Hi everyone.
Squeaks was just about to show me his photos from the last place he visited on his globetrotting vacation.
Oh, I have to guess where it is?
Well, can you at least give me a hint?
Oh, you saw a lot of glaciers?
Well, we talked about those last time, but I'm pretty sure you didn't stay in New Zealand.
What else did you see?
Volcanoes?
In the same place?
Well, there's only a few places in the world where you can find something as fiery as a volcano, near something as freezing as a glacier.
Hmm.
Squeeze, would you say your last stop was an ice place to visit?
Did you go to Iceland?
That's amazing!
I've always wanted to go to Iceland.
Here, show me on this map where you went.
Whoa!
Vatnajökull National Park!
I've heard of that place.
Look at how much of Iceland it covers!
But it's not just a national park.
It's also a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
That means Vatnajökull National Park is so important, people from around the world work together to protect it.
Vatnajökull has freezing cold glaciers with fiery volcanoes right underneath them.
That makes me curious.
I'd like to look at another map and see what's going on with the Earth underneath the park.
Ooh, good question, Squigs.
Those squiggly shapes drawn all over the globe show the outline of the Earth's tectonic plates.
Tectonic plates are the huge slabs of rock that cover the entire Earth and they're all floating on top of a layer of super hot liquid rock.
They really do look kind of like giant rocky puzzle pieces.
But since they're floating puzzle pieces, that means over time, tectonic plates move very slowly.
And when the edges of two plates touch, they can react in a couple of ways.
Like, they might press against one another so hard that both edges lift up.
Or instead, one of the plates will slide on top of the other.
Do you notice something special when we look at the map of tectonic plates near Iceland?
Yeah, Iceland is cut in two.
Half on one tectonic plate, half on another.
That gives Iceland some really special features, like places where hot liquid rock can escape up to the Earth's surface as lava.
Yes, volcanoes!
A lot of volcanoes can be found near the edges of tectonic plates.
There are ten volcanoes in Vatnajökull National Park, and eight of them are underneath glaciers.
That's a good question, Squeaks!
If lava is so hot, how can an icy glacier sit on top of a volcano?
Well, it turns out Iceland's volcanoes actually helped to make the glacier in the first place.
Yeah!
First, you have to make a volcano.
Volcanoes form as lava gets pushed to the Earth's surface.
The lava then cools down and hardens into solid rock.
So as more and more lava flows up and out of the openings in that new rock, you slowly form a sort of dome or cone shape, depending on how gooey the lava is.
Sometimes that cone grows so big and so tall.
The top of it touches really cold parts of the Earth's air.
If there's enough water in the air, it might even snow up there.
And sometimes all that snow and water can collect on top of the volcano and turn into a giant block of ice.
Yes, a glacier!
As a glacier grows, some of the ice might spread down the volcano's sides and reach places where it's too hot to stay frozen.
So as the glacier gets bigger at the top, it can also be melting on the bottom.
Yeah, volcanoes can both make glaciers and melt them.
Volcanoes and glaciers can have a really interesting relationship.
No, this doesn't happen near every volcano.
Iceland is a perfect place for glaciers to form because it's at a high latitude.
That means that it's a lot closer to one of Earth's poles.
The closer you are to the North or South Pole, the colder it gets.
And if it's colder, your volcano doesn't have to reach as high up into the air to get a glacier growing on top of it.
But Iceland isn't just great at growing volcanoes and glaciers.
It's also great at growing the animals and plants that can live in these environments.
Ooh, yes!
Let's take a look at some of your photos.
Ooh, moss!
Iceland is home to several special kinds of moss that live on cooled lava rocks and prefer lots of water, like you find near the bottom of a melting glacier.
And look at that harbor seal!
You can find these adorable guys on some of Iceland's beaches, where water from melting glaciers meets the salty Atlantic Ocean.
It's true.
The volcanoes and glaciers also make Vatnajökull National Park an incredible place to visit.
Fiery, hot and icy, cold and rocky and full of life.
It's a land of amazing opposites connecting with each other.
Kind of like us.
I'm so glad you shared all of these amazing memories with me, Squeaks.
Even if Tiny Jessie had to do all of the traveling with you.
Aww, I'm glad that you're home too, buddy!
What amazing places do you want to visit?
Would you prefer to explore a volcano, a glacier, or both?
To keep discovering more about our incredible world.
Be sure to subscribe, and we'll see you next time here at the Fort.
