Iceland: A country divided...
Iceland is being pulled apart! Literally! Not to worry though. These tensional forces are what gave birth to the island in the first place. Iceland sits directly astride a divergent plate boundary. Divergent boundary definition. This type of tectonic boundary is where two plates are pulling apart from each other. We call the one that Iceland is on top of the Mid Atlantic ridge. The gap left by the spreading crust at a divergent boundary allows magma to rise closer to the surface and burst forth as lava much more easily, and more frequently. This is the reason for Iceland's frequent volcanic eruptions. It also accounts for why Iceland experiences mostly fissure eruptions, which are eruptions along a linear opening, rather than the cone shaped volcanoes we think of from childhood. The most recent eruption on the island was of this type. Fissure eruption in late 2014. 
At left; The blue line represents where the Mid-Atlantic ridge passes through Iceland. The red dot represents the area of the most recent volcanic activity.
You had the perfect country for this week's theme, huh?
ReplyDeleteI do not know if the woman in this picture is really on Iceland but I use this pic all the time in class....check this out:
http://www.mountainproject.com/v/106349477
This is an awesome and informative blog. What are those craggy rock formations in all of the photos?
ReplyDeleteThank you Antonia! Those are tectonic fissures. The two rock faces you see facing each other were joined at some time in the past. The valley floors fill in with sediment which is why they are so flat and grassy, but the crust there is actually slightly thinner than other pieces of continental crust. They are great representations of how Iceland is being pulled apart even as it is being created. Half of the land is moving with the North American plate. The other half is connected to the Eurasian plate.
ReplyDeleteWow. I really like this blog. I would love to know how you got the pictures to be next to the text. It looks very professional. You explained the topic quite succinctly.
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