In this blog post, we will look at the unique geological features of Iceland and the mysterious tectonic shifts that occur at the two tectonic plate boundaries.
Iceland is a volcanic island with very active tectonic activity such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Iceland, which is about 540 km east to west and about 350 km north to south, is covered with lava that has accumulated over the past 20,000 years in some areas. The country’s amazing natural environment is one of the main factors that attracts tourists from all over the world. In particular, the unique topography and hot springs formed in the volcanic zone are being heavily utilized as natural tourism resources in Iceland. Thanks to active tectonic activity, Icelanders are making the most of their geological characteristics, using the heat from volcanoes for heating, cultivating crops with hot spring water, and producing electricity with volcanic steam. This resource utilization method is greatly contributing to Iceland’s position as a sustainable country that uses resources efficiently.
From the perspective of plate tectonics, Iceland’s geological location is very special. The Earth’s surface is made up of more than ten plates, both large and small. Iceland is located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the boundary between the North American and Eurasian plates. The Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which runs along the seabed of the Atlantic Ocean, stretches in the form of a long mountain range from the Arctic Ocean to the southern tip of Africa. This boundary is where continental and oceanic plates meet and move away from each other, and it is an area where tectonic activity is active. Iceland, where a portion of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is exposed above sea level, is geographically a single country, but geologically it lies on two different tectonic plates, the North American Plate to the west and the Eurasian Plate to the east. Because of this, Iceland frequently experiences geological phenomena that are rare elsewhere on Earth.
There are many places on Earth where plates meet. However, Iceland is a rare place where two plates extend over land. This is considered an important research subject for scientists, and various geological studies are being conducted continuously. At the plate boundary where Iceland is located, new rocks are being created, and the two plates are moving away from each other. As a result, a geological phenomenon rarely seen on other tectonic plates occurs in Iceland. According to scientists’ observations, the rift in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge that runs through the center of Iceland is widening by about 15 cm each year. As a result, the North American Plate and the Eurasian Plate are slowly expanding, starting from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where Iceland is located. This gap allows new crust to be constantly created as high-temperature magma rises from the lower part of the oceanic crust. The oceanic crust created in this way becomes part of the plate that is moving away.
Iceland is also of interest because it has a reference point for measuring the absolute velocity of plates. Scientists measure the speed of plate movement by estimating the change in the distance between the Eurasian plate and the North American plate over time. However, the plate movement speed obtained in this way is the speed of the other plate moving on the moving plate. This is the relative velocity, which is the velocity of the plate when it is assumed to be stationary. Scientists were not satisfied with finding the relative velocity, but also wanted to know the absolute velocity of the plate, that is, how fast the plate is moving relative to the reference point on Earth. To find the absolute velocity of the plate, a reference point that is fixed externally and independent of the plate’s motion is required. Scientists have found that the hot spots, which are the source of the magma deep in the mantle of the Earth, hardly move, and they have used them as a reference point for determining the absolute velocity of the plate. Such research provides important clues to understanding the formation and evolution of the Earth, and many researchers will continue to pay attention to it. Scientists have found more than 100 hot spots on the Earth, and one of them is in Iceland.
