The Reykjanes Peninsula

​

​

The Reykjanes Peninsula is one of our favourite places to visit. What draws us there again and again is the unbelievable variation in the landscape and ever surrounding evidence of volcanic activity. And it is also easy to reach, a mere 30 minutes' drive from Reykjavik and you are at lake Kleifarvatn, our fist destination on the Reykjanes Peninsula tour.

 

The Reykjanes Peninsula is where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge rises above sea level. The ridge is a 65,000km long mid-ocean ridge that encircles the earth like a seam of a baseball, where American and European tectonic plates are slowly drifting apart.

​

The Reykjanes Peninsula is also the home of the recent Geldingadalir volcanic eruption. 

 

Reykjanes is home to many important geological formations, some of which are utterly unique, including numerous types of volcanoes in at least four separate volcanic zones, with hundreds of open fissures and faults. You can read the area’s geological history several hundred thousand years back in time, although most of the strata are less than 100–200 thousand years old. The last series of eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula began around AD 1000 and ended 250 years later.

 

Our recommended stops:

• Lake Kleifarvatn

• Seltun geothermal area

• Graenavatn explosion crater

• Stora Eldborg volcanic crater

• The Geldingadalir volcanic eruption site

• Brimketill

• Reykjanestá cliffs

• Gunnuhver hot spring

• Stampar crater row

• The Bridge Between Continents

• Hvalsneskirkja church

• Garðskagaviti lighthouse and museum

• The Viking World exhibition