The Changing Face of Iceland Online

The Changing Face of Iceland Online

As one of the most volcanic countries on earth and home to Europe's largest glacier, Iceland has earned the nickname "Land of Fire and Ice". However, climate change is impacting on these two distinctive features threatening to redefine the geological composition of this Arctic island nation.Warming temperatures are melting glaciers here, as they are to all ice around the world, but in Iceland it is at an alarming rate, nearly 150 meters a year! Warming sea water surrounding the shores of Iceland are also contributing to this accelerate decline in land ice as warm water creeps underneath glacial beds.The warming North Atlantic is also impacting on the eco-system of Iceland: coldwater species of marine life are moving further north while equatorial species are replacing them. Iceland's bird populations are having trouble adapting to this new diet as their numbers are falling as much as 37% in the past ten years. New populations of Humpback and Minke whales are contributing to this ...