Greinar (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.01.1935, Blaðsíða 88

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which Dr. Helgi Péturss found under the doleritic layer
to the south at Háubakkar, but as mentioned below, some
indications seem to point to its being older.
Dr. Helgi Pjeturss considers that der ElliSavogton-
stein eher als interstadial denn als interglazial zu be-
zeichnen (ist), entstammt einer der Fossvoginterglazial-
zeit vorausgehenden Schwankung.1' It is also possible
that the glacial period represented by the above-men-
tioned moraine was not very pronounced. But I consider
it certain that the interglacial stratum at Gelgjutangi is
of younger date than this glacial period. In the first
place, the sand layers above the moraine and between
,it and the doleritic layer show that some time elapsed
from the period when the moraine was formed until the
doleritic lava poured over it, and that during this inter-
val the sea reached at least six metres higher than it
does now. In the second place, the glacier would have
destroyed and erased the pond-vegetation if it had en-
countered it unsheltered, and as has been stated above,
it looks rather as though this vegetation was destroyed
directly by the doleritic lava. Considering its lower posi-
tion, there is scarcely any doubt that the moraine to the
north of the stream is older than the fossiliferous stra-
tum. The relative position of the layers in question might
suggest the following sequence of formation: the
moraine to the north of the stream oldest, then the clay
with beds of shells, thirdly the moraine in Háubakkar,
and then the fossiliferous stratum, which is at any rate
the youngest of these layers.
While the plant-growth, of which the remains now
form the fossiliferous stratum at Gelgjutangi, was
developing, the sea, at this place, reached very little or
not at all higher than it does now, because the stratum
is only 5—6 metres above the present level of the sea,
and yet there is no evidence that the sea took any part
in the formation of the layer. The sea therefore did not
1) loc, cit. p. 284.