Iceland's Stark and Scenic Geothermal Area at Hverir: Geology Explained

Join geology professor Shawn Willsey at Hverir in north Iceland to explore the fascinating geothermal features that lie in this stark, lunar landscape atop an active plate boundary.
Support geology education via:
PayPal: www.paypal.com...
Buy Me: buymeacoffee.c...
Venmo: @shawn-willsey
or click on the "Thanks" button above.
Or a good ol' fashioned check to:
Shawn Willsey
College of Southern Idaho
315 Falls Avenue
Twin Falls, ID 83303

[@shawnwillsey]

Please LIKE and SUBSCRIBE. I also appreciate your continual support of these geology education videos. To do so, click on the "Thanks" button just above (right of Download button) or by going here: www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=EWUSLG3GBS5W8 Or: www.buymeacoffee.com/shawnwillsey

[@lilysceeliljeaniemoonlight]

Its stark flippin' gorgeous 😊

[@icelandlive]

The more vigorous fumaroles you saw towards the end of the video are actually boreholes that have been covered with rock. They were drilled during the same time people were mining the place for sulfur.

[@pamelapilling6996]

Thank you for the information.

[@charlesward8196]

2H2S + 2 H2O -> 2 H2S04 + H2, IF I HAVE MY PROPORTIONS RIGHT. The FLR readings were a nice addition to the video. I love the minimalist protective barriers. They authorities must expect people to behave responsibly and watch their kids….

[@sandrine.t]

Hverir: definitely one of my favorite places in North Iceland when I visited! I remember the 'Martian' colors, the strong smell of hydrogen sulfide, the bubbling blue-gray mudpots, the heat and the sound of gases and steam escaping from the fumaroles, the stark and fascinating beauty of it all... This place really feels like we're on another planet! Thank you, Shawn, for reviving these great memories and providing the explanations that I was missing at the time, geology-wise :)

[@TurnerRentz]

^ Agree

[@aureaphilos]

Wish I'd been able to visit Lake Myvatin and the Hverir geothermal field, when I was in Iceland in 2017. Next time for sure!

[@KellyConlan]

Thank you for sharing. Definitely somewhere to visit one day. We visited Hells Gate in New Zealand and it was mind blowing!

[@ericlau8984]

Man, I got back from Iceland last week. I watched a lot of your videos to learn about the geology and stuff I never knew about before. Thanks Shawn, great work!

[@katesommerville7217]

Endlessly fascinating 😊

[@brianam7471]

This area reminds me exactly of the kerlingarfjoll mountain and hveradalir geothermal area. We went on a windy snowy and freezing summer day and it was the most magical experience on my Iceland trip.

[@sueellens]

Stark and barren of plant life, yet so beautiful and showing the energy of Earth. Thank you for sharing with us. 😊

[@raenbow66]

Thank you Shawn! Every video adds to our impression and picture of Iceland. Thermal readings are interesting. 👍🏼

[@Hippogriff_titch]

Thank you once again Shawn, great to see the temperature of some of these features too

[@jenniferlevine5406]

Spectacular! The heat is incredible and it is such an amazing thing that you can walk around through there and get so close. Thank you for this very interesting video!

[@larastefansdottir1566]

Tese vents with the rocks around piled up are old boreholes I believe. The boreholes at the other side of the hill are drilled towards this area.

[@elizabethfierro8104]

Really appreciate the way you annotate with fahrenheit temps etc.

[@45KevinR]

Very interesting to see these features and the temperatures involved. 60c is pretty scaldy, but 130c just from hot water/steam should remind us that there's some very hot material further down. I said on another Iceland video, in many places Iceland doesn't have landscape - it has raw geology for all to see. Also impressive that everyone was obeying the paths and warning ropes. Even the certified geologist 😉😎🧙‍♂️

[@susiesue3141]

Good morning! Great video footage! Thank you for sharing with us😊

[@bwilliamstown]

Hope you get to visit Landmannalaugar someday if you have not been yet, the landscapes there are especially breathtaking!

[@hjumper8238]

Again, thank you for sharing! Tired of those who attempt to panic those who are ignorant of some or much of the geological earth sciences and often post Hollowood type of fear generated stories and opinions to gain or maintain influencer statuses.👍

[@jennifershipp2599]

Thank you for sharing. I do wish people would act more sane at Yellowstone.

[@marilynhutchings6666]

Thank you for the tour.

[@wolfman9999999]

I need to get my passport fixed and get up there. I love how close you can get to the features, and the noticeable lack of crowds.

[@sandracrawford9813]

I visited Namaskard in June on a tour of Iceland. One of the most interesting sites.

[@macpatman]

Thank you for this video. I see that you are as fascinated as I am by the changing beauty of the Icelandic landscape. 😍 I also visited the Krafla lava fields (about 8 km north of Námafjall) during one of my trips to Iceland and I would have liked to check the temperature of the fumaroles. Despite the 15 years that have passed since the eruption, I think the temperature must have been above 70°C. Have you been there?

[@xwiick]

Thanks for all the hard work on these videos!

[@pascalekarger7527]

Hi I have been there 2 years ago and I enjoyed it very much despite the smell The colours on the mountain are beautiful as the whole area is

[@mustangmorris53]

I did visit Yellow Stone when i was a teenager back in the late 60s, still amazes me today .

[@LisaBelleBC]

Wait…. I thought you were back home in ID….guessing you filmed this and brought it home to edit? Also, like your new shades :) Fascinating. It’s wonderful having a front row seat to these incredible places without the $$$$ of flights, hotels, rental cars etc! Thank you over and over for your glorious videos! I guess school starts up again soon :( I wish you could retire and travel all over the USA and Iceland and Europe and ……..:)

[@jackienaturelover9761]

Wow. What a fabulous video. Found it very interesting. Thanks for sharing. Greatly appreciated Shawn for what you are doing.

