The Icelandic Canadian - 01.09.1968, Blaðsíða 38

36
THE ICELANDIC CANADIAN
Autumn 1968
Oddson Shield, was won by the Gimli
Track and Field team and Ross Bur-
gess won the Skuli Hanson trophy for
the grand aggregate and the Einar B.
Johnson trophy for track events.
After nightfall, a film, A Helicopter
View of Canada, was shown outdoors.
This was followed by a well attended
dance in the Pavilion, which brought
the Festival to a close.
— W. Kristjanson
TWO ICELANDIC BOOKS ON GEOLOGY REVIEWED
The June 26 issue of Science, one
of the world’s foremost weekly scientif-
ic journals, contains an article which
shows how Icelandic scientists have
come to the forefront in the study of
geology. The article is a review of two
books published in Reykjavik last
year.
The first of these, Iceland and the
Mid-Ocean Ridges, is a report of a
symposium held in Reykjavik in Feb-
ruary and March last year in which
26 Icelandic earth scientists discussed
the geology of Iceland in relation to
the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This ridge is
a great mountain chain underlying the
Atlantic Ocean of which Iceland is
the northern above-water projection.
Other peaks of this mountain chain
that rise above sea level are the Azores
Islands, Ascension and Tristan da
Cunha. Volcanic action occasionally oc-
curs in this mountain ridge. In recent
years the most notable examples have
been the eruptions of Hekla in 1947-48
and of Tristan da Cunha a few years
later. The symposium dealt mostly
with the nature of volcanic action and
with -the concept of the spreading of
the sea floor and continental drifting.
The «ther book reviewed was The
Eruption of Hekla 1947-48 by Sigurdur
Thorarinsson. Although it deals main-
ly with the scientific aspects of the
eruptions, it also places the known
eruptions in their historical settings,
beginning with the eruption of 1104,
and shows their impact on the life of
the Icelandic people.
The reviewer of the book, a geolo-
gist at the University of Rhode Island,
pays a striking tribute to Sigurdur
Thorarinsson. He concludes his article
with the following paragraph:
“This volume is a rarity in the
scientific literature, being at the same
time a significant scientific treatise,
on important historical analysis, and
a pleasure to read. These qualities re-
flect those of the author, who is not
only a renowned volcanologist but a
scholar of Icelandic history and a poet
in Iceland as well. His flowing writing
style, even through the translation by
Peter G. Foote, wastes few words,
while avoiding the intensely dull
scientific style of most writers. The
reader comes away with a significant
insight into both the volcano and the
history of a culture living in a harsh
environment.”