Abstract
FEW parts of the earth's surface possess so strange a fascination, at once attractive and repellent, as that large island which, away to the north-west of Europe, stands between the Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean. Its language and literature, its connection with the northern mythology, the antiquity and continuity of its annals, and its quaint customs and traditions have given it a special place in the history of nations. The strange aspect of its surface and climate—the home of frost and fire, the scene of some of the most colossal volcanic eruptions which man has ever witnessed, the site of vast snow-fields and glaciers, a region shaken with earthquakes, devastated by appalling floods, swept by Atlantic storms and sometimes chillied by Greenland icebergs—these and other impressive features have made Iceland a region of peculiar interest to students of nature. To the geologist, in particular, the country offers a wide field for observation. Its ice-fields remain as relics of the Ice Age, and are still large enough to illustrate many of the characteristics of that period in geological history. Its volcanoes display almost every type of volcanic action, and present a marvellously extended chronicle, stretching back from the present day through the Glacial period into older Tertiary time. The vicissitudes of its climate and the general absence of a protecting cover of vegetation afford singular opportunities for the study of the progress and rate of denudation, while its many hundreds of miles of coast-line furnish inexhaustible materials for investigating the action of the sea on the shores, and the causes which lead to the advance or retreat of the land.
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GEIKIE, A. Iceland 1 . Nature 65, 367–369 (1902). https://doi.org/10.1038/065367d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/065367d0