Rit (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.06.1967, Page 207

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areas in Iceland and consequently, one of our special contri-
butions to the ridge research should he a continued detailed
study of the structure, petrography and morphology of the
móberg mountains.
At the Ottawa symposium it was recommended, and later
approved by the Upper Mantle Committee, that transitional
zones between rift valleys on land and the median structure
of ocean ridges should be carefully studied. Detailed study
of the Reykjanes Ridge just off Iceland and a comparative
study of the ridges off the E, NW and N coasts would be on
line with such recommendations. The mapping of the shelf
around Iceland is also desirable and ought to be carried out
in cooperation with the Hydrographic Service and the Ma-
rine Research Institute.
I need not explain how very much easier petrographic
and geochemical research is in Iceland than on the ocean
bottom. This research would aim at clarifying to what ex-
tent Iceland is similar to or different from other parts of the
Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Comparative studies on the Faroes and
in the East Greenland basalt areas, are also desirable and co-
operation with Danish scientists in this connection should be
considered.
It is important to continue the seismic refraction measure-
ments in Iceland and if possible to combine them with dril-
ling down into the 6.4 km/sec P-velocity layer (Layer 3)
which in some localities seems to be found at a rather shal-
low depth. In Ottawa a Nordic cooperation in such an enter-
prise was recommended. There are also possibilities of erect-
ing and running a volcanological laboratory in Iceland, paral-
lel to that in Catania, in cooperation with the Scandinavian
countries and Unesco.
At last I want to emphasize that hardly any country of-
fers such possibilities as Iceland for establishing a detailed
geochronology based on isotopes, remanent magnetism and
tephra layers. By combining tephrochronological datings,
C14 datings and datings based on remanent magnetism of