Iceland — Media Gallery

Descent down Hekla across the snowpack. Hekla is a stratovolcano located in the south of Iceland; it is one of the island's most active volcanoes, having erupted more than 20 times since the ninth century A.D.

The West Fjords are a series of peninsulas in northwestern Iceland, shown in this false-color satellite image. They represent less than one-eighth the country's land area, but their jagged perimeter accounts for more than half of Iceland's total coastline. Black areas represent the sea; light blue snow and ice. Image courtesy of USGS.

Descent down Hekla across the snowpack. Hekla is an active volcano located in the south of Iceland; it is 1,491 m (4,892 ft) high.

Menntaskolinn i Reykjavik (Reykjavik Junior College). Founded in 1096; building erected in 1846. Oldest school in full-time use in Iceland.

The thundering waters of the Gullfoss Waterfall.

Summer is winding to a close on 9 September 2002, but even Iceland is still showing some summer color, its perimeter tinged with green, while its large permanent ice caps stand out brightly against the volcanic rock surrounding them. The largest ice cap, Vatnajokull, actually rests on top of three active volcanoes. The heat from these volcanoes causes the underside of the ice cap to melt, slowly filling the calderas. Eventually the caldera spills over and releases a torrent of water known as a glacial melt flood. This volcanic activity happens because a tectonic boundary runs roughly northeast-southwest through the island country, and the two plates are pulling away from each other, causing magma to well up from deep in the Earth. The brightly colored lakes and coastal waters are the result of very fine, and highly reflective sediment that is ground to bits by the immense weight of the glaciers and washed out with glacial runoff. Image courtesy of NASA.

Hallsgrimskirkja is a Lutheran church in Reykjavik that was built between 1945 and 1986. Its spire of 74.5 m makes it is one of the tallest buildings in Iceland.

Hofthi House in Reykjavik, site of the summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in 1986.

Downchannel from the volcanic dike in Thingvellir National Park.

View of the skyline of Reykjavik; the distinctive Hallsgrimskirkja church stands out prominently in the upper center.

Large trees in the Arboretum in Reykjavik. This "forest" is unusual because Iceland is largely devoid of trees. The original forests were cut down by settlers, and abundant grazing animals consume any trees that attempt to grow and that do not perish in the cold and windy conditions on the island.

The Washerwoman statue in the Botanic Gardens in Reykjavik honors women who used to use the island's geothermal springs to clean clothes.

View of the skyline of Reykjavik.

The many channels of a glacial river.

A hauntingly luminous view down the southwest flank of Hekla volcano.

A closeup of the churning Gullfoss Waterfall.

National Parliament (Althing) building in Reykjavik, erected in 1880-81.

Closeup of some of the stairsteps in the Gullfoss Waterfall.

The Gullfoss (Golden Falls) Waterfall in southern Iceland.

The Gullfoss Waterfall (Golden Falls) seen from a distance.

A dike (volcanic feeder tube) merging into layered strata in Thingvellir National Park.

Channel downstream from the Gullfoss Waterfall.

A roundup of Icelandic horses.

A geyser field and stream runoff.

Hardy Icelandic sheep exhibit a variety of wool colors: white, grays, browns, black, and spotted.

Sunset over a frozen lake-filled caldera.

A river with volcanic black sand banks meanders to the sea through farm fields near the southern coast of Iceland.

Rainbow envelopes the peak of Hekla volcano.

View of Reykjavik from Perlan Hill.

Photo taken from the Eurasian continental plate (foreground rock ledge) looking across to the North American plate and to the Thingvellir, the plains on which the Icelandic republic was founded in 930 and independence declared in 1944. The tabletop mountain on the horizon was formed by a volcanic eruption beneath a glacial ice sheet when Iceland was covered by ice.

An azure blue hot pool.

The Gullfoss Waterfall has a distinctive stairstep configuration.

Almannagja, a large canyon-like fault in Thingvellir National Park, is actually the exposed eastern boundary of the North American geologic plate.

Area comparison map

City Hall in Reykjavik.

Pyroclastic rock bombs scattered about a crater in the Hekla Mountain Range.

Plumes of dust blowing off the southern coast of Iceland in late June 2007. The dust appears as grayish blurs emanating from the coast southward over the North Atlantic Ocean. Blue-green algal blooms also fringe the coastline. Relatively light winter snow in 2006-07 followed by arid spring weather created the conditions for this dust storm. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Almannagja, the exposed eastern boundary of the North American geologic plate, Thingvellir National Park.

Snow-filled crater from the 2000 eruption of Hekla volcano.

Mist rises above the Gullfoss Waterfall.

Mini stream between banks of eroding basalt in Thingvellir National Park.

View of Reykjavik from Perlan Hill. This photo dates from 2008-09 when the Hallsgrimskirkja church (left center) was undergoing restoration.

An eruption of the geyser Strokkur.