A large hot spring (or mud pot, because it spurts black mud) which appeared near the Horticulture School of Iceland outside Hveragerdi in southwest Iceland after a strong earthquake hit the region in late May, has been given the name Leirgerdur.
Gerdur is a common female name and “leir” means clay or mud.
The Agricultural University of Iceland (AUI) launched a competition to name it and other new hot springs that were created in southwest Iceland after the earthquake, Morgunbladid reports.
AUI staff member Gudrídur Helgadóttir, who organized the competition, said that she had received nearly 300 emails with suggestions of names.
The winning proposal was submitted by Jörundur Gardarsson from Bíldudalur in the West Fjords and he received a bouquet of flowers as a reward.
Not far from Leirgerdur is another wide and bubbling hot spring which will henceforth be known as Skjálfti. Further away is a reddish brown mud pot which was named Reykjamóri and the last new hot spring, filled with boiling hot water, was given the name Hrifla.
Naming hot springs is traditional in Iceland. The name of the country’s most famous hot spring, Geysir, has now become an international term for erupting hot springs.
