Red-breasted nuthatches...
quenching their thirst at the birdbath.
This one has an insect larva for a snack.
An attempt to control an advancing lava flow...
occurred in January-July 1973 in Heimaey, Iceland, where a short-lived eruption of Eldfjell volcano nearly closed the tiny fishing harbor.
View of Heimaey and harbor from northern flank of Eldfjell volcano.
Hiking the recent lava flow towards Eldfjell volcano in the mist.
View of Surtsey (erupted in 1963) from the bridge.
Surtsey volcano in the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago off southern Iceland.
Exploring Iceland...
Orca pod welcoming committee in the Denmark Strait between Greenland and Iceland.
Entrance to sub-glacial ice tunnel on Langjokull glacier, Iceland.
Exploring the excavated ice tunnel within Langjokull glacier.
Hraunfossar waterfall, with groundwater emerging from a lava flow into a glacial meltwater stream.
The Skaergaard Complex in Greenland...
is an interesting and uncommon layered ultra-mafic intrusion in Kangerlussuaq Fjord in southeastern Greenland.
Igneous rocks displaying sedimentary bedding!
Close up of “sedimentary” beds of mafic crystals that settled from suspension in a cooling magma chamber, 55 Ma.
Whale soup in the Greenland Sea...
where more than 200 humpback whales were traveling the ice edge in an endless display of blows.
Homes away from home...
the last two-and-a-half months at sea.
M/V Sea Spirit
M/V Le Boreal
Exploring Longyearbyen...
for four days, the northernmost town on Earth.
Searching the glacial moraine with Ida and Ryan for Paleocene plant fossils.
Me at the headworks to coal mine 2B above town.
Inside the headworks at mine 2B.
Exploring the coal mining headworks with Cobus and Blackjack.
Svalbard poppy enjoying the short summer bloom.
Curious teenage male...
Final views of Svalbard...
Lilliehöökbreen glacier complex
Calving front of Lilliehöökbreen glacier
Bearded seal on ice.
Atlantic puffin waving hello.
Barnacle geese with a chick (in nest, far right).
Exploring the edge of sea ice, approximately 81 degrees north latitude.
Landing at Hamburgbukta, northeast coast of Svalbard.
Reindeer on Svalbard...
Textbook glacial landscapes...
occur everywhere in Svalbard.
Walking down a medial moraine in Kongsfjord.
Walrus haulout at Poolepynten...
never disappoints the guests and expedition staff!
Walrus are, without a doubt, my favorite marine mammal.
Training for polar bear encounter...
at the shooting range in Longyearbyen.
Scenes from Svalbard...
Landing site at Kapp Lee.
Slumbering walrus.
Landing site at Bolthodden.
Spectacular alpine geology.
Remains of Swedish-Russian “Arc of the Meridian Project” base from 1899.
Tidewater glacier in Bellsund.
Remains of beluga whale hunting camp.
Well maintained Norwegian hunter/trapper cabin at Bamsebu.
The mast at Ny Alesund where Roald Amundsen launched his balloon in 1926.
Geological buffet of various rock on a recessional moraine.
Sun flare in Isfjorden.
Svalbard at last!
Jan Mayen is a remote and rocky outpost...
in the Norwegian Sea, a volcanic hot spot on which the most northern active volcano on Earth is found.
View on approach.
Beerenberg volcano, rising to 2,277 m (7,470 feet) above sea level.
M/V Sea Spirit at anchor.
An extraordinarily happy geologist, five months and nine days into “retirement.”
Farewell to the Faroes...
as we continue to travel north across the Arctic Circle and towards Spitsbergen in the Svalbard archipelago.
The Faroe Islands are a pile of Paleogene-age basalts, deeply cut by magnificent fjords.
Passionate puffin pair...
greeting each other at their burrow on Fair Isle in the North Sea.
Edinburgh, Scotland is a city built of stone...
and home to Sir James Hutton, father of modern geology, who formulated some of the seminal ideas in geology and was a proponent of uniformitarianism in the 18th century.
