Fast Facts
Note: Starting today, I am adding world capitals to the facts list. I have revised prior days’ as well because we should know how to spell Reykjavik and Tegucigalpa.
- Named by: Flóki Vilgerðarson, who saw ice caps in Iceland. Earlier names included Snæland (Snowland) and Garðarshólmur (Garoar’s island, mine all mine!)
- Capital: Reykjavik
- Long/Lat: 64.1 N/21.2 W, 4200 mi and 8 hrs east of Castro valley
- Population: 394,000 or only 6x CVs
- Size: 39,800 sq mi or 2350 CVs, not population dense
- Avg temp in April: 39 F/4 C brrr
- Median household income: $55,000 because stuff is expensive in Iceland
- Ethnicity: 86% Icelander, 7% Polish
- Main industries: Fishing, tourism, aluminum
So many volcanoes! Hekla, Eldgjá, Herðubreið, Eldfell, and Laki, whose 1783 eruption wiped out a quarter of the population. This is what happens when a country emerges out of the ocean rift between two tectonic plates, as the Eurasian plate and Mid-Atlantic plate are moving away from each other. You get Iceland.
A fourth-grade view of geology would point out that all the continents used to be huddled together in Pangaea, and, over a LOOOOONG time, they’ve been separating. The Atlantic Ocean’s getting bigger, and the Pacific, smaller. One of the points of separation goes through Iceland, which is only about 14 million years old. Proto-humans began at 3 mya, so Iceland is just a little older than we are. No wonder it’s still got acne!
