Geology
Iceland is created by Atlantic Middle Ridge (like the Azores, Bermuda, Madeira, The Canary Islands etc.), where the North American and Eurasian Plates are moving apart, and is the largest island of the ridge because of the additional volcanism caused by the hot spot under the country.
Iceland is a geologic "hot zone" with volcanic eruptions, fissure eruptions, shield volcanoes, pillow basalts, glaciers, geothermal features, and more. This island is also home to a variety of thermophilic life, inhabiting numerous geothermal features such as hot springs, mudpots, geysers, and fumaroles. Iceland's geothermal features are driven by the nature of its geologic setting. The combination of a plate boundary and a hot spot are the features that have created Iceland. The mid-ocean ridge of the Atlantic Ocean comes ashore along the Reykjanes Peninsula, in the southwest corner of Iceland, and crosses the country in a north-northeast direction. This plate boundary is marked by a zone of volcanic and seismic activity as it slowly diverges, rougly one centimeter per year.
Geothermal activity
Iceland is very rich in hot springs and high-temperature geothermal activity. High-temperature activity is limited to volcanic median zone where there are 14 solfatara fields.
Read more
Volcanism
Iceland has a high concentration of active volcanoes. There are about 130 volcanic mountains, of which 18 have erupted since the settlement of Iceland.
Read more