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Great Geysir
Geysir (), sometimes known as The Great Geysir, is a geyser in southwestern Iceland. It was the first geyser described in a printed source and the first known to modern Europeans. The English word ''geyser'' (a periodically spouting hot spring) derives from Geysir. The name ''Geysir'' itself is derived from the Icelandic verb '' geysa'' ("to gush"). Geysir lies in the Haukadalur valley on the slopes of Laugarfjall hill, which is also the home to Strokkur geyser about south. Eruptions at Geysir can hurl boiling water up to in the air. However, eruptions may be infrequent, and have in the past stopped altogether for many years at a time. History The research of sinter shows that Geysir has been active for approximately 10,000 years. The oldest accounts of hot springs at Haukadalur date back to 1294, when earthquakes in the area caused significant changes in local neighbouring landscape creating several new hot springs. Changes in the activity of Geysir and the surrounding ge ... [...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 fir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ditch
A ditch is a small to moderate divot created to channel water. A ditch can be used for drainage, to drain water from low-lying areas, alongside roadways or fields, or to channel water from a more distant source for plant irrigation. Ditches are commonly seen around farmland, especially in areas that have required drainage, such as The Fens in eastern England and much of the Netherlands. Roadside ditches may provide a hazard to motorists and cyclists, whose vehicles may crash into them and get damaged, flipped over, or stuck and cause major injury, especially in poor weather conditions and rural areas. Etymology In Anglo-Saxon, the word ''dïc'' already existed and was pronounced "deek" in northern England and "deetch" in the south. The origins of the word lie in digging a trench and forming the upcast soil into a bank alongside it. This practice has meant that the name ''dïc'' was given to either the excavation or the bank, and evolved to both the words "dike"/"dyke" and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Viscount Craigavon
Viscount Craigavon, of Stormont in the County of Down, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1927 for Sir James Craig, 1st Baronet, the Prime Minister of Northern Ireland. He had already been created a baronet, 'of Craigavon, in the County of Down' in 1918. , the titles are held by his grandson, the third Viscount, who succeeded his father in 1974. He is one of the ninety elected hereditary peers that remain in the House of Lords after the passing of the House of Lords Act 1999, and sits as a crossbencher. The family seat was Craigavon House at Sydenham in the County Down portion of Belfast. Viscounts Craigavon (1927) *James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon (1871–1940) *James Craig, 2nd Viscount Craigavon (1906–1974) *Janric Fraser Craig, 3rd Viscount Craigavon Janric Fraser Craig, 3rd Viscount Craigavon (born 9 June 1944), is a British peer and chartered accountant. He is one of the 92 hereditary peers elected to remain in the House of Lo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon
James Craig, 1st Viscount Craigavon PC PC (NI) DL (8 January 1871 – 24 November 1940), was a leading Irish unionist and a key architect of Northern Ireland as a devolved region within the United Kingdom. During the Home Rule Crisis of 1912–14, he defied the British government in preparing an armed resistance in Ulster to an all-Ireland parliament. He accepted partition as a final settlement, securing the opt out of six Ulster counties from the dominion statehood accorded Ireland under the terms of the 1921 Anglo-Irish Treaty. From then until his death in 1940, he led the Ulster Unionist Party and served Northern Ireland as its first Prime Minister. He publicly characterised his administration as a "Protestant" counterpart to the "Catholic state" nationalists had established in the south. Craig was created a baronet in 1918 and raised to the Peerage in 1927. Early life Craig was born at Sydenham, Belfast, the son of James Craig (1828–1900), a wealthy whiskey distil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ministry For The Environment And Natural Resources (Iceland)
The Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources ( is, Umhverfis- og auðlindaráðuneytið) is an Icelandic cabinet-level ministry founded 23 February 1990. It was originally called the Ministry for the Environment but was renamed to its current name on 1 September 2012. The Ministry oversees a wide range of matters as they relate to the environment, including nature conservation, wildlife protection, forest protection and revegitation efforts, environmental impact assessment and land use planning, pollution control and environmental health, fire prevention, meteorology, and mapping, including surveying and remote sensing. The current Minister for the Environment and Natural Resources is Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson. Departments The Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources of Iceland comprises six departments: * Department of Climate Action () * Department of Environment and Spatial Planning () * Department of Finance and Administration () * Department ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Golden Circle (Iceland)
