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place to place and on the whole does not exceed several hundreds of
meters.
The most important peculiarity of the structure of Iceland is that
the more ancient rocks of Miocene age are exposed on the periphery
of the island, (in the north-westem and eastern regions), while the
middle area is covered by younger rocks. Moreover, as a rough
GEOLOGICAL PROFILES THROUGH ICELAJslD
By Ye.Milanovsky 1974
WNW HYPOTHETICAL PROFIL.E THROUpH NORTH ATLANTICS
MtS greenland ÍCELAND FAEROE SHETLAND -noathern SEA
0: A .-5 ^»0 >0 lllllllll!
283 450 633 802 1ÓOO 1200 HOQ 1600 1800 2000 2200 2400
SCHEMATIC PROFILE THROUGH NORTHERN ICELAND
PROFilE THROUGH WESTERN PARTOF
SOUTHERN ÍCELAND
PROFILE THROUGH EASTERN' PART OF ICELAND
scheme, the younger the rocks on the surface are, the farther they
are from the periphery (Figs. 1 and 2B). According to this rock
distribution, Iceland on the whole has a synclinal structure. The
limbs of this syncline stretch in the southem part of the island from
south-west to north-east, in the northem part meridionally. The
syncline is complicated by a large longitudinal inner Hreppar-
Eyjafjördur uplift. The Pliocene and the Eopleistocene rocks within
this uphft in the south of Iceland divide the two bands of the
youngest Pleistocene-Holocene rocks. These bands are called the
“neovolcanic” zones, Eastern and Western. The Eastem Neovol-
canic Zone is traced across the whole island from its southem coast
to the northern, while the Western one cuts off in the centre of the
island. However, the band of Pliocene and Eopleistocene basalts,