标签冰岛下的文章

跨年夜的篝火晚会，冰岛雷克雅未克 Bonfire to celebrate New Year's Eve in 2014 in Reykjavik, Iceland (© Ragnar Th Sigurdsson/Alamy)

New Year's Eve

The 'land of fire and ice' earns its nickname from the unique landscape of volcanoes and glaciers here, but Iceland's white-hot celebrations in the dead of the Nordic midwinter also evoke the phrase. The tradition of New Year's Eve bonfires in Iceland is said to date from the 18th century, when a group of schoolboys heralded the new year by scrounging up and torching a huge pile of wood scraps. The unruly teenagers' celebration sparked the general public's interest, and annual fires—like this one in Reykjavik—became an internationally noted tradition for Icelanders. Huddle up to the fire and raise a toasty-warm toast to the new year!

除夕夜

“火与冰之地”得名于这里独特的火山和冰川景观，但冰岛在北欧仲冬之夜举行的白热化庆祝活动也唤起了这句话。据说，冰岛的除夕篝火传统可以追溯到18世纪，当时一群小学生捡起并焚烧一大堆木屑来庆祝新年。不守规矩的青少年庆祝活动激发了公众的兴趣，每年雷克雅未克这样的火灾成为冰岛人的国际著名传统。蜷缩在炉火旁，为新年干杯！

冰岛北部内陆景观中的Aldeyjarfoss瀑布 Aldeyjarfoss waterfall in northern Iceland's interior landscape (© Jim Patterson/Tandem Stills + Motion)

Behold the mighty Aldeyjarfoss

In waterfall-dense Iceland, it says something that Aldeyjarfoss is considered one of the most beautiful sights in the country. Fed by Iceland's largest ice cap, the 65-foot falls are flanked by distinctive hexagon-shaped basalt columns seemingly carved by some Norse god.

Okay, they may not have their origins with Odin's kin. Geologists will tell us that they're formed as lava flows cool and buckle under stress, with cracks penetrating deep into newly formed rock. The path of least resistance places these cracks at 120-degree intersections. So as cracks run deeper, their shape averages out to a near-perfect hexagon—exposing neatly geometric columns when the rock face eventually shears off.

看看强大的阿尔迪亚福斯

在瀑布密布的冰岛，阿尔迪亚尔福斯被认为是该国最美丽的景点之一。由冰岛最大的冰盖支撑，65英尺高的瀑布两侧是独特的六边形玄武岩柱，似乎是由一些挪威神雕刻而成。

好吧，他们可能不是奥丁的亲戚。地质学家会告诉我们，它们是在熔岩流冷却并在应力作用下弯曲时形成的，裂缝深入新形成的岩石。阻力最小的路径将这些裂缝放置在120度交叉处。因此，当裂缝越深，当岩石表面最终剪切时，它们的形状平均为接近完美的六边形，露出整齐的几何柱。

塞里雅兰瀑布后的午夜太阳，冰岛南海岸附近 View of the midnight sun behind Seljalandsfoss waterfall near the south coast of Iceland (© Tom Mackie/plainpicture)

Land of the midnight sun

Here we are in the land of the midnight sun, just after the summer solstice. These days of seemingly endless sunlight are especially dramatic here at the Seljalandsfoss waterfall on the south coast of Iceland. The famous waterfall is less than a two-hour drive from Reykjavik, Iceland's capital city. Intrepid explorers, hopefully kitted out in good traction shoes and raincoats, can explore the walkways behind and surrounding the raging walls of water.

The peak of Iceland's famous midnight sun occurs in the days around the summer solstice, when the sun reaches its highest and northernmost points in the sky. This time of year, the sun never seems to set here, delivering up to 21 full hours of sunlight and 3 hours of twilight. Iceland experiences the long days of midnight sun between mid-May and mid-August. Then the days become shorter, with the entire country plunging into a dark polar night around winter solstice in December.

午夜太阳之地

我们在夏日的阳光下，夏至之后。在冰岛南部海岸的塞尔加兰兹福斯瀑布，这几天似乎无穷无尽的阳光格外引人注目。这座著名的瀑布距离冰岛首都雷克雅未克不到两小时车程。勇敢的探险家们，希望能穿上好的牵引鞋和雨衣，探索汹涌的水墙后面和周围的走道。

冰岛著名的午夜太阳的顶峰出现在夏至前后，太阳到达天空中最高和最北端。一年中的这个时候，太阳似乎永远不会在这里落下，带来了长达21小时的阳光和3小时的暮色。冰岛经历了5月中旬到8月中旬的漫长的午夜阳光。然后白天变短了，整个国家在十二月冬至前后陷入一个黑暗的极地夜晚。

黑沙滩上Reynisdrangar的玄武岩，冰岛 The basalt rock formations of Reynisdrangar on Reynisfjara Beach, Iceland (© Cavan Images/Getty Images)

Rising up from the black sand like rock gods

Any visitor to Iceland knows that driving the Ring Road rewards one with incredible changing landscapes. Today, we're taking a quick detour to visit this chiseled stretch of Iceland's southern coast, where black sand beaches meet spiky basalt sea stacks. This is Reynisfjara Beach, widely considered the most beautiful example of Iceland's black sand beaches. The sea stacks fronting the beach are known as Reynisdrangar and were formed when a volcano erupted, spewing flowing lava that cooled into these formations. Ask the locals how they formed, however, and you may get a different story, one involving trolls and a battle with a three-masted ship.

