i’ve mentioned before that i’m kind of obsessed with lava and molten rocks, and there’s lots and lots of it in the azores! we’ve visited the excellent museum at capelinhos, walked over the ashes that covered the whole island of faial after the 1957 eruption, and then kept seeing it everywhere, to my heart’s delight.
this time, we’ve also seen lots of lava tunnels — some tiny and more like pipes, and others tall and several hundred meters long. it was brilliant!
surveying the beach near búðir, where the lava meets the sea.
freezing our fingers and toes hiking between hellnar and arnarstapi, but it was well worth it for all the lava fields, covered in fluffy moss!
having spent a couple of months going over daniela’s geology lessons in preparation for her national exams a few years ago, it all came rushing back to me in iceland. first, the black stones and sand that adorn residential gardens in reykjavik, and then later, out on the road.
the first lava field we drove by was a thrill of recognition, its spiky edges talking of semi-viscous, slow-moving a’a lava. then came the familiar slopes of old volcanos, the ropey waves of fluid pahoehoe lava, the neat geometrical columns formed by the quick cooling of basaltic lava…
all so familiar in theory, and yet, so foreign in practice.
in a different life, i think i could have been a geologist!