Iceland –where you can walk a mid-Atlantic rift –and some other geology photos
While Iceland hosts an amazing variety of awesome landscapes, what stands out to me most are its incredible exposures of the Mid-Atlantic ridge. To the north and south, the ridge lies beneath some 2500m of water, forming a rift that separates the North American plate from the Eurasian plate. The rift spreads apart at a rate of some 2.5 cm/year, forming new oceanic lithosphere in the process. But in Iceland, you can actually walk around in it!
Please click on any of the images below to see them enlarged.
Geologic map of Iceland as compiled from references listed below.
geologictimepics 