[HN Gopher] Blue Lagoon geothermal spa in Iceland closes after s...
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Blue Lagoon geothermal spa in Iceland closes after series of
earthquakes
Author : bookofjoe
Score : 39 points
Date : 2023-11-09 19:59 UTC (3 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
| paul7986 wrote:
| I was there in January the weather was hailing and of course it's
| Iceland, windy as all get out. Love Iceland yet the Blue Lagoon
| compared to the govt run bathhouses in Reykjavik (where I
| socialized & met locals/made friends) was lacking for me.
| SOLAR_FIELDS wrote:
| I had a better and probably cheaper experience at one of the
| thermal pools on the golden circle. I think I paid a $35 USD
| entrance fee per person when I was there several years ago
| which for Iceland is pretty dang reasonable
| itslennysfault wrote:
| Agreed. Blue lagoon has public pool vibes for sure. I still
| think its worth doing if you have the time, but if you're
| choosing between that and (probably) any other hot spring/bath
| house experience I'd advise doing something else.
| paul7986 wrote:
| I went to the Sky Lagoon too and at night. Had I see the
| northern lights there or at blue lagoon I'd be a ton more
| positive about these places.
|
| Overall both to me are must visits and fun i just had a better
| experience at Reykjavik's govt run bathhouses. My friend i met
| there just sent me northern light pics from this evening. I
| didn't get to see them during my nine day visit there last
| winter. They are elusive.
| here4U wrote:
| Soon to reopen rebranded as the Blue Lava Flow
| rhdunn wrote:
| The Red Lagoon
| noworld wrote:
| liquid hot magma
|
| https://youtu.be/8MYAFfeNO00
| fanf2 wrote:
| The important context for this story is mentioned in the last
| couple if paragraphs: there is a large buildup of magma
| underground very near the Blue Lagoon.
|
| Not mentioned is that the water in the Blue Lagoon is waste from
| a large geothermal plant that provides power and municipal
| heating to every home in the peninsula, so the residents of
| Grindavik have more to worry about than being directly threatened
| by erupting lava.
| resolutebat wrote:
| > The Blue Lagoon, a geothermal spa south-west of Reykjavik,
| announced it would close its doors on Thursday _for a week_
|
| This is temporary, not permanent. Short of the whole thing being
| swallowed by a lava fissure there's no way they will close
| Iceland's most famous tourist trap.
| gojomo wrote:
| Yep. But: the upcoming eruptions _could_ limit or destroy
| access routes, change geothermal patterns, create other nearby
| health risks - or even, as you put it, result literall in "the
| whole thing being swallowed by a lava fissure".
| johnyzee wrote:
| I always found it interesting that Iceland has no indigenous
| population (like the inuit), prior to Scandinavian and British
| immigration. Like, what if it's because it is regularly buried in
| lava or something.
| jeofken wrote:
| What makes the Icelandic people not indigenous?
| netsharc wrote:
| Probably because they're Vikings who came from Scandinavia
| around the 8th-9th century, whereas the Inuit/other
| indigenous people have lived in their region since the BC
| times. Iceland seems to have only been habitable with the
| "modern" technology.
|
| I also find it fascinating, it's a place where there's no
| "colonializers" and "colonized"...
| meheleventyone wrote:
| Not strictly true as Iceland was ruled by Denmark for a
| long time and only became fully independent in 1944.
| lnsru wrote:
| They're living there not long enough compared to the rest of
| Europe? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlement_of_Iceland
| northwest65 wrote:
| I think the implication is, that like the Maoris in New
| Zealand, they're only faux indigenous, as they arrived on
| boats. Probably doesn't matter much as there is no grift to
| be had.
| eesmith wrote:
| Lava doesn't cover all of Iceland anywhere near enough to
| regularly bury things on that timescale. There was arable land
| and forest when the Norse came.
|
| There is some evidence that Irish monks were on Iceland before
| the Norse:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Iceland#Irish_monks
|
| Were there another non-European population earlier, they would
| need to get there by sea. I would expect archeological evidence
| of sea-worthy ships, which we do for the Norse.
|
| It is a long way from Greenland to Iceland - far greater than
| the ~35 km from Ellesmere Island to Greenland, which is how we
| think the Dorset and Thule people got to Greenland. (And that
| was on the other side of Greenland.)
| gojomo wrote:
| The 1783 Laki eruption killed roughly a quarter of Iceland's
| human population via famine & majority of its livestock via
| poisoning.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laki
| kickaha wrote:
| If you've lived through even a tiny earthquake it's much like if
| you've experienced a solar eclipse: even when short and mild,
| they elicit an otherworldly body-terror.
|
| The people living on that peninsula right now are stressed out in
| a way most of us have never experienced.
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(page generated 2023-11-09 23:01 UTC)