Page 32 - 2000 ICELAND

for production are mined in Australia. Aluminum production is extremely
energy intensive. So it was actually more cost-effective to build a plant and

ship the raw materials to Iceland for production than to manufacture the
product at home.

Next, Oskar ran us up the neighboring crater where, in the l970s, many

eruptions had occurred. The ash covered much of this area (so we were
looking at even newer land) and the blast blew out some pretty impressive

chimneys. From the top of the crater, we could look out and see other

active cones and shields. Then we came down off the crater sides and
struck out across the tussocks, hopping from one to another like kids for

quite a while.

At last, we reached the lava fields that were to be the site for the
afternoon’s serious hike. Talk about another bizarre and otherworldly

place—the lava field with its miles of ropy, black, sharp, but easily broken
material is it! What’s even stranger is the fact that the lava flow just

abruptly stops in the meadow where the tussocks grow. Though it does

break easily at the edges and form very pointed shards, it is easier to walk
on than the big boulders we’ve been thinking were typical of all Icelandic

hikes. Some of the flow is black and shiny like obsidian but most of it has a
more matte-like finish. We walked around in this odd place for about three

hours, even entering a still smoking crater with strong sulfide odor and hot
rocks everywhere with yellow “dust” on them. Our weather has been so

beautiful all day that no one, not even Oskar, can believe our good fortune

so far.

SULFUR MINES

Next, we were driven to an ancient sulfur
mine in a geothermal area. Danish kings had

sent miners over to extract this material for
gunpowder since the 1400s. The site had lots

of fumaroles and bubbling mud-pots but no