Lögberg-Heimskringla - 17.09.1999, Page 5

Lögberg-Heimskringla » Föstudagur 17. september 1999 • 5
What’s happening in...
Canada lceland
Vatnabyggd Icelandic
golf tournament
I
I
Thor and Gwen Arnason show off prizes and a trophy worthy ofwinning.
Photo courtesy Joan Eyolfson Cadham
Joan Eyolfson Cadham
Foam Lake, SK
The Second Annual Vatnabyggd
Icelandic Open Golf Touraament
was staged this July with a air of hesi-
tant expectancy. “This year,” organizers
said, “will signal the beginning of a
new tradition of the official end of the
unveiling party.”
The First Annual Icelandic Open
(participants must be Icelandic, be mar-
ried to an Icelander, or have touched an
Icelander recently) was held as part of
the celebrations surrounding the official
unveiling of the Vatnabyggd memorial
statue to honour Icelandic pioneers. The
event was planned to provide an extra
activity for people who had driven long
distances for the Saturday formal cere-
monies. Organizers were not sure
whether a toumament on its own would
attract a crowd.
However, 60 golfers turned out to
play 18 holes of four-ball best-ball golf.
eighty-two people turned out for supper
and the trophy presentation at the
Wynyard golf course, the weather was
spectacular, the drink cart made more
rounds than the golfers did, and the day
ended with the hushed excitement of a
sudden-death plaýoff between last
year’s champions and this year’s new
leaders.
The tournament drew golfers from
Saskatoon, Moosomin, Yorkton,
Regina, Calgary, North Battleford,
Kwakatoose, Wadena, Mozart, Wadena,
Elfros, Foam Lake, and Wynyard.
The tie came as a surprise,
announced while golfers and their
friends were relaxing in the Club house
and waiting for supper. Followed by all
the golfers who could pile into golf
carts, Dale Gudmundson, Paul and
Serena Lendzyk, and Judy Tokarchuk
squared off against Thor and Gwen
Arnason, Mitch Blyth, and Ryan
Melsted.
Thor sunk the winning putt after a
three-hole playoff and an exciting exhi-
bition of golíing excellence described
by one Icelandic participant as
“Maturity and treachery over youth and
enthusiasm.”
Next year’s Millennium Icelandic
Open will be held at the Wynyard golf
course on July 9. Organizer Dave
Shepherd said that, given the momen-
tous nature of the year, and the high
degree of prestige attainable by playing
in a Millennium tournament, 80 golfers
would be accommodated.
Looking Forward
Continued from page 1
relations between Iceland and Canada
very good. “For example we work
closely together in NATO and now
recently in the area of the North Polar
Council. Presently an important issue
awaits solution, namely air communi-
cations between the countries, which
we will increase and improve. For
example I would like to see flights
between Iceland and Western Canada
become more frequent; by doing so we
would encourage increased investments
on behalf of both countries. Today we
agreed to work vigorously on these
matters but we also discussed how to
increase our cooperation in the political
arena.”
Mr. Axworthy expressed his pleas-
ure over the Icelandic Government’s
decision to locate a full time Icelandic
diplomat in Canada, a Special Envoy,
“where very good work is done, on
which we want to build.” Mr. Axworthy
said it had particularly caught his atten-
tion when Halldór Asgrímsson
informed him that his visit was proba-
bly the first official visit by a Canadian
Foreign Minister. “And I am very
pleased to have the honour of being the
first,” the Canadian Foreign Minister
said. “I come here from Manitoba
where, as you know, a high number of
Canadians of Icelandic descent live
who play an important part in the life
there. We want to honour these strong
ties by this visit.”
“I look forward to the celebrations
next year, and of course we want to pre'-
pare well for the arrival of your
President, Prime Minister, and Foreign
Minister to Canada,” Axworthy added.
“The purpose of these visits is to focus
on the fact that Iceland and Canada
have actually had friendly relations for
a thousand years.”
Katla eruption expected
Hidden beneath the Mýrdals-
glacier ice cap Iies one of Iceland’s
major central volcanoes: Katla. It is
dominated by a 10 km wide and 700 m
deep caldera and the associated fissure
reaches some 70 km to the northeast,
where it includes the Eldgjá fissure.
Eruptions in the volcano are particular-
ly instructive for an understanding of
the relationship between volcanic activ-
ity and glacier bursts. There have been
about twenty eruptions in the Katla sys-
tem in historical times, all of basaltic
magma. Recent eruptions originating
beneath the ice have been phreatomag-
matic, and generated major tephra
plumes, that have caused extensive ash
fall in Iceland. Each Katla eruption is
accompanied by a huge flood of melt-
water, tephra, mud, and ice, that sweep
over the Mýrdalssangur plain to the east
of the volcano, adding thick depoits of
water-transported tephra to the plain
and extending out the coastline where
they enter the sea. There is also an
extensive geothermal field in the sub-
glacial caldera, and its discharge is the
smelly “Fúlilækur” (foul stream) or
Jökulsá on Sólheimasandur.
Presently there is concern in
Iceland for yet another Katla eruption.
Caldera have formed at the rim of the
Katla crater, indicating heat under the
glacier. The following is taken from an
interview with a pilot who recently flew
over the glacer to inspect developments
there.
The caldera at Mýrdal’s Glacier
have deepened and the cracks enlarged.
The tenth caldera is forming and possi-
bly the eleventh. This was discovered
during a flight, made by Reynir
Ragnarsson, over Mt. Katla on August
24. Reynir last flew over the glacier
nine days ago and he reported the
changes in the glacier since that time
are visible. “It appears that all of the
caldera have deepened and the circular
cracks enlarged. A new caldera appears
to be forming further north in the gla-
cier, although circular cracks have not
formed yet,” said Reynir Ragnarsson
after his inspection flight on August 24.
Most of the ten caldera are located at
the crater rim of Katla.
Translated from Morgunblaðið
<H5 ii -HnH* Rin* mu' 'ns'hci&t mri m rwtiír NtirrRit-m & rmt -t m 'ní'kwnMi-