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Sunday 7 April 2013

Iceland's Volcanic Glaciers - Sunday Stamps

I have four stamps from Iceland to show today which I believe meet the 'geology' theme,

Iceland - Snæfellsjökull
Snæfellsjökull, snow-fell glacier is a 700,000 year old stratovolcano with a glacier covering its summit in western Iceland The name of the mountain is actually Snæfell, but it is normally called "Snæfellsjökull" to distinguish it from two other mountains with this name.
The mountain is one of the most famous sites of Iceland, primarily due to the novel "A Journey to the Centre of the Earth" by Jules Verne, in which the protagonists find the entrance to a passage leading to the centre of the earth on Snæfellsjökull.

Iceland - Eiriksjökull & Öræfajökull


Eiríksjökull,"Eirík's glacier" is a glacier with an area of 22km2 reaching a height of 1,675m making it the largest table mountain in Iceland. Rising over 1,000m (3,300 ft) above its surrounding, the lowest 350m (1,150 ft)  formed by a single subglacial volcanic activity is capped by a 750m thick lava shield. It is currently dormant or extinct in terms of volcanic activity.




Öræfajökull is an ice-covered and the largest active volcano in the country. On its north-western rim is Hvannadalshnukur, the highest peak in Iceland.

[Text modified from wikipedia]

For other mineral and geological wonders cross over to Viridian's Sunday-Stamps-117.

14 comments:

Jo said...

Which was the one that erupted a couple of years ago? I can't remember, do you?

JO ON FOOD, MY TRAVELS AND A SCENT OF CHOCOLATE

Jo said...

Interesting that they print ISLAND on the stamps and we call it Iceland.

JO ON FOOD, MY TRAVELS AND A SCENT OF CHOCOLATE

Lisa B said...

I think I have seen one of this set before, but didn't think of it for the theme. It's just as well that the volcano is dormant after all the disruption caused a few years ago.

Bob Scotney said...

Jo, it was Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 that caused flight cancellations due to volcanic dust in the atmosphere.

Jo said...

That's it thanks. Friend of mine was in Scotland trying to get back to Malaysia. But then her family are notorious for having travel plans disrupted one way or another, so we blamed it all on her.

21 Wits said...

I'm so hoping this comment will post, since last week I wasn't able to comment on your blog! Gorgeous stamps, very interesting, you always bring out so much in these precious stamps!

21 Wits said...

Hooray! I believe my comment posted! Have a great weekend and week Bob.

VioletSky said...

Iceland could probably never run out on variations of this theme for their stamps!
I was looking for volcanoes, but couldn't find any in my collection. nor of rocks, minerals... but I wanted to see what everyone came up with.

aw said...

My father was in Iceland during WWII and he had lots of their stamps in hid collection although I can only recall ones with geyers on them.

agi said...

we also call it island :) such a great country that i'd love to visit one day, the nature as shown here looks amazing

viridian said...

Volcanoes! And glaciers! Love the geology. Thank you for sharing these stamps.

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

No relation to Snaefell on the Isle of man, thankfully!

Lovely stamps.

Helen said...

Very interesting. I would love to visit Iceland one day. And very cool about the Jules Verne connection. I haven't read the book, but maybe I should.

Master said...

Very nice stamps to match the theme for Super Sunday!