Iceland

[murphy!acmcr!vr@uunet.UU.NET (Vicki Rosenzweig)]

What is unusual--currently unique, I think--is that Iceland is
a _hotspot_ with a spreading center lying over it. Elsewhere
on the spreading center, new crust is being formed, but it's
not at the surface. (This is the mid-Atlantic Ridge.) Iceland
may be more like Hawaii--also a hotspot, which has produced 
a series of islands as the Pacific Plate moves over it--than
like any spreading center without a hotspot. But I'm not at
all sure what this has to do with dinosaurs or extinctions.

Vicki Rosenzweig
vr%acmcr.uucp@murphy.com
New York, NY