Name: 地理Now!アイスランド (Geography Now! Iceland)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T10:38:24.000Z
Duration: 11 min 57 s
Description: VoiceTubeの動画で発音を聞きながら英語表現を覚えよう！学べる英語：

程度の副詞

Guys, as you know, I went to Iceland earlier this year and in all honesty if you just want to get a real taste of

Iceland better than I could ever provide. Check out my friend, this guy, Ásgeir. Subscribe to his channel.

He helped me out when I was there and he knows Iceland. Ásgeir. Check out the Ás.

♫ It's time to learn Geography! ♫ NOW!

Hey everyone! I'm your host Barby. So, full disclosure before we start:

my pronunciation for Icelandic words is going to suck so bad in this episode.

I do not advise you to play a drinking game for every time I mispronounce something.

You will get alcohol poisoning and you might die.

Iceland! Just the name invokes an obvious clue about where it is geographically.

First of all! The country is located at the confluence of the Atlantic and Arctic oceans,

east of Greenland and just south of the Arctic circle. The country is divided into six constituencies:

three big ones and three of which are confusing because they basically just split up

the most populous areas in the West. Reykjavík is the capital and the northernmost capital in the world

which is split into two constituencies: North and South, whereas the Southwest Constituency

is divided into four non-contiguous exclaves, but they still act as one

constituency, not four. So, it's six small separate entities that act as three constituencies. Get it?

This was done to help with the imbalance of the sparsely populated outer regions with voting

since about a third of the entire country is located in the Reykjavík metropolitan area.

Nonetheless, most of the country still refers to areas being located in traditional eight

regions zones which are divided like this. The country has many domestic airports

but the one large scale international airport

is Keflavík International and the next two busiest ones are Reykjavík and Akureyri.

Reykjavík and Akureyri are domestic airports except for seasonal service to Greenland internationally.

Iceland's domain is mostly encompassed around the main island however, they do own some

smaller islands and archipelagos off their coasts. The most populated ones being Heimaey,

Hrísey and Grímsey and some in the South like the newest island that just popped up in the '60s:

Surtsey, which is off-limits to anyone except permitted scientists who study it.

Otherwise, Iceland may be rugged but the islanders sure have paved a way for you to see it all - The Ring Road.

This guy takes you all around the entire country and depending on how much time

you want to stop and see the sites, it could take you anywhere between 4-ish to 7 days to complete.

Hey Brandon! You went on the Ring Road, right?

- Uh, about nine days. - Okay, uh. Maybe my facts were wrong.

Otherwise, some top, notable man-made sites and landmarks might include:

The National Gallery. The Viking World Museum.

The stone carvings of Páll Guðmundsson. The US Navy D-3 plane wreckage site.

The Höfn Viking Village. The Sea Monster museum.

Pretty much all of Akureyri. The Whale Museum.

The Design Center. All over the countryside you can find turf houses with grass on the roofs.

The country's iconic landmark and beautifully constructed icicle shaped church - Hallgrímskirkja.

Now, as interesting as those man-made sites and landmarks may be.

They pale in comparison to what the actual land has to offer.

Alright, let me just put it this way. Iceland doesn't need an amusement park or roller coasters

because the entire island is just like a wonderland in itself.

First of all! Iceland is the 18th largest island in the world and the second largest in all of Europe.

The entire country lies, transected on the mid-Atlantic range which divides the North American tectonic plate

with the Eurasian plate, splitting open about two centimeters every year.

You can even see the divide for yourself with your own eyes.

Nearby Reykjavík at Þingvellir with the largest natural lake - Þingvallavatn.

The land splits open and you can literally walk from Eurasia to North America.

Underneath the waters you can get even closer to the divide, at the Silfra.

Known as the clearest water diving spot in the world where visibility can go up to a hundred meters.

Over 80% of the country is mountainous with the tallest point - Hvannadalshnúkur.

Eleven percent of the country is covered with six main glaciers.

The largest one in the Southeast - Vatnajökull

and the smallest one which just erupted in 2010 - Eyjafjallajökull.

With hundreds of volcanoes and about thirty of them are consistently active

as the longest river, the Þjórsá meanders through the deep, central Hofsjökull glacier to the ocean.

So, basically the entire island is geothermal. Everywhere you go, chances are you can probably

find a natural hot spring hidden somewhere in the remote wilderness.

Not only that but Iceland also harbours and capitalizes

off of this unique valuable resource as much as possible.

When the first vikings came in, they were like:

- "Wow! It is cold in here. I mean, I knew Norway was chilly but dang!"

- "Is there anything here we can use to not like freeze to death?"

Yeah, they killed a lot of sheep and made more wool clothing

but then eventually they found how to generate power with the hot springs.

Geothermal energy provides about a quarter of the country's power alone

and the rest is mostly hydroelectric from dams and renewable sources.

Nonetheless, only about one percent of their land is arable.

Mostly confined to the South peripheral lowlands

where root vegetables and kale and cabbage and cauliflower are grown.

Alongside numerous geothermal heated greenhouses that harvest warm climate produce

like tomatoes, cucumbers and yes, even bananas.

Making Iceland the Northernmost banana producing country in the world.

Of course, the country also hosts a unique variety of arctic wildlife like puffins, foxes, seals

narwhals, the national animals: the Gyrfalcon and the famous, highly accredited Icelandic horses.

By the way, yes it's true. Iceland is the only country with no mosquitoes however,

- Midg-ES which are similar to mosquitoes and actually one of the species

does actually bite so it's kind of like having mosquitoes anyway.

Speaking of which, traditional Icelandic food is, let's just say, even my Icelandic friend said this:

- This is so disgusting. Why would anyone eat this?

Yeah, let's just say the vikings had some very unorthodox tactics when it came to food preservation.

Dishes like: sheep's head, stock fish jerky, head cheese, sheep testicles

and the famous hákarl. What is it exactly? Well, let's just say:

- Hey! So, I got this shark but it's poisonous. How do I eat it?

Let's bury it into the ground until it smells like urine then dry it out for a couple months