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Jökulsá á Dal
Jökulsá á Dal, (, ) also called Jökulsá á Brú or Jökla, is a river in the northeast of Iceland. Of its original length of 150 km (making it the longest river in Iceland's Eastern Region), 25 km are now part of the artificial lake Hálslón created for the Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant. This reduced the river's discharge from 205 m³/s to 95 m³/s, consisting of water from tributaries below the dam. Before construction of the dam, the river used to transport approximately 120 t of sediment per hour into the North Atlantic. The water from the reservoir is now redirected into Lagarfljót. Due to the strong current, fording of the Jökulsá á Dal isn't possible. The first bridge across it was built in 1625. The bridge on Iceland's Route 1 (''Hringvegur'') was built in 1994, when the road to Egilsstaðir was upgraded. The previous bridge still stands, some distance downstream. In the novel '' Independent People'' by Icelandic author Halldór Laxne ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant
Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant ( ), officially called Fljótsdalur Power Station ( ) is a hydroelectric power plant in Fljótsdalshérað municipality in eastern Iceland, designed to produce annually for Alcoa's Fjarðaál Aluminium smelting, aluminum smelter to the east in Reyðarfjörður. With the installed capacity of , the plant is the List of power stations in Iceland, largest power plant in Iceland. The project, named after the nearby Kárahnjúkar mountains, involves damming the rivers Jökulsá á Dal and Jökulsá í Fljótsdal with five dams, creating three reservoirs. Water from the reservoirs is diverted through of underground water tunnels and down a vertical penstock towards a single underground power station. The smelter became fully operational in 2008 and the hydropower project was completed in 2009. The Kárahnjúkar Dam ( ) is the centrepiece of the five dams and the largest of its type in Europe, standing tall with a length of and comprising of material. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ford (crossing)
A ford is a shallow place with good footing where a river or stream may be crossed by wading, on horseback, or inside a vehicle getting its wheels wet. A ford may occur naturally or be constructed. Fords may be impassable during high water. A low-water crossing is a low bridge that allows crossing over a river or stream when water is low but may be treated as a ford when the river is high and water covers the crossing. The word ''ford'' is both a noun (describing the water crossing itself) and a verb (describing the act of crossing a ford). Description A ford is a much cheaper form of river crossing than a bridge, and it can transport much more weight than a bridge, but it may become impassable after heavy rain or during flood conditions. A ford is therefore normally only suitable for very minor roads (and for paths intended for walkers and horse riders etc.). Most modern fords are usually shallow enough to be crossed by cars and other wheeled or tracked vehicles (a proce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stuðlagil
Stuðlagil Canyon (; also transliterated as ''Studlagil'') is a basalt column canyon located in the Jökuldalur valley in East Iceland. Known for its towering hexagonal basalt formations and vivid turquoise river, the canyon gained international attention after the flow of the Jökulsá á Dal (Jökla) River was reduced due to the Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Plant project. Though the canyon was physically revealed between 2006 and 2009, it remained largely unknown until its popularization by Icelandic photographer and travel writer in 2016. Geological features Stuðlagil Canyon is composed of hexagonal basalt columns formed by the slow cooling and contraction of thick lava flows during volcanic activity. This geological structure, known as basalt columns or sometimes columnar jointing, is found in several places in Iceland, but Stuðlagil is notable for the height, number, and alignment of its columns. The canyon's formations rise vertically from the riverbed, with some reaching s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Rivers Of Iceland
On an island like Iceland, the rivers are short in length. None of the rivers are important as a means of navigation due to the impracticality of settlements in the Highlands of Iceland where they originate. South * Hvítá * Krossá * Kúðafljót * Markarfljót * Mustafl *Ölfusá (the Icelandic river with the greatest flow) * Rangá *Skaftá *Skeiðará * Skógá * Sog *Þjórsá (the longest river in Iceland, 230 km) * Tungnaá West *Fossá * Hvítá * Kjarrá–Thervá * Norðurá Westfjords * Dynjandi * Kolbeinsá * Staðará North *Blanda * Eyjafjarðará * Eystri Jökulsá * Fnjóská * Glerá * Grafará * Gönguskarðsá * Heiðará *Héraðsvötn * Hjaltadalsá * Hofsá (Skagafjörður) * Hofsá (Vesturdalur) * Hörgá * Jökulsá á Fjöllum * Kolka (Kolbeinsdalsá) * Laxá * Norðurá * Sauðá *Skjálfandafljót * Svartá * Sæmundará * Vatnsdalsá East * Hamarsá * Hofsá * Jökulsá á Dal * Jökulsá í Fljótsdal * Jökulsá í Lóni *Laga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reindeer
The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only representative of the genus ''Rangifer''. More recent studies suggest the splitting of reindeer and caribou into six distinct species over their range. Reindeer occur in both Animal migration, migratory and wiktionary:sedentary#Adjective, sedentary populations, and their herd sizes vary greatly in different regions. The tundra subspecies are adapted for extreme cold, and some are adapted for long-distance migration. Reindeer vary greatly in size and color from the smallest, the Svalbard reindeer (''R.'' (''t.'') ''platyrhynchus''), to the largest, Osborn's caribou (''R. t. osborni''). Although reindeer are quite numerous, some species and subspecies are in decline and considered Vulnerable species, vulnerable. They are unique among deer (Ce ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Halldór Laxness
