Mike Purdy, Director of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, presents President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson of Iceland with a drawing of the mid-ocean ridge system, the largest geological structure on Earth, discovered by researchers at Lamont. Photo: Doug Brusa

Grímsson met with members of the National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs, who were at Lamont-Doherty for a daylong workshop. Visiting Scientist Páll Einarsson, of the University of Iceland, gave a remarkable presentation outling the numerous research projects that Lamont-Doherty has had and is currently undertaking in Iceland, the first having occurred in 1955. The list is impressive and includes monitoring of sea levels, recording micro-earthquakes along Iceland's plate boundaries, measuring volcano tectonic activity, profiling the seafloor between Iceland and the Faeroe Islands, and long-term cooperation in chemical oceanography research.