像岩石神一样从黑沙中升起

任何一个到冰岛的游客都知道，驾驶环城公路的人都会得到令人难以置信的景观变化的回报。今天，我们要绕道去参观冰岛南部海岸的这片轮廓分明的地带，那里的黑色沙滩与尖尖的玄武岩海交汇。这就是雷尼斯菲亚拉海滩，被广泛认为是冰岛黑沙滩最美丽的例子。海滩前面的海堆被称为雷诺斯德兰格，是火山喷发时形成的，喷发出的熔岩冷却成这些地层。然而，问问当地人他们是如何形成的，你可能会得到一个不同的故事，一个涉及巨魔和一艘三桅船的战斗。

斯卡夫塔山中的传统农舍，冰岛瓦特纳冰川国家公园 Traditional farmhouses at Skaftafell, Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland (© Jarcosa/Getty Images)

Tough turf

Roofs of sod have sheltered mainland Scandinavians through countless winters and summers. But those who migrated from Norway's grass-roof log cabins to this Icelandic tundra in the 9th century found none of the rich timberland of their homeland—just wispy birch forests and grassy fields. To survive the cold, they took the old turf roof concept and built on it, encasing not only the roofs but the walls of their birch-framed homes in layers of living, insulating soil.

The turf buildings shown here are located at Skaftafell, a manor farm founded by early settlers and now part of Vatnajökull National Park. Unlike Icelanders' history, though, these huts aren't a millennium old: They date to the 19th century, when the plains in the distance began flooding and the farmers who'd made homes there were forced uphill.

坚硬的草皮

草皮屋顶遮蔽了斯堪的纳维亚大陆无数的冬夏。但是，那些在9世纪从挪威的草屋顶木屋迁移到冰岛苔原的人发现，他们的祖国没有一片富饶的林地，只有一望无际的桦树林和草地。为了在寒冷中生存，他们采用了旧的草皮屋顶概念，并在其上建造，不仅将屋顶，而且将桦木结构房屋的墙壁包裹在一层活的绝缘土壤中。

这里展示的草皮建筑位于斯卡塔菲尔，这是一个由早期定居者建立的庄园农场，现在是瓦特纳科尔国家公园的一部分。不过，与冰岛人的历史不同的是，这些小屋并没有千年的历史：它们可以追溯到19世纪，当时远处的平原开始泛滥，在那里建房的农民被迫上山。

冰河湖对面的钻石冰沙滩，冰岛 Diamond Beach across from Jökulsárlón, a glacier lagoon in Iceland (© surangaw/Getty Images)

Sparkling ice diamonds on a black sandy beach

The icebergs stranded on this magnificent black sandy beach in Iceland are what give Diamond Beach its name. Sparkling like gems, they're a natural museum of sorts for tourists who flock to this beach year-round to walk among the nature-made sculptures, with some icebergs as tall as the tourists themselves.

It's about a five-hour drive east from the capital of Reykjavik to get here. But the biggest attraction in this area is Jökulsárlón, the glacial lake just across the Ring Road from this beach. It's a sparkling, still, blue lagoon dotted with huge glacial icebergs, which tourists motor around via pontoon boats. The lake began forming in 1934, when the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier started retreating, leaving the lagoon in its path. The lake's size has increased fourfold since the 1970s.

黑色沙滩上闪闪发光的冰钻石

搁浅在冰岛这个宏伟的黑色沙滩上的冰山，让钻石海滩得名。它们像宝石一样闪闪发光，是一座天然博物馆，适合常年涌向这片海滩的游客在天然雕塑中漫步，有些冰山和游客一样高。

从首都雷克雅未克向东驱车约5小时到达。但该地区最大的景点是Jükulsérlón，这是一个冰川湖，就在环城公路对面。这是一个波光粼粼的，静止的，蓝色的泻湖，点缀着巨大的冰川冰山，游客通过浮桥船四处航行。1934年，当布列亚默库尔冰川开始退却时，湖水开始形成，在它身后留下一片泻湖。自20世纪70年代以来，这个湖的面积增加了四倍。

Up in the Highlands

There's a good chance that occupants of that car you can see in this photo, winding along a remote highway in the Highlands of Iceland, won't encounter any other visitors to this desolate region. Accessible only during the summertime, the Icelandic Highlands is a volcanic desert. Frequent volcanic activity in the area creates a porous topsoil full of chemical compounds that aren't conducive to plant growth. Besides, much of the rainfall is quickly absorbed so plant life only appears alongside glacial rivers. Despite this seemingly unwelcome environment, adventurous travelers come to the Highlands every summer to see firsthand an ecosystem so unearthly that NASA conducted training missions here for some of its Apollo astronauts.

Hoisting a flag for seafarers

Here above the chilly seas off Iceland, we're peering down at a tall ship called the Gorch Fock—a training vessel of the German Navy. Built in 1958, it replaced the original 1933 Gorch Fock, which was seized by the Soviets in the wake of World War II (but is now back home in Stralsund, Germany, as a museum ship). Because traditionally rigged tall ships are valued as tools for learning general sailing skills, the '58 Gorch Fock is still in official service—but for much of the 21st century, it's been in and out of drydock for repairs and safety improvements.

Today marks the International Day of the Seafarer, which serves to highlight how crucial overseas shipping is to daily life around the world. The event is also intended to remind us of the bravery and sacrifice shown by sailors of all stripes as they endeavor to perform this essential function. As much as 90% of all cargo travels by sea at some point in its journey to the store or your door, so next time you encounter an old sea dog on a dark and stormy night, be sure to say thanks.

星空迷