Search Results (6)

The Sverdrup Basin, Arctic Canada, is ideally situated to contain an archive of tectono-magmatic and climatic events that occurred within the wider Arctic region, including the exhumation of the adjacent (northeastern) part of the Canadian-Greenlandic Shield. To test this, a multi-analytical provenance study of Middle Jurassic to Cretaceous sandstones from the eastern Sverdrup Basin was undertaken. Most of the samples analysed were recycled from sedimentary rocks of the Franklinian Basin, with possible additional contributions from the Mesoproterozoic Bylot basins and metasedimentary shield rocks. The amount of high-grade metamorphic detritus in samples from central Ellesmere Island increased from Middle Jurassic times. This is interpreted to reflect exhumation of the area to the southeast/east of the Sverdrup Basin. Exhumation may have its origins in Middle Jurassic extension and uplift along the northwest Sverdrup Basin margin. Rift-flank uplift along the Canadian–West Greenland conjugate margin and lithospheric doming linked with the proximity of the Iceland hotspot and/or the emplacement of the Cretaceous High Arctic Large Igneous Province may have contributed to exhumation subsequently. The southeast-to-northwest thickening of Jurassic to Early Cretaceous strata across the Sverdrup Basin may be a distal effect of exhumation rather than rifting in the Sverdrup or Amerasia basins. Full article

Enabling gender equality through the empowerment of women to fully participate in modern society is one of the most critical steps toward sustainable development. However, recent UN reports indicate that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have jeopardized the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 5 by 2030 in many countries worldwide, including Iceland, which has consistently been ranked as a global leader in gender equality. The main objective of this qualitative study is to examine the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic by exploring women’s lived experiences during the crisis and its aftermath across the primary domains of gender equality—personal and social. The study is based on 72 in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted in the Northeastern Region of Iceland (Norðurland eystra) in 2022–2023, utilizing both strength-based and deficit analyses. The findings from the study indicate that, despite high government gender equality standards and support programs, as well as the considerable resilience demonstrated by women during the pandemic crisis, women in Iceland continue to encounter significant constraints to empowerment in achieving genuine gender equality within the personal and social domains. The study outcomes suggest that the further integration of a gender-responsive approach into policy development is crucial for the implementation of more comprehensive, nuanced, and locally adaptive gender equality measures. Advancing such policies will not only strengthen Iceland’s position as a global leader in gender equality but also contribute to its long-term social sustainability. Full article

Enabling gender equality by empowering women to fully engage in modern society is fundamental for building resilient and sustainable communities. While Iceland is recognized as a global leader in gender equality, the experiences of various immigrant groups can differ considerably, especially during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic and recovery. Given the rapid increase in the immigrant population in Iceland, it is crucial to gain a deeper understanding of the processes surrounding immigrant women’s integration strategies, with an emphasis on gender equality through the lens of intersectionality. The main objective of this qualitative study is to explore the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on female immigrants by examining how intersecting identities—including gender, ethnicity, religion, motherhood, and immigration status—shape their integration experiences in Iceland. Focusing on small, remote urban and rural communities in the Northeastern Region of Iceland (Norðurland eystra), this study draws on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with immigrant women conducted in 2022 and 2023, using both strength-based and deficit analyses. The study reveals key constraints and strengths in the integration of immigrant women, examined through the lens of underlying and pandemic-driven factors influencing immigrant women’s experiences in personal and social domains of integration. The findings indicate that, despite government gender equality standards and support programs, as well as the considerable resilience demonstrated by immigrant women during the pandemic, they continue to encounter significant barriers to achieving full integration. The findings suggest that acknowledging immigrant women as important constituents in policy development is a crucial step toward formulating and implementing more comprehensive, gender-responsive, and locally adaptive decentralized integration policies. Such policies are vital for securing Iceland’s long-term social sustainability and reinforcing its stature as a global leader in gender equality. Full article

