Facts about Iceland II

ENERGY

Because of its location on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Iceland is a hotbed of volcanic and geothermal activity: thirty volcanoes have erupted in the past two centuries, the last one Eyjafjallajökull, in the spring 2010. Most famous and active volcano is Hekla. Natural hot water supplies the majority of the population with inexpensive, pollutionfree heating.

PEOPLE

Iceland’s population is about 317,000, about six percent of which are foreignborn.
It’s growing at a rate of 2.6 percent per year. Only 2 percent of Icelanders live in rural areas, the rest live in urban areas, and the majority, about 75 percent, live in the capital area of Reykjavík.

HISTORY

It is believed that the first permanent settler in Iceland was Ingólfur Arnarson, a Norwegian Viking who settled in A.D. 874 and named his home Reykjavík (smoky bay) after the steam rising from the surrounding countryside. In 930, Icelanders founded Althingi, which still functions as the legislative body, making it the world’s oldest parliament. In 1262, Iceland lost its independence to Norway and in 1380 came under Danish control with Norway. On 17 June 1944, Iceland became independent of Denmark in a ceremony that took place at Thingvellir, the old site of Althingi, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

TIME

Despite its mid-Atlantic location, Iceland observes Greenwich Mean Time yeararound and does not go on daylight saving time.

Facts about Iceland I

Land

Iceland is an island of 103,000 square kilometers (39,756 square miles) and 4,970 kilometers of coastline, making it the16th largest island in the world.

Only Madagascar, Britain and Cuba are larger single independent island states.

The country’s highest peak, Hvannadalshnjúkur, rises 2,110 meters above sea level.

Roughly ten percent of the country is covered in glaciers, including Vatnajökull,the largest in Europe. Sólheimajökull, an outlet glacier of the Mýrdalsjökull ice cap, south Iceland, is presently retreating at a rate of approximately 100 meters per year.

LANGUAGE

Icelanders are of Norse and Celtic ancestry, and have lived for more than a millennium far away from other countries, which has provided geneticists with a key body of DNA. The language, Icelandic, is close to that of literature (the Sagas) in the 12th century. Most people can also speak English. Icelanders maintain a patronymic naming system, which means that someone’s first name is followed by his or her father’s name and the suffix ‘son’ or ‘dóttir’. For example, Hermann Páll Jónsson is Hermann, the son of Jón.