Icelandair awarded its 2007 Innovation Award to the “Pompeii of the North” project. The project involves digging up houses and other items buried under volcanic ash and lava during the 1973 Westman Islands volcanic eruption. The Westman Island Pompeii diggings will be open for the public this year and will show how life was before the fateful day in 1973.

The Westman Islands are also known for being Keiko the whale’s last official home, and for the largest puffin colony in the world which has around 10 million of them.