A Brief History of Iceland PDF Download

Author: Gunnar Karlsson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789979341390
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Author: C. Caseldine
Publisher: Elsevier
ISBN: 0080534392
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 421

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Book Description
Iceland provides an unique stage on which to study the natural environment, both past and present, and it is understanding both aspects of reconstructing the past and observing and interpreting the present that form the focus of the contributions to this volume. The papers are all written by active researchers and incorporate both reviews and new data. Although concentrating largely on the recent Quaternary timescale a wide range of topics is explored including subglacial volcanism, onshore and offshore evidence for the Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent deglaciation, current glacial characteristics including jökulhlaups and glacial landsystems, soil development, Holocene ecosystem change, current oceanography, impacts of volcanic sulphur loading, chemical weathering and the CO2 budget and documentary evidence for historical climate. The key element of the volume is that for the first time it provides a wide overview of a range of topics for which Iceland provides an almost unparalleled laboratory emphasizing the importance of research on this small island for studies over a much broader global scale. These reviews point the way to future research directions and are supplemented by extensive illustrations and a comprehensive bibliography.* Wide range of related topics covered both from a present day and quaternary perspective* Reviews from scientists active in each research area across a range of subjects providing both overviews and new data supplemented by an extensive bibliography* Extensive illustrations and examples from the field

Author: Gunnar Karlsson
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 9780816635894
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Iceland is unique among European societies in having been founded as late as the Viking Age and in having copious written and archaeological sources about its origin. Gunnar Karlsson, that country's premier historian, chronicles the age of the Sagas, consulting them to describe an era without a monarch or central authority. Equating this prosperous time with the golden age of antiquity in world history, Karlsson then marks a correspondence between the Dark Ages of Europe and Iceland's "dreary period", which started with the loss of political independence in the late thirteenth century and culminated with an epoch of poverty and humility, especially during the early Modern Age. Iceland's renaissance came about with the successful struggle for independence in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and with the industrial and technical modernization of the first half of the twentieth century. Karlsson describes the rise of nationalism as Iceland's mostly poor peasants set about breaking with Denmark, and he shows how Iceland in the twentieth century slowly caught up economically with its European neighbors.

Author: Gunnar Karlsson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 1787384535
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Iceland's 1100 Years recounts the history of a society on the margin of Europe as well as on the margin of reaching the size and wealth of a proper state. Iceland is unique among the European societies in being founded as late as the Viking Age, and in surviving for centuries without any central power after Christianity had introduced the art of writing. This was the age of the Sagas, which are not only literature but also a rare treasury of sources about a stateless society. In sharp contrast to the prosperous society portrayed by the Sagas, early modern Iceland appears to have been extremely poor and miserable. It is challenging to question whether the deterioration was due to foreign rule, to a colder climate, or to an unfortunate internal power structure. Or was the Golden Age perhaps the invention of 19th-century nationalists? Iceland adopted nationalism quickly and thoroughly. In the mid-nineteenth century about 60,000 inhabitants, mostly poor peasants, set out to gain independence from Denmark, which was finally achieved in 1944 with the foundation of a republic. In recent decades Iceland has caught up economically with its closest neighbours. This has come about mainly through the mechanisation of fishing, which gave rise to a second battle for sovereignty, this time over the country's fishing grounds.

Author: International Monetary Fund
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1451819285
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 79

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Iceland has implemented a broad-based program of financial liberalization and market reforms. Iceland's conduct of monetary and financial policies is highly transparent, which contributes in an important way to the stability and efficiency of the financial system. Both macroprudential and microprudential indicators suggest that the system may be vulnerable to a macroeconomic shock. The Icelandic financial system is vulnerable to market risk and credit risk. The government intends to use the results of the assessment to strengthen their operations and enhance improvements to the regulatory framework.

