Accidents Due to Unsafe Ice on Lake and Icy Mountain Slopes Móskarðshnjúkar peaks in Esja mountain. mbl.is/Ófeigur Vala Hafstað Unsafe ice on lakes and icy mountain slopes caused several accidents over the weekend. Capital area firefighters were called out twice yesterday to rescue people who had fallen through the ice on Hafravatn lake, just east of Reykjavík, mbl.is reports. The Capital Area Police Department stresses that ice on lakes around the capital area is not safe and asks people to keep off the ice. Mountain slopes in the vicinity of Reykjavík are icy, and at least three people were injured hiking there yesterday. A helicopter from the Icelandic Coast Guard was called out to transport the injured to hospital. Early in the afternoon, two women were injured while hiking in
Unforgettable Encounter With White-Tailed Eagle Photo/Andri Már Margrétarson
On December 26, he had a memorable encounter with a white-tailed eagle in Ísafjarðardjúp fjord, the West Fjords. He and his wife, Ólafía Kristjánsdóttir, were driving along the fjord in excellent weather when they spotted the eagle, perched on a rock by the ocean. They agreed to take a closer look.
“I stopped the car and took my bag out of the trunk. I put a 135mm lens… on the camera and drove back,” he writes in a post on the Facebook page Icelandic Birds.
Will Bird Flu Spread to Iceland? Mbl.is/Getty images
The Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST) monitors the pandemic and assesses its risk for Iceland.
“We’re at alert phase one, because the migratory birds have not yet arrived,” states Brigitte Brugger, veterinary officer for poultry diseases at MAST. She expects the alert phase to be raised once the migratory birds start arriving.
Most bird flu cases in Europe in recent months are caused by a virus called H5N8, which has been found in wild and domestic birds alike. The virus spreads mainly with wild birds, according to MAST.
The Icelandic Met Office has issued yellow weather alerts, effective tomorrow, for the following regions: Northeast Iceland, East Iceland, the East Fjords and Southeast Iceland.
Scientists at deCode Genetics have discovered that monozygotic twins, that is, twins developed from a single fertilized ovum, are not completely identical.