Question: Why does Iceland have so many volcanoes ?

This is my favorite question so far Teodora! 🙂

Iceland is a really amazing place… The country is in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and underneath it is where two continental plates meet (the American plate and the Eurasian plate) and every year they are pulling apart about as much as the size of your fingernail. As the plates move apart, the gap they leave behind needs to be filled up. There are 32 different volcanic systems in Iceland and they all form on the surface above where the crack is between the two plates. Rather than one huge crack with lava coming out everywhere, the lava finds the best ways to get to the surface and slowly builds up into volcanoes. But new volcanoes are being built all the time so in fifty years there might be loads more than just 32!