Studlaberg, Hljodaklettar
by Guy Florack
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Panoramic photo by
Guy Florack
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Studlaberg, Hljodaklettar |
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Bizarre basalt columns.
You can hear him kilometers away, you can feel mists spreading moisture, you can sense his presence a...
Dettifoss is a large waterfall in the north of Iceland. In fact it is said that this is the most powe...
The mighty Dettifoss is often said to be Europe’s most powerful waterfall.Photographer’s Notes: I alw...
The Leirhnjúkur area is a central volcano in Krafla caldera. One hundred thousand years ago, t...
Krafla was a mighty volcano once but it is a vast spectacular caldera now. Major fissure zone which r...
Standing inside the volcano from the eruption in the Krafla Caldera in the year 1984. Lava layers tha...
Walking around the Krafla Caldera lava fields from the years 1977-1984. This area is considered the m...
Víti (which is icelandic for 'hell') is a crater lake in the vulcanic area of the Krafla vulcano. The...
This fissure swarm is about 100x10 km (62x6 miles) and consists of approximately 35 eruptive fissures...
Europe is generally agreed to be the birthplace of western culture, including such legendary innovations as the democratic nation-state, football and tomato sauce.
The word Europe comes from the Greek goddess Europa, who was kidnapped by Zeus and plunked down on the island of Crete. Europa gradually changed from referring to mainland Greece until it extended finally to include Norway and Russia.
Don't be confused that Europe is called a continent without looking like an island, the way the other continents do. It's okay. The Ural mountains have steadily been there to divide Europe from Asia for the last 250 million years. Russia technically inhabits "Eurasia".
Europe is presently uniting into one political and economic zone with a common currency called the Euro. The European Union originated in 1993 and is now composed of 27 member states. Its headquarters is in Brussels, Belgium.
Do not confuse the EU with the Council of Europe, which has 47 member states and dates to 1949. These two bodies share the same flag, national anthem, and mission of integrating Europe. The headquarters of the Council are located in Strasbourg, France, and it is most famous for its European Court of Human Rights.
In spite of these two bodies, there is still no single Constitution or set of laws applying to all the countries of Europe. Debate rages over the role of the EU in regards to national sovereignty. As of January 2009, the Lisbon Treaty is the closest thing to a European Constitution, yet it has not been approved by all the EU states.
Text by Steve Smith.
