I suppose my readings of the Sagas of Icelanders since we arrived has helped me acknowledge and understand more the history, the story and the beauty in the miracle of the cycles of time, generations and family, the places and people of which we are. Will have to share more of the Sagas as I can hardly put the book down.
We've been learning the relatively young geological processes that created Iceland which is thought to be similar processes to the first crust formed at the beginning of Earth. NW Iceland has the oldest rocks (approx 15 million yrs old), gradually getting younger towards central & southern Iceland (less than 10,000 yrs old) where the divergent plate boundary is separating and new basalt lava & ash are most numerous. It's amazing to see how the tiny pollen, fossils, flora imprints of leaves, needles of trees that used to thrive here are almost perfectly preserved in layers upon layers of lava and soils that tell the story of time. At one time Iceland was a warm, humid, temperate climate ~12-15 million yrs ago (Ma) with highs of 25-30 degrees C & mean annual temp of 9-10 C degrees 15 Ma and 12-14 C degrees 12 Ma (reflected by the pollens & plant floras such as rhododendroms, honeysuckle & conifers that could only have existed at those temperatures) and has been through over 25 glaciation/deglaciation cycles. Basically, since 15 Ma, Iceland shows an overall gradual cooling with a mean annual temp of 4-5 degrees Celcius now. Iceland's history is the most preserved on the Earth because of the lava flows that have continued to flow, preserving what is underneath it.
It's really interesting to think of the generations of people and land processes that come before us - it's a story we are a part of!! Woohoo! :-)