Icelandic Rift
December 15, 2003
Provided and copyright by: Len Sharp, Liverpool HS-Annex
Summary authors & editors: Len Sharp
As part of my Christa McAuliffe Fellowship, I took advantage of an opportunity to travel to Greenland and Iceland in order to further my first-hand knowledge about the polar regions. The photograph above shows a portion of Thingvellir, a broad, U-shaped valley with a number of steps along each side consisting of lava terraces. This unique geologic region of our planet is where the Mid-Atlantic Rift comes ashore in western Iceland. At one place along the fissure shown above, one can touch both its walls and, in essence, touch the Eurasian and North American Plates. Geology in Action! See also the Earth Science Picture of the Day for May 27, 2002 (click on Archive).
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