The Glorious Geology of Iceland's Golden Circle

About this book

This is the first book describing the glorious geology of Iceland's Golden Circle and four additional excursions:(1) the beautiful valleys and mountains of the fjord of Hvalfjörđur, (2) the unique landscape and geothermal fields of the Hengill Volcano, (3) the explosion craters, volcanic fissures, and lava fields of the Reykjanes Peninsula, and (4) the volcanoes (Hekla, Eyjafjallajökull, Katla), waterfalls, sandur plains, and rock columns of South Iceland. The Golden Circle offers a unique opportunity to observe and understand many of our planet's forces in action. These forces move the Earth's tectonic plates, rupture the crust, and generate earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, channels for rivers and waterfalls, and heat sources for hot springs and geysers. The Golden Circle includes the famous rifting and earthquake fracture sites at þingvellir, the hot springs of the Geysir area, the waterfall of Gullfoss, and the Kerid volcanic crater. As The Glorious Geology of Iceland's Golden Circle is primarily intended for people with no background in geosciences, no geological knowledge is assumed and technical terms are avoided as far as possible (those used are explained in a glossary). With more than 240 illustrations – mostly photographs – explaining geological structures and processes, it is also a useful resource for geoscientists.

Contents

- Introduction
- Keflavik to Reykjavik
- Reykjavik
- Reykjavik to þingvellir
- þingvellir
- þingvellir to Geysir
- Geysir
- Gullfoss
- Gullfoss-Keriđ-Reykjavik
- Other one-day geological excursions from Reykjavik
- Reykjavik-Hvalfjörđur
- Reykjavik-Hengill
- Reykjavik-Kleifarvatn-Reykjanes
- Reykjavik-Eyjafjallajökull-Reynisfjara

Customer Reviews

Biography

Prof Agust Gudmundsson received his MSc in Structural Geology and Rock Mechanics from the Imperial College London in 1979 and his PhD in Tectonophysics from Imperial College London, University of London in 1984. In 1985, he became a Research Scientist in Volcanology at the Nordic Volcanological Institute, University of Iceland, where he later served (from 1987 to 1997) as a Research Professor. From 1998 to 2002 he was a Professor and Chair of Hydrogeology of Solid Rocks at the University of Bergen, Norway. In 2003, he was appointed the Professor and Chair of Structural Geology and Geodynamics at the University of Goettingen, Germany. Since 2007 he has been the Chair of Structural Geology, Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway College, University of London.

Prof Agust Gudmundsson is the Chief Editor of the journal Frontiers in Structural Geology and Tectonics and Associate Editor of Terra Nova, Bulletin of Volcanology, Frontiers in Volcanology, and Scientific Reports. He is also on the editorial board (Review Editor) of the Scientific World Journal, Tectonophysics, and Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research. His main research interests are in the physics of various geological and physical processes, and his main areas of activity include volcano-tectonic and seismotectonic structures and processes, fluid transport in porous and fractured reservoirs, and the thermodynamics/statistical mechanics of lineaments and networks.

Prof Gudmundsson has co-authored the books Volcano-Tectonics of the Al Haruj Volcanic Province, Central Libya and Numerical Modeing of Triple-Junction Tectonics at Karliova, Eastern Turkey, with Implications for Regional Magma Transport. Further, he is a Fellow of the Iceland Academy of Sciences and an elected member of Academia Europaea (the European Academy of Sciences, Humanities and Letters).