Students travel to Iceland in the name of geology

Students in geology professor Helen Mango’s “Iceland: Fire, Ice and Legends” course will be traveling to Iceland after graduation this year to continue their studies.

Courtesy of Helen Mango

 On May 9, Mango and librarian Sandy Duling will lead this class on a flight to Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland, to study local geology and Icelandic literatures. They will return on May 17 after their nine-day excursion.

It marks Mango’s fourth trip with students to the country.

“Iceland is like a candy store for geologists!” Mango said.

She went on to say how it is a location where some of the most fascinating geological features can be found. Incredible displays of natural beauty caused by the tectonic plates under the country include the famous Helka and Grímsvötn volcanoes as well as the many local geysers and hot springs.

The class will also be visiting Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in all of Europe.

After being asked what she wishes to achieve through this trip abroad, Mango responded, “Sandy and I want to introduce the students to traveling because many of Castleton students have never been outside of the United States and with Iceland being a safe place that is also only a four-and-a-half-hour plane flight, we would love to show them how wonderful international travel is.”

Students are excited at the opportunity.

“At first I only signed up for this class because of the trip to Iceland originally thinking it’d be an easy way to go Europe, but it’s become a lot more than that now,” said Casey Jacques. “After learning everything that I have so far in this class, I think it’ll be amazing to witness exactly what we’ve been talking about up close and personal while I’m there.”

Classmate Julie Potash agreed.

“It’ll be a great experience, I’ve always wanted to study abroad but didn’t want to start off by doing a whole semester,” says Julie Potash. “I’m studying in the southwest next year, so I thought taking this short nine-day trip abroad will help me get comfortable being away for an entire semester.” 

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