Author: International Monetary Fund. Monetary and Capital Markets Department
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 119

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The FSAP took place against the background of a strengthened financial sector in Iceland amid heightened uncertainty in the global economy. The Icelandic financial landscape has undergone significant structural transformation since the global financial crisis with a contracted banking sector. The banking sector has deleveraged swiftly and curtailed cross-border exposure since the GFC with asset reduced from ten times of GDP to 410 percent of GDP from 2007 to 2022Q3, while pension funds have gained systemic importance with assets at 176 percent of GDP2 as of end-2022 with large holdings of public debt and close ties with the banking system. The financial system has also weathered the global pandemic on the back of strong fundamentals, while leaving uneven sectoral impact across the economy. Nonetheless, the intensified fragmentation of the global economy coupled with continued tightening of financial condition and volatile market sentiment has amplified the downside risks which may prompt knock-on effects on the Icelandic economy and financial sector going forward.

Author: International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
ISBN: 1484381432
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description
This Selected Issues paper analyses the impact of a potential rebalancing of Icelandic residents’ investment portfolios as capital controls are lifted. It applies optimal portfolio theory to calculate the potential rebalancing toward foreign assets, and then makes an estimate of the cumulative impact on the balance of payments and international reserves. Conclusions for the authorities’ capital account liberalization strategy are drawn. This paper also measures the potential budgetary savings from improving the efficiency of public spending in health and education in Iceland. A Data Envelopment Analysis is used to estimate an efficiency frontier by comparing across Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries the transformation rates of public spending into valuable social outcomes.

Author: Brigitte Van Vliet-Lanoe
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119850878
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
The volcanic island of Iceland is a unique geological place due both to its position in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and its repeated glaciations. It has been an accurate recorder of geodynamic and regional climatic evolutions for at least the last 15 million years. This book studies the Quaternary magmatism associated with the deep Iceland hotspot and, in particular, its distinctive geochemical and volcanological characteristics. It also analyzes that Arctic glacierization as it relates to the opening of the North Atlantic and the appearance of today’s ocean currents. We will also investigate the Quaternary glaciation as it affected Iceland in its oceanic context, particularly on the basis of radiometric dating, looking at the formation of the Greenland and Scandinavian ice sheets and data from marine sediment. Finally, it explores the specific environmental features of the island, from the end of the last ice age to global warming today. This book brings together the internal and external geodynamics of our planet to understand how Iceland functions and its role as a recorder of the paleoclimatic evolution of the Northern Hemisphere.

Author: Brigitte Van Vliet-Lanoe
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1789450144
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 258

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Book Description
The volcanic island of Iceland is a unique geological place due both to its position in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and its repeated glaciations. It has been an accurate recorder of geodynamic and regional climatic evolutions for at least the last 15 million years. This book traces the history of Iceland, which is linked to the opening of the North Atlantic and the reactivation of the ancient suture of the Iapetus Ocean. It gives a view of climate evolution that is partly controlled by the dynamics of the ocean floor and analyzes the movement of the Jan Mayen tectonic plate and the progressive insularization of the Greenland–Faroe Ridge, which gave birth to Iceland. It also tries to understand the formation and migration of the deep Iceland hotspot and the lava flows that have, for millions of years, shaped this island. This book brings together the internal and external geodynamics of our planet to understand how Iceland functions and its role as a recorder of the paleoclimatic evolution of the Northern Hemisphere.

Author: Gudmundur Halfdanarson
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 0810872080
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
While Iceland is the second largest inhabited island in Europe, with only 313,000 inhabitants in 2007, the Icelanders form one of the smallest independent nations in the world. Around two-thirds of the population lives in the capital, Reykjavík, and its suburbs, while the rest is spread around the inhabitable area of the country. Until fairly recently the Icelandic nation was unusually homogeneous, both in cultural and religious terms; in 1981, around 98 percent of the nation was born in Iceland and 96 percent belonged to the Lutheran state church or other Lutheran religious sects. In 2007, these numbers were down to 89 and 86 percent respectively, reflecting the rapidly growing multicultural nature of Icelandic society. The A to Z of Iceland traces Iceland's history and provides a compass for the direction the country is heading. This is done through its chronology, introductory essays, appendixes, map, bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on important persons, places, events, and institutions and significant political, economic, social, and cultural aspects.