Steinunn Sveinsdóttir Barkved, an Icelandic-Norwegian resident of Sola by Stavanger on Norway’s southwestern coast, is certain that the strange rocks that she found on the beach by her home are pumice originating from the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajökull.
The Eldhraun lava field. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
“I noticed three strange rocks on the beach, which I am absolutely certain are lava rocks or pumice. One of them even smelled of sulphur,” Sveinsdóttir Barkved told Morgunbladid. “When I returned to the beach later I saw that more such stones had drifted ashore.”
Sveinsdóttir Barkved said there is nothing Norwegian about the rocks. They have a reddish and black color and she said she had never smelled sulphur on stones in Norway before. She is planning to have the stones analyzed.
Geophysicist Magnús Tumi Gudmundsson said he had not heard of this discovery. He said that judging by the description, the most likely explanation for Icelandic rocks being found on a beach in Norway is that pumice from the volcano Hekla was carried to the ocean with the flooding in Markarfljót river, caused by the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull.
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