THE SVINAFELL LAYERS 



PLANT-BEARTNG INTERGLACIAL SEDIMENTS IN 



OR^FI, SOUTHEAST ICELAND 



SiGURDUR ThORARINSSON 



Museum of Natural History, Reykjavik, Iceland 



In early June 1957 a young farmer, Helgi Bjornsson, found a small fragment 

 of petrified wood in the scree of Snidagil, a ravine on the western side of 

 Svinafellsfjall in the Or^efi district, southeast Iceland (see Fig. 1 and PI. I). 

 H. Bjornsson is the youngest of the "Kvisker brothers" who live at the farm 

 Kvisker and are renowned as keen observers of nature and very interested in 

 various branches of natural science. One of these brothers, Sigurdur Bjorns- 

 son, visited Snidagil shortly after his brother had found the petrified wood and 

 discovered at the same place some fragmental leaf impressions. These he 

 sent to the present writer, who went to Oriefi a little later, studied for some 

 days the geology and stratigraphy of the plant-bearing deposits and organized 

 more thoroughly the collecting of leaf impressions; this was carried out mainly 

 by Sigurdur Bjornsson who has found all the most important species hitherto 

 collected there. In July 1958 the author continued his stratigraphical studies 

 of Svinafellsfjall with special regard to the remanent magnetism of the rocks. 

 He was accompanied by a young Icelandic geologist, Thorleifur Einarsson, 

 who collected samples from the plant-bearing layers mainly for pollen- 

 analytical and other microscopical studies which he, however, has not yet 

 found time to finish. 



The paper here submitted is a short presentation of what is currently known 

 about the Svinafell layers. The author expresses his sincere thanks to his 

 collaborators, S. Bjornsson and Th. Einarsson, for their valuable help. He is 

 also indebted to Dr. Svend Th. Andersen (Geological Survey of Denmark) 

 who has determined many of the leaf impressions collected, and to Mr. 

 Tryggvi Sami'ielsson, Reykjavik, who has photographed them. 



THE GEOGRAPHICAL SITUATION 



The plant-bearing layers here given the name "Svinafell layers" form a 

 part of the mountain Svinafellsfjall (older name Svinafell) in the district 

 Oraefi, southeast Iceland. Svinafellsfjall (Fig. 2) is a mountain bordering on 

 the OraefajokuU massif and forms the forward section of the ridge that juts 



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