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Súðavík
Súðavík () is a fishing village and municipality (Súðavíkurhreppur ) on the west coast of Álftafjörður in Westfjords, Iceland. History On January 16, 1995, an avalanche fell on the village early in the morning (around 6:25 am) and destroyed several buildings, most of them residents' houses. Fourteen people were killed (including eight children) and twelve were injured. Severe snow storms made the rescue work difficult and dangerous. The final survivor was rescued 23 hours after the avalanche had fallen, and the search continued into the evening of January 17. A disaster relief fund was established, and within a week, the Icelandic public had donated 300 million kroner (about $3,000,000) to the relief effort. The same winter, two more avalanches fell from Traðargil , destroying several houses; the areas hit had already been evacuated, so no more people died. Avalanches fell from many other gullies and mountainsides during the avalanche cycle that winter. At a public mee ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1995 Súðavík Avalanche
The 1995 Súðavík avalanche was an avalanche that struck the small fishing village of Súðavík in Iceland’s Westfjords on 16 January 1995, killing 14 people, including eight children, and injuring twelve. The disaster, along with the avalanche that killed 20 in Flateyri later in the year, had a profound effect on the nation and sparked a massive buildup of avalanche dams to protect towns in danger zones. The avalanche On 16 January 1995, at 6:25 in the morning during a major storm, a 400 meters wide avalanche hit the village, destroying fifteen homes that housed 26 people. Four minutes later, the police in neighboring town Ísafjörður receive a distress call from the town while resident who were unaffected by the avalanche immediately mounted a search and rescue operation and set up a rescue center in the local fishing factory, named Frosti. Shortly later, fishing trawlers owned by Frosti, who were moored nearby due to the weather, tried to illuminate the area with spotli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Arctic Fox Center
The Arctic Fox Centre ( is, Melrakkasetur ) is a research centre with an enclosed exhibition and café in the municipality Súðavík in the Westfjords in Iceland. It focuses on the Arctic fox (''Vulpes lagopus'') which is the only native terrestrial mammal in Iceland. The centre was founded in 2007 by locals who are interested in the Arctic fox. It has a strong emphasis on ecotourism. The centre is a non-profit-partner of 1% for the planet and a member of The Wild North. The house The house is located in the new part of Súðavík, on the land of the former farm Eyrardalur. It was built in the last decade of the 19th century and has been renovated recently by the authorities of Súðavík. History Opened in 2010, the centre was founded by Páll Hersteinsson PhD and Ester Rut Unnsteinsdóttir MSc, Arctic fox experts as well as professor and pupil. Páll and Ester Rut originally started studying the Arctic fox together on the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve in 1998, one of the few ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Municipalities Of Iceland
The municipalities of Iceland ( is, Sveitarfélög ) are local administrative areas in Iceland that provide a number of services to their inhabitants such as kindergartens, elementary schools, waste management, social services, public housing, public transportation, services to senior citizens and disabled people. They also govern zoning and can voluntarily take on additional functions if they have the budget for it. The autonomy of municipalities over their own matters is guaranteed by the Icelandic constitution. History The origin of the municipalities can be traced back to the commonwealth period in the 10th century when rural communities were organized into communes (''hreppar'' ) with the main purpose of providing help for the poorest individuals in society. When urbanization began in Iceland during the 18th and 19th centuries, several independent townships (''kaupstaðir'' ) were created. The role of municipalities was further formalized during the 20th century and by th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Álftafjörður
The name Álftafjörður () is Icelandic for "swan fjord", and there are some fjords by this name in Iceland. The best known of these are: *Álftafjörður (Westfjords). This fjord is located on the southern side of Ísafjarðardjúp, in the Vestfirðir region of north-western Iceland. A whaling station was built in 1883 at Langeyri on its western shore by two Norwegians named Lars Mons and Svend Foyn, and was used until whaling was prohibited in Iceland in 1915. The modern village of Súðavík is in the same area. *Álftafjörður (Snæfellsnes) is a southern branch of Breiðafjörður. *Álftafjörður (Eastfjords) is a fjord of the East Fjords of Iceland between Höfn and Djúpivogur Djúpivogur () is a small town and municipality (Djúpavogshreppur ) located on a peninsula in the Austurland region in eastern Iceland, near the island of Papey and on the fjord Berufjörður. The municipality was formed by the merger of rural .... References {{Iceland-fjord-stu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Westfjords
The Westfjords or West Fjords ( is, Vestfirðir , ISO 3166-2:IS: IS-4) is a large peninsula in northwestern Iceland and an administrative district, the least populous administrative district. It lies on the Denmark Strait, facing the east coast of Greenland. It is connected to the rest of Iceland by a seven-kilometre-wide isthmus between Gilsfjörður and Bitrufjörður . The Westfjords are very mountainous; the coastline is heavily indented by dozens of fjords surrounded by steep hills. These indentations make roads very circuitous and communications by land difficult. In addition many of the roads are closed by ice and snow for several months of the year. The Vestfjarðagöng road tunnel from 1996 has improved that situation. The cliffs at Látrabjarg comprise the longest bird cliff in the northern Atlantic Ocean and are at the westernmost point in Iceland. The Drangajökull glacier is located in the north of the peninsula and is the fifth-largest of the country, but the only ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northwest Constituency
