Between 1963 and 1967, eruptions brought Surtsey to the south of Iceland. This birth offers a rare opportunity: to follow the living beings who settle on a recent land. It is then necessary to avoid that the visitors themselves carry some of the future occupants.
Protected from its beginnings, the island is the subject of scientific observations from 1964. Seeds arrive especially with the marine currents. Researchers also track microorganisms, plants, birds, and invertebrates. UNESCO mentions a first vascular plant observed in 1965: a tiny event on a landscape scale, immense for this story.
Surtsey is not a stationary laboratory. Erosion transforms its coast and reduces its surface while life occupies it. Two stories take place simultaneously: that of arrivals and that of a land that changes. The island is not just about how a world begins. It shows that this beginning continues on a medium that is constantly changing.
What we know
Controlled access; no absolute absence of human presence.
To go to the source
References consulted on September 21, 2026. Linked pages may be in another language.
Signaler une erreur ou apporter une précision