The Golden Circle ( is, Gullni hringurinn ) is a tourist route in southern Iceland, covering about looping from Reykjavík into the southern uplands of Iceland and back. It is the area that contains most tours and travel-related activities in Iceland. The three primary stops on the route are the Þingvellir National Park, the Gullfoss waterfall, and the geothermal area in Haukadalur, which contains the geysers Geysir and Strokkur. Though Geysir has been mostly dormant for many years, Strokkur continues to erupt every 5–10 minutes. Other stops include the Kerið volcanic crater, the town of Hveragerði, Skálholt Skálholt ( Modern Icelandic: ; non, Skálaholt ) is a historical site in the south of Iceland, at the river Hvítá. History Skálholt was, through eight centuries, one of the most important places in Iceland. A bishopric was established in Sk ... cathedral, and the Nesjavellir and Hellisheiðarvirkjun geothermal power plants. The name ''Golden Circle'' is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gullfoss
Gullfoss ("Golden Falls"; ) is a waterfall located in the canyon of the Hvítá river in southwest Iceland. History and description The Hvítá river flows southward, and about a kilometre above the falls it turns sharply to the west and flows down into a wide curved three-step "staircase" and then abruptly plunges in two stages (, and ) into a crevice deep. The crevice, about wide and in length, extends perpendicular to the flow of the river. The average amount of water running down the waterfall is per second in the summer and per second in the winter. The highest flood measured was per second. During the first half of the 20th century and some years into the late 20th century, there was much speculation about using Gullfoss to generate electricity. During this period, the waterfall was rented indirectly by its owners, Tómas Tómasson and Halldór Halldórsson, to foreign investors. However, the investors' attempts were unsuccessful, partly due to lack of money. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Þingvellir
Þingvellir (, anglicised as ThingvellirThe spelling ''Pingvellir'' is sometimes seen, although the letter "p" is unrelated to the letter "þ" (thorn), which is pronounced as "th".) was the site of the Alþing, the annual parliament of Iceland from the year 930 until the last session held at in 1798. Since 1881, the parliament has been located within Alþingishúsið in Reykjavík. is now a national park in the municipality of in southwestern Iceland, about 40 km (25 miles) northeast of Iceland's capital, . is a site of historical, cultural, and geological significance, and is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Iceland. The park lies in a rift valley that marks the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. To its south lies , the largest natural lake in Iceland. National Park ( ) was founded in 1930, marking the 1000th anniversary of the Althing. The park was later expanded to protect th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hot Spring
A hot spring, hydrothermal spring, or geothermal spring is a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater onto the surface of the Earth. The groundwater is heated either by shallow bodies of magma (molten rock) or by circulation through faults to hot rock deep in the Earth's crust. In either case, the ultimate source of the heat is radioactive decay of naturally occurring radioactive elements in the Earth's mantle, the layer beneath the crust. Hot spring water often contains large amounts of dissolved minerals. The chemistry of hot springs ranges from acid sulfate springs with a pH as low as 0.8, to alkaline chloride springs saturated with silica, to bicarbonate springs saturated with carbon dioxide and carbonate minerals. Some springs also contain abundant dissolved iron. The minerals brought to the surface in hot springs often feed communities of extremophiles, microorganisms adapted to extreme conditions, and it is possible that life on Earth had ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island country by area, covering . New Zealand is about east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and south of the islands of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. The country's varied topography and sharp mountain peaks, including the Southern Alps, owe much to tectonic uplift and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, and its most populous city is Auckland. The islands of New Zealand were the last large habitable land to be settled by humans. Between about 1280 and 1350, Polynesians began to settle in the islands and then developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman became the first European to sight and record New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the United Kingdom and Māori chiefs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Waimangu Geyser
The Waimangu Geyser, located near Rotorua in New Zealand, was for a time the most powerful geyser in the world. The Geyser was seen erupting in late 1900. Its eruptions were observed reaching up to in height, and it excited worldwide interest. Day trip visitors from Rotorua were keen to see the geyser erupting regularly for 5–6 hours out of a cycle of about 36 hours, and a tourist trip called the "Round Trip" ran from the summer of 1902/1903.Information panel "Waimangu Geyser 1900–1904" at geyser site The geyser was the catalyst for tourism to the Waimangu Valley. Its workings were apparently created by the great 1886 Mount Tarawera eruption. The water expelled by the geyser was black with rocks and mud from the surrounding terrain, so the indigenous Māori people named the geyser Waimangu, meaning 'Black Waters'. The geyser gave its name to the surrounding geothermal region, the Waimangu Volcanic Rift Valley. Joseph Perry of the Limelight Department of the Salvation A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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