Fulbright Project in Iceland in the Summer of 2026

Authors

• Irina Filina, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

ORCID IDs

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4227-5059

Date of this Version

2026

Document Type

Presentation

Citation

Filena, Irina (2026). Expanded Abstracts of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting vol. 1, pp. 1–6.

The Expanded Abstracts are longer versions of abstracts submitted to the Nebraska Academy of Sciences Annual Spring Meeting. They have been approved by section chairs in the same way that the section chairs accept abstracts for presentations. They have not been peer reviewed.

Comments

The Expanded Abstracts are longer versions of abstracts submitted to the Nebraska Academy of Sciences Annual Spring Meeting. They have been approved by section chairs in the same way that the section chairs accept abstracts for presentations. They have not been peer reviewed.

Abstract

This upcoming Fulbright project is inspired by an ongoing debate in the scientific community about the tectonic origin of Iceland. A long-standing theory of Iceland’s formation by excessive magmatism at the Mid-Atlantic spreading center over the well-known hot spot (i.e., oceanic crustal affinity) was recently challenged by the alternative hypothesis that the Icelandic crust is continental in nature and is being stretched and gradually modified by magmatic processes. Based on this hypothesis, a new sunken continent, Icelandia, has been proposed. One of the foundations for the proposed Icelandia is the presence of felsic lavas (indicative of continental flavor in the magmatic source) documented in Iceland.  The upcoming Fulbright study will include both field observations of felsic lavas and numerical modeling of Icelandic crust to test two alternative tectonic scenarios. A complementary educational component of the project will involve a group of 20 US students (sponsored by the University of Nebraska) in field activities in Iceland and provide them with networking opportunities with Icelandic colleagues.