Northwest ( is, Norðvestur) is one of the six multi-member constituencies of the Althing, the national legislature of Iceland. The constituency was established as Northwestern ( is, Norðurland vestra ) in 1959 following the nationwide extension of proportional representation for elections to the Althing. It was renamed Northwest in 2003 when the Western and Westfjords constituencies were merged into the Northwestern constituency following the re-organisation of constituencies across Iceland. Northwest consists of the regions of Northwestern, Western and Westfjords. The constituency currently elects seven of the 63 members of the Althing using the open party-list proportional representation electoral system. At the 2021 parliamentary election it had 21,541 registered electors. Electoral system Northwest currently elects seven of the 63 members of the Althing using the open party-list proportional representation electoral system. Constituency seats are allocated using the D'Ho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arctic Fox
The Arctic fox (''Vulpes lagopus''), also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. It is well adapted to living in cold environments, and is best known for its thick, warm fur that is also used as camouflage. It has a large and very fluffy tail. In the wild, most individuals do not live past their first year but some exceptional ones survive up to 11 years. Its body length ranges from , with a generally rounded body shape to minimize the escape of body heat. The Arctic fox preys on many small creatures such as lemmings, voles, ringed seal pups, fish, waterfowl, and seabirds. It also eats carrion, berries, seaweed, and insects and other small invertebrates. Arctic foxes form monogamous pairs during the breeding season and they stay together to raise their young in complex underground dens. Occasionally, other family members may assist in raising their y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Regions Of Iceland
The regions of Iceland are eight areas of Iceland that roughly follow the arrangement of parliamentary constituencies as they were between 1959 and 2003. These regions are not incorporated polities but rather recognized groupings of municipalities. Iceland only has two levels of administration, the national government and 69 municipalities. The municipalities have organized themselves into eight regional associations and those boundaries are also recognized by Statistics Iceland to report statistics. Since 2014, police and commissioner (''sýslumaður'') districts have followed the eight region model with the exception that Vestmannaeyjar form a special district and are not part of the South region. The divisions of Iceland for the purposes of health care and district courts diverge more from the commonly used eight region model. The postal code system also roughly corresponds with the regions with the first digit of the three digit codes usually being the same as on the map below ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Constituencies Of Iceland
Iceland is divided into 6 constituencies for the purpose of selecting representatives to parliament.National Electoral Commission of Iceland 2013, p. 4 History The current division was established by a 1999 constitution amendment and was an attempt to balance the weight of different districts of the country whereby voters in the rural districts have greater representation per head than voters in Reykjavík city and its suburbs. The new division comprises three countryside constituencies (NW, NE and S) and three city constituencies (RN, RS and SW).National Electoral Commission of Iceland 2013, p. 5 The imbalance of votes between city and country still exists and a provision in the election law states that if the number of votes per seat in parliament in one constituency goes below half of what it is in any other constituency, one seat shall be transferred between them. This has occurred twice, in the elections in 2007 and 2013. On both occasions, a seat was transferred from the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well as the means by which a mayor is elected or otherwise mandated. Depending on the system chosen, a mayor may be the chief executive officer of the municipal government, may simply chair a multi-member governing body with little or no independent power, or may play a solely ceremonial role. A mayor's duties and responsibilities may be to appoint and oversee municipal managers and employees, provide basic governmental services to constituents, and execute the laws and ordinances passed by a municipal governing body (or mandated by a state, territorial or national governing body). Options for selection of a mayor include direct election by the public, or selection by an elected governing council or board. The term ''mayor'' shares a linguistic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Postal Codes In Iceland ...
Postal codes in Iceland are made up of three digits. The codes are followed by the name of the place where the post is being distributed, which is either a municipality, the nearest city, town or village. The total number of postal codes is 149; with 18 reserved for post-office boxes, two for public institutes and larger private companies and one used for international sorting purposes only. See also * Addresses in Iceland External linksIceland PostIceland Post {{Telecommunications in Iceland Postal codes Postal system of Iceland 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 s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fishing Village
A fishing village is a village, usually located near a fishing ground, with an economy based on catching fish and harvesting seafood. The continents and islands around the world have coastlines totalling around 356,000 kilometres (221,000 mi). From Neolithic times, these coastlines, as well as the shorelines of inland lakes and the banks of rivers, have been punctuated with fishing villages. Most surviving fishing villages are traditional. Characteristics Coastal fishing villages are often somewhat isolated, and sited around a small natural harbour which provides safe haven for a village fleet of fishing boats. The village needs to provide a safe way of landing fish and securing boats when they are not in use. Fishing villages may operate from a beach, particularly around lakes. For example, around parts of Lake Malawi, each fishing village has its own beach. If a fisherman from outside the village lands fish on the beach, he gives some of the fish to the village headman. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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