Jessica Elliott
Professor Swanson
GEA 1000
July 29, 2015
Iceland
Place is a vague word in general. Geographers, on the other hand, have given five
components to the word place because they ask “Why is what where and so what?” These five
components are location and physical characteristics, population and culture characteristics,
economy and land use, history, and lastly problems and prospects of a particular place. Iceland is
a good example to exemplify the five components.
The first component is location and physical characteristics. When you hear the word
Iceland, most people think ice, however that is not necessarily true. Iceland actually does not
have much ice. Iceland is an island between the Greenland Sea and North Atlantic Ocean. It is
located in northern Europe just northwest of the United Kingdom. It has the coordinates of 65°00
N, 18°00 W making it in the artic region, hence the name Iceland. The climate is temperate with
mild, windy winters and damp, cool summers. The land is mostly plateau, mountains, and ice
fields with bays and lakes. Lake Thingvallavatn and Lake Thorisvatn are the two largest natural
lakes in Iceland. Lake Thingvallavatn is 83.7 square km and its deepest part is roughly 374 feet.
Lake Thorisvatn was the second largest until it was reconstructed into the two biggest basins on
the river of Tungnaa and Thjorsa. The most popular lake is Lake Myvatn as a tourist attraction
and a great fishing area. Reykjavik is the capital but also the largest city in Iceland. The flora and
fauna of Iceland are interesting. The fauna, or animals, that live in Iceland are the artic fox,
reindeer, mink, sheep, cows, raw puffin heart bird, and
marine animals too along the coast. The artic fox is the
only animal native to Iceland; all the others were brought
over. Reindeer, or caribou, were brought over in the 18th
century and live in east Iceland. The raw puffin heart is a
bird with black and white feathers and oversized beak, as
you can see on the left. The marine animals that live off
the coast are different species of whales and seals. The flora, or plants, of Iceland is unusual
compared to most places. During the 12th century, trees were scarce as it was already and
centuries later; trees were being
cut down for timber or firewood
making trees scarcer. Iceland
suffers from earthquakes and
volcanic activity. Ice and fire are
closer together then you imagine,
11% of Iceland is glaciers and
30% is lava fields. Vatnajokull,
the picture to the right, is a glacier that measures 8,400 km, making it the largest in Europe.
However, underneath Vatnajokull is fire that actually caused mountains and floods when it
erupted in 1996 and 1998. The last volcano to erupt was Eyjafjallajokoll in 2010. On average,
Iceland has a volcano that erupts every five years. On the positive side, the volcano that erupts is
rarely near civilization. Iceland continues to grow in size because of all the volcanic activity. The
flag for Iceland represents different physical appearances such as the color blue represents the
skies above, white entails the snow and glaciers, and red stands for the volcanic fires.
Population and cultural characteristics is the second component. Iceland’s population is
not that big, with only 317,351 people. According to the graph below, almost half of the
population is between the age
group of 25 to 54 years of age.
As of 2015, the birth rate is
13.91 births/1,000 population
and the death rate is 6.28
deaths/1,000 population.
Literacy, longevity, and social
cohesion are first rate by
world guidelines. Icelanders
tend to be very smart and creative people. These creative people write, act, compose, design,
paint, or sculpt. The people who are not as creative can sing, play an instrument, write poetry,
knit, or design clothing. The Icelandic people speak Icelandic, English, Nordic languages, and
German. The official church is Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland with 73.8% of Icelanders
practicing it. The government is a constitutional government. The age to vote is 18 years old.
The president is elected by popular vote and has a four-year term, but has no term limit. The
Althingi is the legislative power that contains 63 members for a four-year term too. Judicial
power lies with the Supreme Court and district courts. The government gets its cultural
influences from Norwegian, Scottish, and Irish. Iceland celebrates many of the same holidays
such as Easter, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Independence Day, and many others. However,
some of these holidays are celebrated a little differently. Offering and accepting chocolate eggs
filled with sweets mark Easter. Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Easter
Monday are also celebrated around that time. Christmas is celebrated on December 24 instead of
the 25, exactly at 6pm with dinner. Presents are opened after dinner. Putting lights on the house
is part of the Christmas tradition. New Year’s Eve is celebrated with bonfires and fireworks with
family and friends. Iceland, in a way, has two different Independence Day. The official
Independence Day is on June 17, but also celebrate independence from Denmark on December 1.
