Landscape Phot-o' the Day: A View from the Bridge Between Two Continents, near Keflavik, Icleand

This is one of my favorite landscape shots. This is the view from Iceland's Bridge Between Two Continents. This is a bridge over a gap in the landscape, formed because this is precisely where two tectonic plates are pulling apart. This is looking north, so the North American Plate is on the left and the Eurasian Plate is on the right. The plates here are pulling apart. The plates are pulling apart in the Atlantic, which means somewhere some plates must be banging into each other. So here the earthquakes are relatively minor. The strong earthquakes are over on the Pacific Ocean side, where the North American Plate either is sliding against the Pacific Plate (California) or banging against it (Alaska and Japan, where the earthquakes are even stronger than California).

The Bridge Between Two Continents is an actual foot bridge that whimsically calls attention to the science of plate tectonics. It is located somewhere in Southwestern Iceland, not all that far from Keflavik, the international airport serving Reykjavik, Iceland.

12:30 at night in Reykjavik

Keflavik Airport. 12:30AM.  10 June 2016.

The sun never sets on the Icelandic Empire.  At least not in June.  Reyjavik is just a bit below the Arctic Circle, so around the time of the summer solstice, it's never dark.  Lose the illusion of a hot sun beating down on Iceland 24/7 for several weeks.  It does get dusky, however.

Above is the main terminal for Reykjavik's Keflavik Airport, shot at about 12:30AM.  Obviously, it is not mid-day in that picture.  But but it's not night.  And note the artistic rendering of a giant eagle's egg at the front.  (I thought it was an olive -- one of those famous Icelandic olives -- but no it's an egg with an eglet starting to break through.  Not a pimiento.)

This is the street in front of my hotel.  At dawn.  1:00AM.