Thingvellir (Þingvellir)

Abstract

Thingvellir is perhaps the best place on this planet to understand the process of rupturing of the crust in response to the pulling forces of plate movements. You will be driving to, and most likely walking inside, the most spectacular example of the effects of the enormous plate-tectonic forces tearing the crust apart. While it is easy to see the open fractures on the ground—and you will see the large ones while walking in the Thingvellir National Park—it is perhaps easier to explain the processes and forces by looking at the area and some of the sites we visit from aerial photographs (Fig. 5.1; see also Fig. 4.1). I therefore include many aerial photographs in this chapter.