The NW of Iceland has the same shape as the North and East. Do yo believe that? Of course not! All right then. Some things have to be explained step by step.
First, I point out three different parts of consideration. I will compare the northern and eastern parts, with the NW part.
The East is a rather distinct area, characterized by fjords, surrounded with mountains. Once having the line drawn, we can duplicate it and past it on the NW peninsula.
This is an interesting story. This ‘fit’ is not easy to get, it follows the curvature of the entire coastline and quite a lot of details enhance the match. Besides that, turning anti-clockwise 45° is not that random. These areas are often compared, because they have similar age geologically. Some might say that the line is thick, so it hides the differences. I anticipate that, and to be able to continue with the story, a map with a thin line is added. Sure, there are tiny differences, so tiny that they have to be searched out with some difficulty. So I have to find someone who wants to say: ‘During 10 million years, the factors shaping these two sides of the country should have formed the areas differently’. I totally agree, but the word should is not that scientific. I have facts here to deal with. So I keep on with the story with a big smile, just like no one ever thought of interrupting me 🙂
Now another geologically old part of Iceland is examined. We draw a line along the coast of the central North. The main peninsula is called Tröllaskagi (The Troll Peninsula), because of its rugged appearence. The Eyjafjörður area is also included, as it the bedrock there is of similar age.
Now the line along the North is copied and rotated anti-clockwise 30°. It fits amazingly well with the NW coast of the NW peninsula. Why is that? Again, a thinner line is used for detailed comparison. The northernmost part has a larger small peninsula, but generally the topography is shaped in similar way. The large scale fjords of Eyjafjörður and Ísafjarðardjúp fit surprisingly together. After that, the central peninsula of the large scale NW peninsula fit with the Tröllaskagi shape. The comparison ends with Skagafjörður and Arnarfjörður, because Skagafjörður was enlarged about 2-3 million years ago when a rift zone developed within it. It can therefore hardly be compared with its counterpart of the NW, Arnarfjörður, which has never underwent any rifting process.
As this blog has a bit longer text than usually, a wider comparison is made here at the end. The two areas of N and E have now been added to the NW peninsula. What do we then have? Actually, a superimposed drawing of the whole peninslula is emerging, like it has been duplicated! I can tell you why. These areas have emerged in the same way as the NW peninsula, and then drifted away from the volcanic zones to the present locations. Therefore, they have similar edges, with similar weaknesses, taking on similar forms when the glacier and ocean shape them through millions of years. As tectonic drift is not that random, subject to the regular forces of magma flow, the angular difference becomes regular as well. Rotation of 30° and 45° respectively, making a match, is far beyond any chances of coincidence.
So here we end this story of this long blog post about magic magma. There is much more to tell, as we ended the comparison mentioning the Skagafjörður Rift Zone, altering the north coast of Iceland. There is also a ‘tiny’ piece of old rock in the middle of the West of Iceland (Borgarfjörður). Does that one also match with a part of the NW peninslula? There are so many questions to ask about this subject. So, please relax. These were just a few facts pointed out to everyone, put into the form of a story, so you are not required to either believe or deny anything 🙂
Magic Magma 