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Skjálfandi Location
Skjálfandi (; also known as Skjálfandaflói ) is a bay in northern Iceland, with some of the characteristics of a fjord. The Icelandic word ''Skjálfandi'' literally translates to ''trembling'' which may refer to earthquakes in the area. The bay, originally created by glacial activity, has two major rivers flowing into it: Skjálfandafljót, which is a glacier river, and Laxá, which is a freshwater river. The river Laxá ("Salmon River") is famous for its salmon and part of the river is protected by the Ramsar Convention. The only town in Skjálfandi Bay is Húsavík, facing the snow-covered Víknafjöll and Kinnarfjöll mountain ranges on the other side of the bay. The highest point reaches around . The bay is known for its many different whale, dolphin and bird species. There are two islands in Skjálfandi. The larger one is Flatey (''flat island''). It is situated close to the opposite side of the bay from Húsavík. There is a village on the island, no longer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its surrounding areas) is home to over 65% of the population. Iceland is the biggest part of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that rises above sea level, and its central volcanic plateau is erupting almost constantly. The interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand and lava fields, mountains, and glaciers, and many glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate, despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle. Its high latitude and marine influence keep summers chilly, and most of its islands have a polar climate. According to the ancient manuscript , the settlement of Iceland began in 874 AD when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whale
Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and porpoises. Dolphins and porpoises may be considered whales from a formal, cladistic perspective. Whales, dolphins and porpoises belong to the order Cetartiodactyla, which consists of even-toed ungulates. Their closest non-cetacean living relatives are the hippopotamuses, from which they and other cetaceans diverged about 54 million years ago. The two parvorders of whales, baleen whales (Mysticeti) and toothed whales (Odontoceti), are thought to have had their last common ancestor around 34 million years ago. Mysticetes include four extant (living) families: Balaenopteridae (the rorquals), Balaenidae (right whales), Cetotheriidae (the pygmy right whale), and Eschrichtiidae (the grey whale). Odontocetes include the Monodontidae (beluga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fjords Of Iceland
The fjords of Iceland, listed in a clockwise direction round the island from the SW to the east. There are no important fjords along the south coast: most of the inlets there are lagoons. Western fjords *Faxaflói ** Stakksfjörður ** Hafnarfjörður ** Skerjafjörður ** Kollafjörður ** Hvalfjörður ** Borgarfjörður ** Haffjörður *Breiðafjörður ** Fjords on northern Snæfellsnes and in Dalasýsla ("Dalir"): *** Grundarfjörður *** Kolgrafafjörður *** Hraunsfjörður *** Vigrafjörður *** Álftafjörður *** Hvammsfjörður ** Fjords in Barðaströnd: *** Gilsfjörður *** Króksfjörður *** Berufjörður *** Þorskafjörður **** Djúpifjörður **** Gufufjörður *** Kollafjörður *** Kvígindisfjörður *** Skálmarfjörður **** Vattarfjörður *** Kerlingarfjörður **** Mjóifjörður *** Kjálkafjörður *** Vatnsfjörður Westfjords * Patreksfjörður * Tálknafjörður * Arnarfjörður ** Suðurfirðir *** Fossfjörður *** Reykjarfjörður *** Tros ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their Viking expansion, overseas settlements and chronologically coincides with the Viking Age, the Christianization of Scandinavia and the consolidation of Scandinavian kingdoms from about the 7th to the 15th centuries. The Proto-Norse language developed into Old Norse by the 8th century, and Old Norse began to develop into the modern North Germanic languages in the mid-to-late 14th century, ending the language phase known as Old Norse. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century. Old Norse was divided into three dialects: Old West Norse, ''Old West Norse'' or ''Old West Nordic'' (often referred to as ''Old Norse''), Old East Norse, ''Old East Norse'' or ''Old East Nordic'', and ''Ol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Náttfari
Náttfari (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ; c.835) was a crew member who escaped his master, Garðar Svavarsson, and may have become the first permanent resident of Iceland in the 9th century. The earliest account of his story is found in the 11th century Icelandic Book of Settlements (''Landnámabók''). Náttfari escaped when Garðar set sail to the Hebrides from the newfound island which he named Garðarshólmi, now known as Iceland. When Garðar Svavarsson left Iceland after a winter's stay in the spring of 870, moving east towards Norway, a boat drifted away. On the boat were Náttfari with a slave (''thræll'') and a bond woman (''ambátt''). Garðar reached the shores of Iceland on the north coast. Náttfari found a place for them to live now known as Náttfaravík, a cove on Skjálfandi Bay which is situated directly opposite to the town of Húsavík Húsavík () is a town in Norðurþing municipality on the north coast of Iceland on the shores of Skjálfandi bay ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Settlement Of Iceland
