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Midlina

Midlina, the Place Where You Can Stand on Two Continents at the Same Time

Inspire

This particular fringe crosses Icelandic territory: it is the division of two tectonic plates which divide the European and American continents.

Iceland’s geologic identity belongs to an almost oneiric realm: made up of basalt and lava, settled on a range that forms and spreads the oceanic cortex and is also located on a spot naturally filled with magma. As if these ingredients weren’t enough, it has over 200 volcanoes, of which at least one of them erupts every 5 years.

Adding to the latter, Iceland is geographically found in the North Pole which leads to the presence of glaciers and, as if its overwhelming singularity was not enough, it is geologically formed upon two tectonic plates: those pertaining to Eurasia and North America. Even if we lacked photographs or visual evidence of the island, the combination of all the descriptions which surround this country allude to the phenomenon of landscapes of a surrealist nature.

Waterfalls which flow onto sculptural stones, rivers, lakes, rock valleys, magma, and aurora borealis, thermal springs, coral reefs, cliffs and an exquisite colour pallet, all constitute the beautiful spectacles which Iceland can offer us. It also however, has Midlina, a crack that crosses the island separating the two tectonic plates upon which it lies. Some parts of this fringe are wide enough for visitors to feel compelled to use a bridge to cross it, but in other geographical angles, the subtle division allows the viewer to keep a foot on Europe and the other in North America.

Midlina Midpoint

Yearly these two plates grow at least 2.5 centimetres apart, in a choreography of sorts that reminds us of the permanent mutation of the Earth. We must remember that the stage for this dynamic is an astonishing land in which the geologic and biologic formation is continuous, whose transitory essence takes us back to the constant transformation and evolution of our planet. A place that displays a powerful and magical narrative of change and self-renewal: that of life itself.

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