The Rift, Reagan & Rebellion
In this post:
The Rift in Iceland.
Reagan-Gorbachev "Star Wars" Summit.
More Iceland Views.
Novel: "A Choice of Sides."
Focus on Lady Lit: Linda Sammaritan.
A year ago, a member of our church mentioned she signed up for a cruise that went to Iceland. My husband and I like to travel, but Iceland? Really? After talking it over, we decided it would be fun to join our friends.
Long story short, six couples from church signed up for the cruise! Since my Pan Am days, I’ve never traveled with anyone but my family. Traveling with 12 people was going to be a new adventure. My husband said he hoped we would all still be friends at the end of the trip!
Now that we're back - are we all still friends? Yes! I'd travel with this group anytime. We had an absolute blast!
THE RIFT
Since this is a science-related blog, how about some science on Iceland?
There’s something called the Mid-Atlantic Ridge on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. It runs roughly parallel to the American, European and African continents it splits apart. Undersea mountains form on either side. At 10,000 miles long, it runs from the southern tip of Africa, through Iceland, and then the Arctic Ocean. https://www.britannica.com/place/Mid-Atlantic-Ridge
In Iceland, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge comes up on land as a rift valley. Bonus, now I’m doubly sold on Iceland!
We visited Thingvellir National Park where we actually walked through the rift where Iceland is splitting apart! It happens at about the speed your fingernails grow so there’s no danger of falling into the center of the Earth, a la Jules Verne.
As a Christian, this rift valley is very interesting because it has to do with Noah and his boat.
What? Hang on for a short digression.
Anyone who's looked at the continents, especially South America and Africa, can see they look like they used to fit together. Add in mountain ranges like the Appalachians in the U.S. and Canada that match those across an ocean in Greenland, Ireland, Great Britain, and Norway and you have more evidence the continents used to be connected. Then there's similar fossils and rock types that also match up on widely separated continents. All this and more has resulted in something called Tectonic Plate Theory.
Tectonic Plate Theory says that at one time all the continents were joined together in single land mass called Pangea. It broke apart in the distant past and today, the continents ride on pieces of the Earth called tectonic plates – part land and part ocean crust.
But what caused this massive continent to break apart? A comet? A meteor? The Lord could certainly have used either.
Genesis says: In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. (Genesis 7:11)
What was Noah’s flood like? To start with, it’d take a series of massive earthquakes to break a single land mass into continents. Water from huge underground aquifers is under great pressure. That’s going to quickly erode the edges of the land that breaks apart. Torrential rain and massive flooding will result from all that water jetting into the sky.
Earthquakes are also going to create enormous tsunamis (not tidal waves). Lots of them that will sweep the continents. Where the land breaks apart, magma will rise creating undersea volcanoes. Eruptions will warm the oceans, leading to more evaporation, more rain and more flooding. https://answersingenesis.org/media/video/bible/flood-initiation/
Did Noah's flood completely change the world? Now there were mountain ranges where there were none. Mt. Everest, for example, has marine fossils on its summit. There are volcanoes, lava fields, new rivers, new oceans, even new continents. I think Noah would have found the world completely unrecognizable when he got off the boat.
REAGAN-GORBACHEV "STAR WARS" SUMMIT
Several white buildings are located across from the rift valley in Thingvellir Park. These buildings represent where the oldest parliament in the world is known to have taken place. Known as Althing, it was established in 930 A.D.
The Vikings met here in tents to resolve conflicts and pass legislation. All free, law-abiding men could attend.
This is also where Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev met in 1986 for the Reykjavik Summit.
Reagan refused to back down on Star Wars known as the Strategic Defense Initiative. This led to the end of the Cold War between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.
MORE ICELAND PICTURES
Photos left to right:
Flying into Reykjavik, capitol of Iceland
View of Reykjavik
Eating lunch in a tomato greenhouse where the plants grow NINE feet tall
Photos left to right:
1. Gullfoss Waterfall in Pingvellir National Park
Our cruise ship - with 3500 people on it dwarfed the little towns we visited
More of Gullfoss Waterfall pouring into a rift valley
"A CHOICE OF SIDES" (Speculative Fiction Novel)
My writer’s group, the Lady Lits, encouraged me to talk about the novel I plan to publish next year. I haven’t so far because I didn’t want to bore anyone, but they disagreed. So, if you find this section boring, feel free to skip it.
I traveled for a number of years as a flight attendant for Pan Am, an international airline. During that time, I met lots of terribly interesting people and visited lots of far-flung places, some on my own and some with family. I’ve used sketches of the people I met and many of the places I visited in the novel.
For instance, on a trip to Munich, Germany I was traveling with my family and we had the nicest tour guide. He was an older, white-haired gentleman, always polite and smiling. He looked like he was probably someone’s beloved grandfather.
My brother, who was 22 years old at the time, spoke pretty good high school German. He practiced his German with our tour guide and the last night of the tour, the two went to the famous Hofbräuhaus. The next morning, my brother he came to breakfast in shock.
It turned out after a few beers, our thoroughly enjoyable tour guide talked about his days as a
Nazi interrogator during WW2. He said he was always kind to captured U.S. and British officers and airmen. He'd make sure they had good food, cigarettes, chocolate, etc. Then he'd get them talking about themselves. When they were comfortable and had let down their guard, he'd slip in a question or two about some information he wanted.
Good character for a novel? You bet! My protagonist Lt. Keely Alliman has to deal with him at the end of “A Choice of Sides.”
FOCUS ON LADY LIT - LINDA SAMMARITAN
Linda Sammaritan writes realistic fiction, mostly for kids ages ten to fourteen. She has completed a middle grade trilogy, World Without Sound, based on her own experiences growing up with a deaf sister. Book One, Reaching Into Silence, was a Carol Awards semi-finalist, an ACFW Genesis Contest semi-finalist, and a First Impressions Finalist. Book Two,
Dancing in the Silence, is a 2024 Carol Award Finalist.
Linda can be found at:
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