark creativity, passion, and knowledge in today’s youth, research, research, and more research… Yep. Just another day at the office. Except that today, my office is INSIDE OF THE MAGMA CHAMBER OF A FREAKING VOLCANO!!!!!!! People,  my job does not suck. 🙂

So Mary, you’re probably saying to yourself, how in the world are you going into a magma chamber of a volcano? Everyone knows that magma chambers either solidify rock solid or collapse into themselves after an eruption (duh, right?!). Well yes, well educated reader, you are correct about that! However, as I always tell my students, there is ALWAYS an exception in science! And the Þríhnúkagígur volcano (pronounced Thrihnukagigur…yeah, that doesn’t help me either) is the exception. It is one of the very few volcanoes in the entire world where the eruption didn’t either fill or destroy the magma chamber. The magma just kind of ran back down into the earth they think- like pulling the plug on the end of a pipe. And it left a glorious, intact magma chamber in place. And not only is Thrihnukagigur one of the few volcanoes in the world where this has happened, it is the ONLY one in the world that you can go into!! Hell yeahz! I’m all about doing something super unique! Which is why I coughed up $100 more than I paid for my plane ticket from Los Angeles to Reykjavik for this tour… That’s ok. I’m living fine on PB & J and ramen. Seriously, my cupboard looks like I’m 19 again and in college! 🙂  Dear waistline: Follow suit.

Trying to figure out how to dress for this thing was a bit challenging. Did I want to go with my heavy winter clothes and break out the ski pants? It was cold outside (it didn’t get over 45ish today). On the other hand, we did have to hike 2 miles to the volcano and 2 miles back, and I didn’t want to be overheated…. decisions, decisions. I finally decided to go lighter- my wool tights under my water resistant hiking pants, knee high thermal ski socks, two layers of thermal shirts, and my puffy jacket (yes, that’s light. don’t judge). I stuffed my raincoat in my daypack as well, because like I said yesterday, Iceland has ALL the weathers, and you never really know when or which one is going to pop up! This combination turned out to be perfect, and luckily I never needed the raincoat.

I researched several companies that offer this tour. It’s all the same exact thing, so I went with the cheapest. That was Grey Line, using my SEE5 code for a 5% discount. Same company I’m using for my airport transfers. They picked me up promptly at 9:30 and we went to their main terminal, where I got on a bus that was not subtle about where we were going! I was excited- this was going to be my first time out of the city and into the natural wonders of Iceland!! It was cloudy, grey, and cold out, but I enjoyed seeing the snowpack on the Blue Mountains in the distance get closer and closer.

Soon we were at a ski resort, where we were dropped off. We went inside the ski lodge for a bit, then our group of about 18 people headed off down the trail with our guide for the day- Stainay. I know I just butchered however that is spelled in Icelandic, but she told us it’s like “Stain” on your shirt and the letter a. 🙂 I wish everyone would break down Icelandic like that! It was cold, I ain’t gonna lie, and I was seriously starting to regret my decision to not put on the ski pants.

Along the way, Stainay gave us information about the volcano, all of which I videoed for class! She said that she would have at least put on some mascara if she knew I was coming! 🙂 It was really interesting that the volcano wasn’t even discovered until 1974. The guy who found it was lowered down 120 m (400 feet) on a rope with a flashlight. He stated there was nothing there but a big ugly black hole- basically because the immense darkness just swallowed all of the light in his sad little 1974 flashlight. In the 1990s,  the rescue teams of Iceland used it to practice rappelling, because there’s no wind inside. They explored a bit and saw that there were some colors and formations inside. Eh. National Geographic contacted these guys when they were doing a documentary on volcanoes in 2010 (only 8 years ago!!). They used window washing lifts to lower all of their gear inside, and this is the first time the magma chamber was properly lit up. They were amazed at what they saw! Tours only started in 2012.

The trail was easy. And I’m not saying that as some fit Angeleno…let’s just say that on a couch potato scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being “there’s somewhere to exist other than the couch?”, I’m a 4.5. Seriously. The only time I’m active is when I’m traveling, and the last time I did that was at the end of March. Otherwise, I’m either creating a lesson plan or grading on the couch- upwards of 10 hours a day. Oh, and I have a rebellious knee that goes rogue every once in a while. I say all of that to say this- if you think you aren’t fit enough for this hike, you’re probably wrong. It’s flat 95% of the way, with only 2 little climbs at the end- one to the base camp and one to the volcano. If I can do it with zero problem, chances are you can too. At one point, we crossed a metal bridge over a pretty deep gorge, several meters deep. This was a rift where the Eurasian and North American plates are pulling apart!! They’re spreading at a rate of about 2.5cm (1 inch) per year. Before we crossed the bridge, we were on the Eurasian plate. After the bridge, the North American plate. SO COOL! I plan on seeing this phenomenon in another spot next week as well. Fascinating stuff! And then, in the distance, the misty clouds cleared just enough for us to see the volcano! It’s actually a series of 3 volcanoes. The one we were going in is on the far right. It’s the youngest, having erupted 4,500 years ago. The middle peak formed about 5,000 years ago. And those two are infants compared to the one on the left! That one formed during the last throws of the Ice Age, about 50,000 years ago! When it erupted, it was covered by several hundred meters of ice. Wow. Soon the trail started its first climb- toward base camp.

