Iceland is created where two continental plates meet. When such areas erupt the magma stacks up and gradually builds a landmass that slowly distances the area it erupted from. This is due to movements in the juncture area and the masses own weight.
Volcano eruptions create mountains and broad flakes of lava and with every new eruption more and sometimes broader flakes are created and the land builds up.
The oldest land-formations in Iceland are the West & the East parts of the island. These parts are roughly 16 million years old. In sediments in these areas interestingly enough we find fossils of plants showng climate temperatures more synonymous with South Europe f.ex.
About 5 million years ago the temp.started to drop and to reach similar temperatures we now experience in Iceland. Glaciers started to develope and as the climate grew colder these glaciers grew to cover the whole country and out to sea.
