Genesis

:10:30

Surtsey survives.

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Today,
this small volcanic island

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so recently created from
the fire of Earth's interior

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has earned a place
on the maps of the Earth.

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Like Surtsey,
all of lceland was created

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in fiery volcanic emergence

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for here, the colossal
mid-Atlantic eidge has surfaced

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to form the greatest
volcanic island on Earth.

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Upon this extraordinary land
of ice and fire

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of glaciers stained
with the ashes

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of a thousand eruptions

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we can view the exposed features
of seafloor spreading...

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the newest crust of Earth.

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Oceans of congealed lava.

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Towering shield volcanoes,
such as Hekla

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the greatest, most effusive
of lceland's volcanoes.

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Lakagiar, a long alignment
of more than 1 00 volcanic cones

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marking a major fissure
atop the mid-Atlantic ridge.

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The island of Heimaey,
where an eruption in 1 973

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Threatened to bury
the town of Vestmannaeyjar.

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And the stretch marks
of creation-

:11:56

great cracks in the Earth
left by spreading plates.