A Rift Runs Through It: Iceland’s Divergence of the Plates

Thingvellir, Iceland: the landscape is wild and desolate but hauntingly beautiful.  Yet the serene magnificence of the surroundings belies an astonishing fact.  It is here as a result of massive, geological trauma.

Image Credit Flickr User Andrew Gibson
This is one of the few places above sea level where you can see with your own eyes what happens when two major tectonic plates drift away from each other.  In fact, Iceland owes its very existence to the tectonic processes which have played out along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge for millions of years.  It was born of the ridge, which runs right through it.