Rit (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.06.1923, Blaðsíða 110

106
rtes), Faxaflói, Reykjanes and on the south coast (in Árnes-
sýsla and Westmann Islands), the land is sinking or the
sea rising; and people say they can see an appreciable
difference during the last 40 — 50 years.
No exact observations or measurements of the height of
the sea-level liave been made in these places, covering a
period of any extent, so that it is impossible to decide this
matter with certainty.
The author, however, considers it probable that this popu-
lar opinion has some foundation in fact, and he mentions
several points that seem to bear it out.
On the north coast of Breiðifjörður, by Vestfirðir and in
Húnaflói, landfalls owing to the action of the sea are very
rare. It is far more common for the 'sea to fill up bays and
straits with gravel and sand. Where the coast is low in
these parts and the sea has formed series of gravel ridges
along the beach, the ridges usually grow lower as they get
nearer the sea, and almost without exception the last
gravel ridge, which the sea is now in the process of form-
ing, is ihe lowest. This seems to indicate that the sea does
not now throw gravel and sand as far up as it once did.
On the south coast of Breiðafjörður (Snæfellsnes) and
southward as far as the Westmann Islands landfalls owing
to the action of the sea are much in evidence. In many
places the sea has broken off strips of land and worn
away grass-Iand, even within living memory. It has been
necessary in some parts to remove farms and outhouses
back from the sea and build walls to protect the land jrom
the ravages of the sea (Árnessýsla) Wherever gravel ridges
have been formed on a low-Iying coast, the ridge nearest
the sea, which is now in process of formation, is gener-
ally considerably higher (1—2 m.) than the ridges or the
land behind it. In many cases these gravel ridges are
gradually being pushed back up the shore by the sea. This
certainly indicates that the land is sinking and has been
sinking for a long time, in the south-west and south of
Iceland, and that the sea is advancing on the land, throw-
ing stones and gravel higher up now than previously. Sev-