{"id":3540,"date":"2010-02-18T18:35:52","date_gmt":"2010-02-18T23:35:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/?p=3540"},"modified":"2022-01-23T07:39:29","modified_gmt":"2022-01-23T12:39:29","slug":"keeping-it-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/keeping-it-north\/","title":{"rendered":"Keeping It North"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I\u2019d like to focus my attention firmly north a little longer to complete the circle, specifically, the Arctic Circle as it passes through Iceland. The previous articles, in case you haven\u2019t had a chance to review them, involved Deadhorse, Alaska<\/a> and the FINORU tripoint<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Arctic Circle runs through very few countries, only eight of them as a matter of fact: the United States, Canada, Greenland (part of the Kingdom of Denmark but self-ruling as of June 1, 2009 and soon to be fully independent), Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Countries take pride in this northerly honorific. It’s a big deal. In the United States, for example, there\u2019s even a nice pull-off along Alaska\u2019s Dalton Highway to mark the passage of this circle that represents the furthest extreme of the polar day\/night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Arctic<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Iceland Squeaks By <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The circle goes rather convincingly through each of these countries except for Iceland, which barely earns membership in this exclusive Arctic club. In Iceland it happens only where the circle clips a tiny island positioned 40 kilometres (25 miles) out to sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gr\u00edmsey<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Arctic<\/a>
Arctic Circle Marker on Gr\u00edmsey Island<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This is Gr\u00edmsey Island. It\u2019s easy to comprehend its diminutive size. Simply open the map<\/a> and ponder the land occupied by the airport runway. Then extrapolate. There isn\u2019t much to be found here except for a tarmac strip and a cluster of homes defining the settlement of Sandv\u00edk on a space of 5.3 square kilometres (2.0 square miles). The people of Gr\u00edmsey form the municipality of Gr\u00edmseyjarhreppur in the county of Eyjafjar\u00f0ars\u00fdsla. And yes, I focused on that because I never pass an opportunity to post an eth<\/a> (“\u00f0”). I love that crazy letter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inhabitants make their living from the sea and increasingly from tourism. It seems that many people travel to Gr\u00edmsey during the warmer months expressly to touch the Arctic Circle. Never mind that the circle fluctuates due to axial tilt, currently shifting northward about 15 metres per year. The marked spot is “close enough” I suppose, and who would begrudge their effort? It\u2019s nice to see people appreciate and make an effort to attain a noteworthy geo-oddity. I will put this on my priority list if I’m ever lucky enough to visit Iceland again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The islanders run a website, mostly in Icelandic<\/a> but some in English<\/a>, and they call themselves the “home of one hundred people – and one million seabirds.” Visitors can stay in either of two guesthouses and even take the ferry<\/a> if they don\u2019t want to fly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kolbeinsey<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One other speck of Iceland called Kolbeinsey Island also sits north of the Arctic Circle about 105 kilometres (65 miles) from the coast (map<\/a>). Maybe. It\u2019s uninhabited and it probably won\u2019t exist in a few years if it hasn\u2019t disappeared under the waves already. This outcrop has been eroding rapidly for several decades.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019d like to focus my attention firmly north a little longer to complete the circle, specifically, the Arctic Circle as it passes through Iceland. The previous articles, in case you haven\u2019t had a chance to review them, involved Deadhorse, Alaska and the FINORU tripoint. The Arctic Circle runs through very few countries, only eight of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78,88,377],"tags":[2072,694,2073,609,2074],"class_list":["post-3540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","category-island","category-latitude","tag-arctic-circle","tag-greenland","tag-grimsey","tag-iceland","tag-kolbeinsey"],"yoast_head":"\nKeeping It North - Twelve Mile Circle - An Appreciation of Unusual Places<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Arctic Circle crosses Iceland in only one small place, on Gr\u00edmsey Island, off the coast from Iceland proper.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.howderfamily.com\/blog\/keeping-it-north\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Keeping It North - 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