Where Did Iceland Come From?

The country of Iceland sits directly on the front lines of the battle between two tectonic plates causing earthquakes and volcanoes as they slide past, under and over each other. Situated on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, a seam in the Earth's surface under the North Atlantic Ocean where the Eurasian and North American plates slide apart (Sigmindsson). 

Iceland's Major Volcanoes and Tectonic Plate Boundaries (BBC News). 

Located along the ocean floor, the Ridge contains a deep rift valley where magma seeps upward from the mantel erupting from the seafloor as lava. That lava hardens into new crust atop the two diverging plates (Allen). The plates move apart along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge an average of about 1 inch per year or 15.5 miles in a million years (U.S. Geological Survey).

Crevice between the North American and Eurasian Plates near Iceland (Mustard).

Iceland’s is a hotspot for geologic activity and has more than 200 volcanoes (Wikipedia). Its volcanic activity is believed to have brought about its existence. The pocket of magma that sits beneath Iceland rose to the surface of the ocean, where it cooled and gradually accumulated into an island beginning about 70 million years ago (Thompson).

The Eyjafjallajokull Volcano (thinglink).

The island continues to evolve through the same processes that created it, with volcanoes erupting every so often and new fissure appearing along its slopes. This upwelling of hot rock in the Earth’s mantel beneath Iceland is known as the Iceland Plume. It’s speculated to reach as far as where the mantel meets the core at 2,880 km depth (Thompson).

Iceland Plume (National Geographic).

Such a volatile piece of land can have disastrous effect on its residents. In 2010, Iceland’s glacier-covered Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted. The ice began to melt as the red-hot explosive blasts burst through the glacier and water poured down the mountain washing away roads and barreling into homes forcing nearly 700 residents to evacuate. Shortly after, a huge mushroom cloud of ash emerged nearly 20,000 ft high. The wind blew the ash east, blotting out the sun and causing extensive air travel disruptions worldwide (Booth).

Eyjafjallajökull 2010 Eruption (Holm).

References

Allen, Dr. Casey. "Lecture 11: Tectonics." Introduction to Physical Geography. CO, Denver. 15 Mar. 2017. Lecture

Booth, Robert, and Severin Carrell. "Iceland Volcano: First Came the Floods, Then the Smell of Rotten Eggs." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 15 Apr. 2010. Web. 31 Mar. 2017. <https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/apr/15/iceland-volcano-eruption-ash-earthquake>.

Eyjafjallajökull 2010 Eruption. Dir. Frederik Holm. YouTube. N.p., 14 Dec. 2010. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-TMtRh8AIs>.

The Eyjafjallajokull Volcano. N.d. Thinglink. Web. <https://www.thinglink.com/scene/772123067559182337#>.

Iceland Extreme Beauty. YouTube, 2016. National Geographic. Web. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEsWd3dy51s>.

Iceland's Major Volcanoes and Tectonic Plate Boundaries. N.d. BBC News. Web. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8623239.stm>.

Mustard, Alex. Crevice between the North American and Eurasian Plates near Iceland. N.d. Daily Mail. Web. <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1385589/The-growing-gap-Eurasia-North-American-tectonic-plates.html>.

Sigmundsson, Freysteinn. Iceland Geodynamics: Crustal Deformation and Divergent Plate Tectonics. Chichester: Springer, 2005. Print.

Thompson, Andrea. "How Did Iceland Form?" LiveScience. Purch, 22 Mar. 2010. Web. 31 Mar. 2017. <http://www.livescience.com/8129-iceland-form.html>.

United States. U.S. Geological Survey. Understanding Plate Motions. N.p., 15 Sept. 2014. Web. 17 Mar. 2017. <https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/understanding.html>.

"Volcanology of Iceland." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 30 Mar. 2017. Web. 31 Mar. 2017. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volcanology_of_Iceland>.