Iceland Essays

Geography & Geology

Iceland is positioned between the UK, Norway, Ireland, and Greenland to the west. It is also on the divergent boundary between the Eurasian plate and the North American plate. It lies above a hotspot, the Iceland plume. Some people believe it caused the formation of Iceland, the island first appearing over the ocean surface about 16 to 18 million years ago. The result is Iceland with repeated volcanism and geothermal happenings such as geysers.

It is a geologically young island – less than 33 million years old – and its landscapes are shaped by active plate tectonics, volcanics, and glacial movement. As mentioned above, it is one of the only places in the world where a divergent plate boundary is exposed at the Earth's surface!

Iceland's entire surface is made of volcanic rock, most of it basalt — the rock that forms when lava cools.

Some believe that Iceland is splitting apart, but that is (sorta) false. Only because if it could happen, it probably would have happened millions of years since it was formed. Technically, Iceland is being pulled apart at a rate of about 2.5 cm each year, which is quite a bit, but volcanic eruptions help by filling up the gaps that could form.

Iceland is incredibly prone to earthquakes, sometimes having over 500 per week. The reason is that Iceland is located on top of the Atlantic ridge: As the Eurasian and North American plates drift in opposite directions, Iceland is literally being torn apart (which is saved by the volcanos, as I talked about above), causing constant seismic activity.

So, what should we expect for the geology of Iceland in the future?

Around 2050, Iceland will be warmer and may experience more rain than it does currently. With warmer weather, areas where forests may grow will be larger. However, warmer temperatures also bring new insects that cannot thrive in Iceland today and some of these may also be harmful to native plants.

Interesting fact: the Arctic fox is the only species of land mammal native to Iceland and is believed to have lived on the island since the last Ice Age.

Vikings

Icelanders are, in fact, the descendants of Vikings. Before the Vikings arrived in Iceland, the country had been inhabited by Irish monks but they had since then given up on the island and left the country without even so much as a name. So, when the Vikings started arriving to the island (The first permanent settler in Iceland is usually considered to have been a Norwegian chieftain named Ingólfr Arnarson and his wife, Hallveig Fróðadóttir), they tried to give it a title that would stick.

Ideas such as Thule, Sæland and Garðarshólmi have been found in documents, but none of them particularly caught on. It wasn’t until Hrafna-Flóki, one of the early travelers in the mid-9th century, stayed in Iceland over winter that Iceland got its name. One day after the harsh winter, he walked up to one of the surrounding mountains near Flókalundur and found himself overlooking fjords packed with ice. That’s when he came up with the name, which, in my opinion, wasn’t very creative.

Available land would have been attractive to Viking Age Scandinavians, especially given the relatively warm climate in Iceland at the time. Resources such as walrus ivory made Iceland an important location for merchants.

The Vikings originated from the area that became modern-day Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. Then, they traveled to Iceland and Greenland, and finally settled in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Iceland, Greenland, North America, and parts of the European mainland, among other places. Unfortunately, their settlements did not last. People today know not a lot of what actually happened with Viking journeys to North America. It is likely that the difficulty of establishing a colony so far from home was too much for them.

Colonization

Like I said above, before the Vikings arrived, Iceland was mainly inhabited by Irish monks. (See above: Vikings). Today, nearly all of the island's residents can trace their ancestry to Norse (Scandinavian) or Celtic (Irish) roots.

An interesting side note that is not really related to colonization, after the financial crash of 2008, the one McDonald's restaurant in Reykjavik left town. It was not very established in the first place as the local burger chain, Hambórgarabúllan, was so popular that people basically boycotted the foreign chain. So now, there are no McDonalds in Iceland!

(Not So) Ironic Names

Originally, Iceland WAS covered ice, and Greenland was green. But when their climates abruptly switched, everyone decided to keep the names, because everyone wanted people to go to Greenland and find only ice, while going to Iceland would show you forest-y paradise.

In conclusion, Iceland is a fascinating island with interesting geography, geology, culture, and history.

Iceland Flag Essay

(Designed by Matthias Thordarson.)

While most colors represent the country’s values, Iceland’s flag represents its landscape. Red indicates the fire produced by the island's volcanoes, white is the ice and snow that covers Iceland, and the blue represents the mountains of the island.

Next is the crosses. Iceland's first national flag was a white cross on a deep blue background. It was first shown in a parade in 1897.The current flag comes from 1915, when a red cross was inserted into the white cross of the original flag. The new cross represents Christianity. It was adopted and became the national flag when Iceland was granted freedom from Denmark in 1918.

According to a legend described in Andrew Evans' Iceland, a red cloth with a white cross fell from the heavens, guaranteeing Danish victory at the Battle of Valdemar in the 13th century. Denmark then used the cross on their flag as a sign of divine right. And through Denmark, Iceland used it too.

The state flag (swallowtail flag) is the regular national flag with a swallowtail at the fly end.

Icelanders take their National Flag very seriously and being disrespectful of the flag or breaking any of the flag-laws (an example of a flag law is that the flag should not be raised before seven o'clock in the morning) can lead to a big fine or even imprisonment.