Talk:Geography of Iceland

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Iceland is the only Nordic country that is not intersected by the Arctic Circle. J I P | Talk 12:31, 19 June 2006 (UTC)


 * But there are Icelandic islands that are on or north of the arctic circle: Grímsey, Kolbeinsey --Spoon! 04:51, 7 September 2006 (UTC)

Europe?
Is Iceland in Europe? I guess it is historically and culturally, but physically its closer to North America. Given its location on the mid-Atlantic Ridge, it could be argued it's not actually part of either continent. Rojomoke 23:19, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

To Rojomoke: Geologically, Iceland is part of both; it sits on the ridge that divides the North American plate and the Eurasian plate. But, culturally and politically, they are European because they actually are a Scandinavian country. But you are right that it can be considered not part of either continent, because it IS its own continent; that's right, the ridge is slowing feeding it more and more rocks and it is causing it to expand, and in a few hundred million years, it will be the largest continent on the planet as it grows and the old continents get destroyed. Jabbist (talk) 02:57, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

That is simply not true. Current geological processes are not bound to continue forever. In hundreds of millions of years, the changes will be significant. Divergent zones do not remain divergent indefinitely. Granted, there are many possibilities, and as of now we do not have the capability to project continental drift with certainty, but it is possible that a subduction zone will eventually form off the east coast of North America, effectively ceasing the growth of the Atlantic Ocean. The present day Mid Atlantic Ridge, if its rate of spreading does not meet the rate of subduction, would then be drawn toward the new convergent zone off the east coast. Iceland would then eventually become accreted to the eastern part of North America. During and prior to the assembly of Pangaea, eastern North America was an active plate margin. There are countless exotic terranes representative of this period in geological history throughout the region, that are the result of microcontinents and volcanic island arcs welding to the continent. If billions of years of history are any indication, present day Iceland will be a constituent of another continent in hundreds of millions of years. 152.1.211.29 (talk) 06:14, 28 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I appreciate all of the above. My point was actually about the first line of the article.  Should Iceland be described as a European island?  Rojomoke (talk) 18:22, 6 September 2010 (UTC)

As Iceland is geologically (which is what this article's about) not part of Europe, in that it's not on the continental shelf, I've changed the sentence. Rojomoke (talk)

Plagiarism?
looks like a cut and paste from CIA factbook. —Preceding unsigned comment added by TCO (talk • contribs) 12:23, 3 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Anything from the US government is in public domain unless otherwise stated, but I've added a reference since this article doesn't cite any sources, and I've tagged it for cleanup. After cleanup, the template: CIA World Factbook can be used at the top to let readers know about the content usage. It displays: See also. - M0rphzone (talk) 03:53, 8 May 2012 (UTC)

Notice
I'm trying to learn about Iceland but this doesn't help about the geography of it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2A00:23C5:ECA5:3501:5C0A:82C5:EEF6:9509 (talk) 12:16, 29 January 2021 (UTC)