The settlement of Iceland ( is, landnámsöld ) is generally believed to have begun in the second half of the ninth century, when Norse settlers migrated across the North Atlantic. The reasons for the migration are uncertain: later in the Middle Ages Icelanders themselves tended to cite civil strife brought about by the ambitions of the Norwegian king Harald I of Norway, but modern historians focus on deeper factors, such as a shortage of arable land in Scandinavia. Unlike Great Britain and Ireland, Iceland was unsettled land and could be claimed without conflict with existing inhabitants. On the basis of ''Íslendingabók'' by Ari Þorgilsson, and ''Landnámabók'', histories dating from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and providing a wealth of detail about the settlement, the years 870 and 874 have traditionally been considered the first years of settlement. However, these sources are largely unreliable in the details they provide about the settlement, and recent research ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Garðar Svavarsson
Garðarr Svavarsson (Old Norse: ; Modern Icelandic: ; Modern Swedish: ) was a Swede who briefly resided in Iceland, according to the Sagas. He is said to be the second Scandinavian to reach the island of Iceland after Naddod. He and his family appear in the Icelandic Sagas with the principal source from Haukr Erlendsson's edition of Landnámabók. Biography Svavarsson is described as a Swedish Viking who owned land in Zealand (in modern Denmark). He was married to a woman from the Hebrides. During the 860s, he needed to claim his inheritance from his father-in-law. During a voyage to these isles, he sailed into a storm at Pentland Firth. This storm pushed his ship far to the north until he reached the eastern coast of Iceland. He circumnavigated the island, becoming the first known person to do so and thus establishing that the landmass was an island. He went ashore at Skjálfandi where he built himself a house and stayed for the winter. Since then, the place located in North ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lundey, Skjálfandi
Lundey ( Icelandic: , " Puffin Island") is a small, uninhabited island in Skjálfandi bay located about from Húsavík, in northern Iceland. It is the smaller of two islands in the bay, the other being Flatey. Lundey is about long and wide. Its highest point lies about above sea level. Its name in Icelandic means "Puffin"; over 200,000 Atlantic Puffin breed on the island's cliffs in the summer hence its name. The island lies only south of the Arctic Circle and therefore experiences 24 hours of daylight during the summer solstice. History Though uninhabited, Lundey is privately owned and there are multiple structures on the island including a lighthouse. Environment Skjálfandi bay is an excellent place for fishing, especially for cod and lumpfish. Arctic Skua and Northern Fulmar are common around Lundey during the Summer in addition to the nesting Puffins there. Many of the whale watching tours departing from Húsavík sail past the island to showcase the breeding b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flatey, Skjálfandi
Flatey () is an island on Skjálfandi bay located about from Húsavík, in northern Iceland. Its name in Icelandic means "flat island"; its highest point is only about above mean sea level, hence its name. It is long and wide. It is the fifth-largest island around Iceland. The Flateyjardalur coast and Flateyjardalsheiði valley are named after Flatey. History People first settled in Flatey in early historic times, but it never had a large population. The highest number of inhabitants was reached in 1942, when there were 120 people. As other villages and cities nearby grew, it was very difficult for Flatey to compete with them, and people started to leave the island and, in 1967, there were no inhabitants left. Now it is only inhabited seasonally, during summer, and many tourists visit the island in this time. There are only a few buildings on the island, the most important of which are: a schoolhouse built in 1929, an ancient church shut down in 1884, a lighthouse built in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dolphin
A dolphin is an aquatic mammal within the infraorder Cetacea. Dolphin species belong to the families Delphinidae (the oceanic dolphins), Platanistidae (the Indian river dolphins), Iniidae (the New World river dolphins), Pontoporiidae (the brackish dolphins), and the extinct Lipotidae (baiji or Chinese river dolphin). There are 40 extant species named as dolphins. Dolphins range in size from the and Maui's dolphin to the and orca. Various species of dolphins exhibit sexual dimorphism where the males are larger than females. They have streamlined bodies and two limbs that are modified into flippers. Though not quite as flexible as seals, some dolphins can briefly travel at speeds of per hour or leap about . Dolphins use their conical teeth to capture fast-moving prey. They have well-developed hearing which is adapted for both air and water. It is so well developed that some can survive even if they are blind. Some species are well adapted for diving to great depths. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