Along the Arctic and sub-Arctic coasts of Alaska, Siberia, north-eastern China, Hokkaido, Scandinavia and Iceland, people have dressed in clothes or worn shoes made of fish skin for millennia. (Within this article, the terms fish skin and fish leather are used to indicate different processes of the same material. Fish skin: Skin indicates the superficial dermis of an animal. Fish skin is referred to as the historical raw material that is tanned following traditional methods such as mechanical, oiling and smoking tanning, using materials such as bark, brain, urine, fish eggs and corn flour. Fish leather is used to refer that the fish skin has passed one or more stages of industrial vegetable or chrome tanning production and is ready to be used to produce leather goods). These items are often decorated with a rich colour palette of natural dyes provided by nature. In this study, minerals and raw materials of plant origin were collected from riverbanks and processed by Arctic seamstresses who operated as designers, biochemists, zoologists, and climatologists simultaneously. During our research, an international team of fashion, tanning and education specialists used local Arctic and sub-Arctic flora from Sweden, Iceland, and Japan to dye fish leather. Several plants were gathered and sampled on a small scale to test the process and determine the colours they generated based on the historical literature and verbal advice from local experts. This paper describes the process and illustrates the historical use of natural dyes by the Arctic groups originally involved in this craft, building on the traditional cultural heritage that has enabled us to develop sustainable dyeing processes. The results are promising and confirm the applicability of these local plants for dyeing fish skins, providing a basis for a range of natural dye colours from local Arctic flora. The aim is to develop a moderate-sized industrial production of fish leather in this colour palette to replace current unsustainable chemical dyeing processes. This project represents an innovation in material design driven by traditional technologies, addressing changes in interactions between humans and with our environment. The results indicate that new materials, processes, and techniques are often the fruitful marriage of fashion and historical research of traditional methods, helping the industry move towards a more sustainable future. Full article

Extreme weather events such as storms, heavy snow accumulation, rapid snowmelt, and heavy rain have been closely related to slope instability in arctic and subarctic regions. In this paper, we investigate the historical activity of slope processes such as snow avalanches and debris flows in Þistilfjörður, northeastern Iceland, and examine their possible role in the occupation and abandonment of three archaeological sites located on slopes of Mt. Flautafell. The study combines geomorphological and stratigraphical surveys with historical records, notably Jarðabók Árna Magnússonar og Páls Vídalíns and Sýslu og sóknarlýsingar Bókmenntafélagsins Svalbarðssókn. Geomorphological surveys show numerous features that are indicative of active slope movement processes in and around the investigated sites. Our results suggest that the slopes experienced periods of instability during the occupation of these sites. The burial or destruction of some parts of the homefield at the Flautafell farm reveals slope activity, which may also be related, at least indirectly, to the abandonment of the farm at Norður Hús sometime before A.D. 1300. Nearby auxiliary farm installations of Stekkur remained untouched by slope processes even though they are situated in a vulnerable area. Further study and dating of slope processes and farm occupation could allow them to be used as proxies for deteriorating environmental conditions affecting the region. Full article

There is now considerable evidence that in Europe, babesiosis is an emerging infectious disease, with some of the causative species spreading as a consequence of the increasing range of their tick vector hosts. In this review, we summarize both the historic records and recent findings on the occurrence and incidence of babesiosis in 20 European countries located in southeastern Europe (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia), central Europe (Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Luxembourg, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Switzerland), and northern and northeastern Europe (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Iceland, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and Norway), identified in humans and selected species of domesticated animals (cats, dogs, horses, and cattle). Recorded cases of human babesiosis are still rare, but their number is expected to rise in the coming years. This is because of the widespread and longer seasonal activity of Ixodes ricinus as a result of climate change and because of the more extensive use of better molecular diagnostic methods. Bovine babesiosis has a re-emerging potential because of the likely loss of herd immunity, while canine babesiosis is rapidly expanding in central and northeastern Europe, its occurrence correlating with the rapid, successful expansion of the ornate dog tick (Dermacentor reticulatus) populations in Europe. Taken together, our analysis of the available reports shows clear evidence of an increasing annual incidence of babesiosis across Europe in both humans and animals that is changing in line with similar increases in the incidence of other tick-borne diseases. This situation is of major concern, and we recommend more extensive and frequent, standardized monitoring using a “One Health” approach. Full article