finally, Iceland surfaces with an honest account of the genesis of much of what appears on the island as an exotic landscape. well actually it is a BBC expose by a reporter who happens to be married to an Icelander. severe deforestation, followed by the primary surface vegetation, grass, being totally eaten by sheep, who kill grass when overgrazing by eating the roots. followed by the normal strong winds, and there goes the 3 – 10 meters of rich volcanic topsoil, straight into the Atlantic. you are left with a hard cobble surface with partly eroded stones of varying size. occasionally you can see the process as it is happening — mesas sitting some meters above the hard pan surface, mesas made of topsoil, capped by thick shaggy green expanses of grass. all the land was once up there, covered with grass and trees. (more images)