Halldór Kiljan Laxness (; born Halldór Guðjónsson; 23 April 1902 – 8 February 1998) was an Icelandic writer and winner of the 1955 Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote novels, poetry, newspaper articles, essays, plays, travelogues and short stories. Writers who influenced Laxness include August Strindberg, Sigmund Freud, Knut Hamsun, Sinclair Lewis, Upton Sinclair, Bertolt Brecht, and Ernest Hemingway. Life Early life Halldór Guðjónsson was born in Reykjavík in 1902. When he was three, his family moved to the Laxnes farm in Mosfellssveit parish. He was brought up and enormously influenced by his grandmother, who "sang me ancient songs before I could talk, told me stories from heathen times and sang me cradle songs from the Catholic era". He started to read books and write stories at an early age and attended the technical school in Reykjavík from 1915 to 1916. His earliest published writings appeared in 1916 in ''Morgunblaðið'' and in the children's periodical '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Independent People
''Independent People: An Epic'' () is a novel by Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness, originally published in two volumes in 1934 and 1935. It deals with the struggle of poor Icelandic farmers in the early 20th century, only freed from debt bondage in the last generation, and surviving on isolated crofts in an inhospitable landscape. The novel is considered among the foremost examples of social realism in Icelandic fiction in the 1930s. It is an indictment of materialism, the cost of the ''self-reliant spirit'' to relationships, and capitalism itself. This book, along with several other major novels, helped Laxness win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1955. Plot summary ''Independent People'' is the story of the sheep farmer Guðbjartur Jónsson, generally known in the novel as Bjartur of Summerhouses, and his struggle for independence. As the story begins, Bjartur ("bright" or "fair") has recently managed to put down the first payment on his own farm, after eighteen years working ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Egilsstaðir
Egilsstaðir () is a town in east Iceland on the banks of the Lagarfljót river. It is part of the municipality of Múlaþing and the largest settlement of the Eastern Region (Iceland), Eastern Region with, as of 2024, a population of 2,632 inhabitants. Formerly Egilsstaðir was part of Norður-Múlasýsla. Overview Egilsstadir is located . The town is young, even by Icelandic standards where urbanization is a fairly recent trend compared to mainland Europe. It was established in 1947 as an effort by the surrounding rural districts recognizing it had become a regional service centre. The town takes name from an individual farmstead and is in this respect relatively unique within the country where most or all of the towns take name from broader landmarks. It is near the bridge over Lagarfljót where all the main roads of the region meet, Route 1 (Iceland), Route 1 as well as the main routes to the Eastern Region (Iceland), Eastern Region. Egilsstaðir has grown to become the lar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Route 1 (Iceland)
Route 1 or the Ring Road ( or ) is a National road (Iceland), national road in Iceland that circles the entire country. As a major Trunk road, trunk route, it is considered to be the most important piece of transport infrastructure in Iceland as it connects the majority of towns together in the most densely populated areas of the country. Economically, it carries a large proportion of goods traffic as well as Tourism, tourist traffic. The total length of the road is , making it the longest ring road in Europe. The road was completed in 1974, coinciding with the 1,100th anniversary of Settlement of Iceland, the country's settlement when the longest bridge in Iceland, crossing the Skeiðará river in the southeast, was opened. Previously, vehicles intending to travel between southern settlements, e.g. Vík to Höfn, had to travel north of the country through Akureyri, making the opening a major transport improvement to the country. Many popular tourist attractions in Iceland, su ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lagarfljót
Lagarfljót () also called Fljótið is a river situated in the east of Iceland near Egilsstaðir. Its surface measures and it is long; its greatest width is and its greatest depth . The 27 MW Lagarfossvirkjun hydropower station is located at its lower end. The biggest forest A forest is an ecosystem characterized by a dense ecological community, community of trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, ... in Iceland, Hallormsstaðaskógur is found near the river as well as a waterfall, Hengifoss. Hengifoss, at , is one of the tallest waterfalls in the country. Below it is another waterfall called Litlanesfoss. As with the Scottish lake Loch Ness, a cryptid serpent, called ''Lagarfljótsormurinn'' by locals, is believed by some to live in the depths of Lagarfljót. See also * List of rivers of Iceland * Waterfalls of Iceland References External l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iceland
Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the region's westernmost and most list of countries and dependencies by population density, sparsely populated country. Its Capital city, capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which is home to about 36% of the country's roughly 380,000 residents (excluding nearby towns/suburbs, which are separate municipalities). The official language of the country is Icelandic language, Icelandic. Iceland is on a rift between Plate tectonics, tectonic plates, and its geologic activity includes geysers and frequent Types of volcanic eruptions, volcanic eruptions. The interior consists of a volcanic plateau with sand and lava fields, mountains and glaciers, and many Glacial stream, glacial rivers flow to the sea through the Upland and lowland, lowlands. Iceland i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for separating the New World of the Americas (North America and South America) from the Old World of Afro-Eurasia (Africa, Asia, and Europe). Through its separation of Afro-Eurasia from the Americas, the Atlantic Ocean has played a central role in the development of human society, globalization, and the histories of many nations. While the Norse were the first known humans to cross the Atlantic, it was the expedition of Christopher Columbus in 1492 that proved to be the most consequential. Columbus's expedition ushered in an age of exploration and colonization of the Americas by European powers, most notably Portugal, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom. From the 16th to 19th centuries, the Atlantic Ocean was the center of both an epo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
