Issues and Images - Iceland Review

Q&A
Q: What constitutes a farm in Iceland?
Ron Arnason
Waianae, Hawaii, USA
A: According to Ólafur R. Dýrmundsson, National Adviser on Organic
Farming and Land Use at the Farmers Association of Iceland,
legal farms, or lögbýli, are registered specifically with agricultural
authorities and their owners enjoy certain rights.
Usually, a lögbýli consists of a piece of land (which can vary considerably
in size), buildings, some sort of agriculture, and human
inhabitants. However, there are examples of abandoned farms
defined as lögbýli, which may have held that status from ancient
times.
Q: How much of Iceland is covered by lava?
Linda De L’Etoile
Hollywood, Florida, USA
A: Kristján Jónasson, Project Manager of Geology and Curator of
Mineralogy and Petrology at the Icelandic Institute of Natural History,
stated that postglacial lava covers 11.4 percent of Iceland.
This is based on the geological map of Iceland 1:600,000 published
by the Icelandic Institute of Natural History. It includes all
lava that has formed after the Ice Age, or within the last 11,000
years or so. Lava that has formed in historic time (the last 1,100
years) covers 2.5 percent of Iceland.
Older bedrock in Iceland is largely made up of layers of lavaflows,
so you could argue that most of Iceland is built up of lava.
However, these have been heavily eroded by glaciers during the
Ice Age, so they are generally not included.
Q: Could you introduce some of the major
music festivals in Iceland?
Jacey
Shijiazhuang, China
(currently in Singapore)
A: On the website icelandicmusic.is you can find an extensive
listing of annual music festivals and music-related festivals of all
genres in Iceland.
These include: Dark Music Days, a contemporary music festival
in Reykjavík in January; the Reykjavík Blues Festival in March; the
free festival Aldrei fór ég suður in Ísafjörður at Easter; Við Djúpið, a
classical music festival, also in Ísafjörður, in June; a choral music
festival at Lake Mývatn in June; Eistnaflug, a heavy metal festival
in Neskaupstaður in July; Bræðslan, an all-round music festival in
Borgarfjörður eystri in July; the Verslunarmannahelgi long weekend
in August with outdoor festivals across the country; Skálholt
Summer Concerts at the south Iceland bishopric in August; the
Reykjavík Jazz Festival in August; and, the grand finale, Iceland
Airwaves in Reykjavík in October.
4 I&I