The Vulcano-Glacial Palagonite Formation of Iceland

The geological feature which strikes the traveller in Iceland perhaps most forcibly is the complete contrast afforded by the well-ordered, level, or gently dipping basalt sheets with almost negligible tuff intercalations which constitute the Pre-glacial Kainozoic Plateau and the Late-glacial and Rec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geological Magazine
Main Author: Peacock, Martin A.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1926
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0016756800085137
https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0016756800085137
Description
Summary:The geological feature which strikes the traveller in Iceland perhaps most forcibly is the complete contrast afforded by the well-ordered, level, or gently dipping basalt sheets with almost negligible tuff intercalations which constitute the Pre-glacial Kainozoic Plateau and the Late-glacial and Recent volcanic formations, and the enormous, chaotic, rarely-bedded accumulations of the Palagonite Formation in which lava flows are subordinate in amount; and he is at once presented with the question: Why did igneous action which produced lava sheets in Pre-glacial times result in dominant tuffs and breccias in the period which followed, and then revert to the production of lavas in later times ? This question has not yet been fully answered.