Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Natural Wonders
It's difficult to remain unmoved by the amazing diversity of the Icelandic land-
scape. Contrary to popular opinion, it's not completely covered in ice, nor is
it a treeless, lunar landscape of congealed lava flows and windswept tundra.
Both of these habitats exist, but so too do steep-sided fjords, rolling emerald-
green hills, glacier-carved valleys, bubbling mudpots and vast, desert-like
wasteland. It is this rich mix of scenery and the possibility of experiencing
such extremes, so close together, that attract, and then dazzle, most visitors.
Volatile Iceland
Plonked firmly on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a massive 18,000km-long rift between two of
the earth's major tectonic plates, Iceland is a shifting, steaming lesson in schoolroom geo-
logy. Suddenly you'll be racking your brains to remember long-forgotten homework on
how volcanoes work, what a solfatara is, and why lava and magma aren't quite the same
thing.
Iceland is one of the youngest landmasses on the planet, formed by underwater volcanic
eruptions along the joint of the North American and Eurasian plates around 20 million years
ago. The earth's crust in Iceland is only a third of its normal thickness, and magma (molten
rock) continues to rise from deep within, forcing the two plates apart. The result is clearly
visible at Þingvellir, where the great rift Almannagjá broadens by between 1mm and 18mm
per year, and at Námafjall (near Mývatn), where a series of steaming vents mark the ridge.
At 103,000 sq km, Iceland is roughly the size of Portugal, or the US state of Kentucky.
Within its borders are some 30 active volcanoes. Its landscape is comprised of 3% lakes,
11% ice caps and glaciers, 23% vegetation, and 63% wasteland.
Volcanoes
Thin crust and grating plates are responsible for a whole host of exciting volcanic activities
in Iceland. The country's volcanoes are many and varied - some are active, some extinct,
and some are dormant and dreaming, no doubt, of future destruction. Fissure eruptions and