[@pleegjepleegje]

Wow what a stunning landscape! Thank you so much for making these video's and sharing them with us earthlings😊

[@J0hnC0ltrane]

Yikes. I the snowy peaks seem more inviting. Great video.

[@AnnAndrew-hw5qw]

Pleasant video.

[@roseturvey1430]

Intriguing, fascinating. Thank you.

[@whispofwild]

Iceland is a geologist's happy place.

[@edwardlulofs444]

Every rock makes me happy. More rocks=more happy 😃

[@davidk7324]

Thanks for this Shawn. Each central and southern Idaho hot springs I've been to has it's own sulfur odor.

[@iddet8867]

I'm a 70 years old Icelander. I remember not liking the smell of such places, and sometime of our hot tab water, in my youth. It resembles the smell of fart to a degree, but now I like this smell. There is also another related smell that I like a lot: the smell of an active fissure eruption. Very pleasant smell and also feeling the heat from the lava.

[@inqwit1]

Beautifully stark. Thank you.

[@bethlowell7336]

Fantastic place. Thanks for posting.

[@robmez]

Stunning landscape of death,steam vent was amazing, you can see how the generate their power for free

[@rainmaker822]

Have you seen the activity at Chilcotin River in BC? Would love to hear your breakdown of the events as they are happening now.

[@yvonnevandermeer8471]

Very nice. I’ve been there in summer 2022. Greetings from the Netherlands.

[@bartjes2509]

Thanks Shawn ! Our first (family) visit to Iceland was to travel to North of Denmark, embark on a 47h boat trip to North-East of Iceland (Seydisfjördir) and travelling the ring road anti-clockwise, this is one of the first major stops we did. I will forever associate the sulfur smell (I love the smell of sulfur in the morning) with Iceland. What interests me is why this specific location ? the adjacent hills are green so I guess there must be shallow magma, ground water and the right cracks in the rocks below to make this happen in exactly that place ?

[@judithbarnett2874]

Thanks

[@Never2old2play]

Thanks!

[@coraltaylor9365]

"Crazy landscape" Indeed! 8-)

[@MrKorton]

Sure it is called Hverir, but that just translates as "hot springs" and that is quite a generic name. I would let the the name Námaskarð ("Mine pass") accompany as well 😊

[@DianeSmith-h3t]

Thank you 👍👍👍 what a really interesting place. Di…Cumbria.

[@DrGeorginaCook]

Yay! I went there too - sooo smelly!! Definitely worth a trip.

[@jp5fens]

Off topic but are there channels that you recommend following for the landslide that blocked the Chilcotin River?

[@eldritchwulfe]

Should we be happy or sad this vid doesn't have smell-o-vision?

[@kaboom4679]

It very much depends on your fondness for eye watering , face melting stenches .

[@trulsandrepedersen4727]

I would said extreemly happy. The smell from volcanic gasses is worse then smell from rotten eggs and makes you wanna wommit. (Takling from experience, because each time it's eruptions in the big volcanoes in Iceland, the gass and ash travels east and affects and polute everything here in westcoast of Norway. 2010 and 2011 was nightmear years.

[@LongGrovesAmeliaEarhart]

Great channel! Thank you! Does this thermal area go right to the ocean? If so, does thermal activity extend into the water itself? Sure is different from Yellowstone where tourists are told that if you step off the boardwalks in similar thermal areas, you will surely sink into the abyss.

[@marrow-zp7zt]

Thank you for the video. Do you know have they found any bacteria around the hot vents? Is this a plate boundary area?

[@jeffbybee5207]

Wished your mic was closer/ or you speak louder. Thankyou for good videos

[@NonnoNao]

The stickiest mud I've ever walked on

[@irmaoksanen6830]

Looks like a great place to film a sci fi movie, like a different planet.

[@marcialoofboro306]

Thanks for the tour! So you don't have to use a mask with the gases?

[@herbieschwartz9246]

What are the different colors of sulfur - oxidation types, crystalline structure ???

[@lilysceeliljeaniemoonlight]

Prof.Willlsey what the heck is dry steam!?! I get it but sort of don't!😅

[@SilviaCatharino]

Is that possible to be mudclay that will be mudstone because of metamorphic process that is going through, but origin of ultramafic. Eurasia is mafic,, basalto, and has less then 45 % of silica. The high silica is on the north america plate. On this case, you are in a area with direct access to magma liquid and deep, to have ultramafic. Right?

[@3xHermes]

[@geraldadams6267]

Let's go swimming

[@copisetic1104]

Fahrenheit has a finer temperature scale, why people use Celsius is beyond me.

[@iddet8867]

The problem is that Americans are pretty much the only nation on earth that clings to this weird system of units, and the rest of us are forced to keep two sets of tools and convert the amounts used in recipes and so on. Why not join the rest of the world?

[@JeanKnits]

I am shocked that there is only a string to keep people out of danger. In America, you would need a much stronger barrier to keep stupid people from hurting themselves.

[@mdex1]

😂😂😂 Unfortunately that’s the US

[@judithbarnett2874]

You wouldn’t put your hands or feet in those mud pots

[@iddet8867]

As you can imagine, accidents in such places are quite frequent.

[@loisrossi841]

Interesting, but I am concerned that you should not be breathing that air.

[@Dexter101x]

You really need a "dead cat" on your microphone. By that, I don't mean a real dead cat, but a cover that filters out the wind. At times what you're saying is inaudible