Blue Lagoon
Milky-blue geothermal lagoon in a black lava field, fed by power-plant runoff rich in silica and minerals.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Blue Lagoon near Reykjavik begins in 1981 with Valur Margeirsson, a man with psoriasis wading into a pool of waste water on a black lava field, hoping the milky runoff from a nearby geothermal plant might ease his skin. It traces how an engineering byproduct meant only for heat and electricity turned into a bathing spot word spread about, and how doctors and a psoriasis clinic became part of the story. The plant workers who first let Valur bathe there were, by his own account, only half amused.
This audio guide was created using AI.
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