Iceland: Land of Fire and Ice — and Empowered Women

I was fortunate to receive a grant from the Virginia Geographic Alliance and the Virginia Tech Department of Geography to participate in GeoCamp Iceland, a professional development opportunity for educators sponsored by the National Council on Geographic Education. With a group of 16 teachers and professors from across the United States, I visited sites across southwest and south Iceland with a focus on creating teaching materials for our classrooms. 

Iceland exists because it is located on the fault line between the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates. Symbolized by a bridge in Southwest Iceland, this fault line is why the Icelandic land mass was created — by repeated eruptions on the seafloor — and why it still has frequent earthquakes and volcanic activity today. Our group visited the site of the most recent (2021) eruption at Geldingaladir, where the lava field is still steaming. The Icelandic landscape is also dominated by glaciers. Climate change is causing rapid melting, and we visited several lakes created by recent glacial retreats. Melting glaciers also create beautiful waterfalls that not only attract tourists but also power Iceland’s electrical grid, which is composed of 86% renewable energy. 

As a group of teachers, we were given homework before the trip — to read Secrets of the Sprakkar: Iceland’s Extraordinary Women and How They Are Changing the World by Icelandic First Lady Eliza Reed. (Despite it being assigned reading, I highly recommend this book!) The book describes the achievements of Icelandic society in creating the most empowered women in the world. Iceland has been ranked number one in gender equality for the past 12 years; it has Europe’s highest fertility rate and the highest percentage of women working outside the home. Our group was fortunate to visit the First Lady at the Presidential residence at Bessastadir and enjoy coffee and Icelandic happy marriage cake (with rhubarb!). 

Our trip concluded with a visit to the famous geothermal attraction, the Blue Lagoon. Why is this resort located where it is? This question happens to be the subject of my first lesson on Iceland for my AP Human Geography class.