My visit to hike the Skaftafell Glacier in the Vatnajökull National Park was another opportunity to learn more about glaciers. This was a much more interesting hike as the slope was steeper and we had a clearer sight and experience in walking up an ‘icy’ mountain. With crampons on, we hiked with an ice axe that came in handy whenever we needed a better grip of the ground. The guide made several stops to explain about glaciers, and I listened attentively. Something new that I learned is that there is often a glacier lagoon at the bottom of a glacier. Imagine a lake at the feet of a hill. Glacier lagoon is an accumulation of the melted water from glacier ice. It expands over time as the glaciers shift towards inland further.
The guide pointed to the glacier walls, which had obvious horizontal patterns above vertical ones, and explained that nature is eroding itself in one way or another. Wind movements erode the top part of the ‘hill’, and leave behind horizontal stripe-like marks. The vertical lines beneath that section were then caused by the downward flowing of melted ice. We were also shown glacier moulins (pronounced as ‘mulans’), which were round, vertical shafts in glaciers often formed by a stream of water. A moulin can expand as well, and will eventually form something which looks like a waterfall, where the melted water escapes to the base of the glaciers. Our guide certainly did not let us go home without a taste of the cleanest water on Earth. We were guided to get into a push-up position with the ice axe, and we sipped the stream of glacier water, without having to touch it at the risk of contaminating it.
A moulin
Drinking glacier water
Another interesting thing we were shown was glacier mice. They may look like soft, cute balls of moss, but they were actually rocks with their surfaces covered. Rocks sometimes move when they fall off their original positions and get themselves wet. The moisture then made it ideal for moss to grow. Thus, as the rocks get blown away by the wind, or even get moved by the melting ice, all surfaces receive adequate moisture and thus promote even moss growth, looking like green mice.
Did you know? Iceland has one of the most iconic national flags for having its natural elements as symbolism, or in the locals’ own words, the flag is a vision of their landscape. White represents ice and snow covering the island, blue represents the mountains and red simply means the volcanic fires and lava the island hosts. This special sharing came after I took out my Malaysian flag to pose with, and my guide quizzed my knowledge on what each colour represents on the Jalur Gemilang.
Icelandic flag, taken from Google
By,
Euan Thum.
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