It was a short climb (which definitely warmed me up!) to the cozy little camp. It was basically 3 rooms- we entered in through a gear room with helmets and harnesses, then went to sit in another room where there was hot coffee, tea, and water. Here we were split into 3 groups because only about 7 people can go on the lift at once. I was in group three. We kind of just sat there waiting for our turn, which finally came in about 30 minutes or so. I recommend trying to get in the first groups, because then you have longer to spend at base camp when you get back! You’ll see why later. 🙂 We had to put on a harness, which I ain’t gonna lie, freaked me out. If you’ve read my blog before, you know I am TERRIFIED of heights. What in the hell did I need a harness for? I was too scared to ask, because if they had said something like, “You have to rappel 10 m down to the lift.” or something, I would have just wasted $350. I kept my mouth shut and put on my harness. Then they gave us super cool bandannas (that we got to keep!) that we were to put on under our helmets. All geared up, we were ready for the final climb to the crater of Thri*mumble mumble mumble*!!

A very short, steep climb brought us to the crater, where a bridge (god dammit, why is there ALWAYS a sketch ass bridge high above some deadly drop that I have to traverse on EVERY freaking vacation!!!!!! I’m going to have a word with my travel agent…) led out over the nothingness below. Soon, the lift arrived! And much to my relief, I learned what the harnesses were for. We were clipped in to cross the bridge, and then clipped on to the lift. No diaper required. 🙂

I videoed the entire 6 minute ride down. I was so captivated by what I was seeing, I didn’t even consider the fact that I was dangling in a metal death trap 400 feet above the unforgiving floor of a 4,500 year old volcano! The colors! The formations! It was like a cave on crack! Seriously, they could have lowered me half way to China and I wouldn’t have been bored for one second. Plus, it would have been warmer! It’s always about 5 C (41 F) in the chamber. Brrrr. But I survived -10 C yesterday for 20+ minutes in the same clothes, so I wasn’t too concerned. Plus, just like yesterday, when I got to the bottom I was so excited about everything around me I forgot about being cold. The floor of the chamber measures about 50×70 m (160×220 ft). Large lights are strategically placed, lighting up the gorgeous formations. I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves. I took about 80… It’s hard to understand the scale with nothing to compare it to. Let’s just say “Huge” and leave it at that. Water was falling from above, like thousands of constantly streaming diamonds. The water takes 6 months to filter through the rock- so we were seeing water from Christmas. 🙂 It then filters through the floor of the cave to a huge underground lake, which supplies much of Reykjavik’s drinking water. The colors in this place were unbelievable. Reds for oxidized iron, yellows for sulfur, and greens for copper. Like an underground rainbow of rock.

All too soon it was time to go back up. We got to spend about 25 minutes on the floor of the cave. This time, I took pictures as we ascended… There was white stuff covering the rock in patches in certain places. Stainay said this was bacteria. Apparently there are about 20 species of bacteria that live in the chamber, 5 of which have only been found in this one volcano!! No insects or other critters live in the chamber. In what seemed like seconds, we were back to the top, and our exploration of Thri *mumble* *mumble* *mumble* was over. 🙁

We had only been down there for a total of about 40 minutes, but in true Iceland form, the weather had changed! Not to warm, but to clear! The clouds had left, and we had a view of Reykjavik! When we came up, we couldn’t even see the other two volcanoes that are right next to this one! We took some pictures and descended to base camp, where we were met with a DELICIOUS bowl of hot lamb (or veggie if you’re so inclined) soup!! YES!! A meal that did not consist of peanut or ramen and had MEAT in it! Real meat! And this is why I say be in one of the first groups- because we kinda got rushed out of there and I didn’t finish my soup. 🙁  We headed back on the trail toward the ski lodge. With the clouds gone, the views were just out of this world- which is exactly what the lava field we were crossing felt like. This tour was amazing. Like seriously, amazing. It is so worth the money if you are a science geek or adventure geek (I’m both!). Because seriously, who do you know that can say they’ve been inside of the magma chamber of a volcano?? Not counting me. 🙂 Do it. It’s a once in a lifetime thing. And who knows, some earthquake could cave it in at some point or it could become active again and it’ll be gone…

Got back to the house and was beat. I managed to whip myself up a brand new dinner concoction though!! Penne pasta with butter and cup o’ soup mix with tuna. 4 whole ingredients!! That’s a record so far! And it was reaaaaaaallly good. Not lamb soup good, but fancy tuna helper good. 🙂  And I need that nutrition…because tomorrow, the teacher goes to school….

CONTINUE TO DAY 6

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