Iceland: Introduction: Superlatives

• More than 11 percent of the island is covered in glaciers, including Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest.
• There are more than 10,000 waterfalls, including Gullfoss, one of the largest in Europe.
• There are 130 volcanic mountains, eighteen of which have erupted since the island was settled. Hekla, an active volcano in the southwest is expected to erupt in the near future.
• Iceland is the only place in the world where visitors can actually stand on the mid-Atlantic ridge: at Thingvellir National Park, you start out on the North American plate and walk through a canyon to get to the Eurasian plate.
• The youngest island in the world is found off Iceland’s southern coast; formed by a volcanic eruption in 1963, Surtséy is still cooling down and has four types of plants.
• There are no native reptiles or amphibians on the island and no mosquitoes.
• Almost all of the island’s energy comes from geothermal springs, making for some of the cheapest electric bills anywhere in the world (our guide told us his comes to less than $1,000 a year).
• Thanks to geothermal energy, Iceland grows nearly all of its produce, most of it organic, in greenhouses that dot the island.
• The country has a 100 percent literacy rate.
• Iceland does not have an army, and its small police force doesn’t carry guns. Crime is rare, and the sole jail, on the southern shore, has just thirty rooms (all of which have sea views).
• The country has one of world’s highest life expectancies (78 years for men, 83 for women).