This waterfall, Svartifoss, is located in Skaftafell National Park in Southeast Iceland. The lava rock displayed here is composed of basalt, and is columnar due to the way it cooled from the volcanic eruption.
This is the breathtaking Skaftafellsjökull. It is one of the many exit glaciers from the great Vatnajökull ice cap. Vatnajökull is estimated to be melting at a rate of one meter per year, and many of its outlet glaciers, such as Skaftafellsjökull, are melting at an even higher rate.
Iceland is growing!…about 2 cm per year. Þingvellir National Park is full of crevasses and tears in the earth, marking the separating North American and Eurasian tectonic plates.
Because Iceland is at such a high latitude, growing seasons are short and only a small range of crops can be grown. To combat this issue, Icelanders have been utilizing their abundance of geothermal hotspots to supply greenhouses with warmth year round.
Hannah Arvold and Alyssa Toye, CELL Iceland Spring 2017