#kidexplorer

Brimketill

Before visiting the land of fire and ice, I spent time researching and reading about some of the must see wonders. Brimketill was one of the top items on my “to see” bucket list.

Who wouldn’t want to check out “Surfers Cauldrin” ?

Little did I know that I was in for a blistery surprise.

After a bumpy but exciting ride I finally arrived to see the counties largest geothermal mud pool.

The landscape is so dramatic and the geothermal activity is rampant. When I got out of the car, I felt like I teleported to another vastly different biome. There was little to no black basaltic volcanic rocks in sight. Varying hues of burnt sienna, orange and rich browns painted the earth.

I can’t express enough how important it is to stay along the paths for safety.

As we got closer to the viewing platform, earths oven had me thinking about shedding a layer of my ski gear.

Gunnuhver stretches 65 feet wide and from the deep fissures underneath and around, steam plumes accompany the extreme temperatures around 570 degrees F! I briefly had a “Minecraft Moment” and thought that I was in the nether.

I never thought I’d get to see bubbling mud but I have learned now to never say never! 🌋🔥🌏 .

Our planets diversity is undeniable. We can also not ignore the fact that it is fragile.

I found another planetary marker around Hafnir, the planet Uranus. This gas planet which is made up of mostly rock and ice however, it spins a bit different from most planets. It’s axis is tilted! (Fun fact)!

Exploring while learning makes for the best unforgettable experiences especially in extreme places like this. The weather can change in an instant yet still the landscape continues to captivate. I💙🇮🇸

Our planet is amazing! .

Be prepared to explore!

My quest to explore part of the longest mountain chain in the world, “MAR”, the Mid Atlantic Ridge, can officially go down in the history books! Now there is still over 25,000 miles to explore across the ocean floor but this amazing experience will suffice for now.

After a full day of exploring several amazing natural features that the country has to offer, I could not wait to get out of the car and explore when we arrived at this breathtaking location! I found myself surrounded by black sand as we explored the rift between the North American and Eurasian Plates. Yes, plate tectonics! While this place was breathtaking, it is still actively drifting apart (diverging) at a rate of about three millimeters each year.

There is a bridge that you can walk across representing the connection between Europe and North America.

The MAR’s deep rift valley crest marks the location where the two plates are moving apart.

There are so many neat things to see that tangibly connect what you read in books to reality. Just go outside and explore.

Places like this should remind us all just how special and precious our planet is. As inhabitants of this planet, we have to responsibly care for it. 🌎💙

One of the great things about exploring planet earth is that sometimes you end up finding unexpected places, you see natural marvels and sometimes you can traverse paths of historical significance.

One of my Icelandic adventures carried me to a bizarre shiny statue which happened to be located at a historically little known place.

This statue was labeled “Neptune”, a planetary marker, which is remotely located at one of the three places that NASA astronauts trained back in the mid 1960’s preceding the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.

Húsavík was chosen by NASA for its lunar training activities because it’s terrain resembled the lunar surface - moreso than any other place on earth. There has only been 12 astronauts to set foot on the moon and nine of them trained in Húsavík.

I felt like a space superhero exploring the places that Neil Armstrong, Harrison Schmidt and the other astronauts explored while preparing to visit the moon.

I truly felt like I was “out of this world”. The only thing missing was “my” space suit!

The geological landscape is breathtaking. The novice rock fanatic would be in awe. For a seasoned geologist that awe can be magnified tenfold to infinity based on the unique and rare elemental compositions of the rocks. Some of the oldest rocks there are said to be 16 million years old. Being a kid that just happens to love rocks and has a fascination with the periodic table of elements, I was in heaven.

“𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗴𝗹𝗮𝗱𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗮 𝘁𝗲𝘀𝘁. 𝗜𝗳 𝘄𝗲 𝗽𝗮𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝘁, 𝘄𝗲 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗲𝘁”. ~ 𝒥𝑜𝑒 𝒫𝑜𝒹𝑔𝑒𝓇, 𝐸𝓃𝓋𝒾𝓇𝑜𝓃𝓂𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒶𝓁𝒾𝓈𝓉

Did you know that the Everglades are a complex system of “interdependent ecosystems” with water being the dominant force. The borders between the ecosystems are subtle or imperceptible.

Approximately 50 percent of the original Everglades was developed as agricultural or urban area mainly supporting sugarcane which was its primary crop?

This agricultural period of rapid development led to environmental degradation. Additional issues impacted the Everglades over the years, high levels of phosphorus leading to rapid growth of invasive plant species. It has dealt with algal blooms as well as bioaccumulation of methyl-mercury throughout the food chain.

The Everglades ecosystem began to receive notable attention from conservation groups in the 1970s. Internationally, UNESCO and the Ramsar Convention designated the Everglades a Wetland Area of Global Importance.