Science Institute, University of Iceland

The University of Iceland is a state university with 5000 students in 9 departments: law, medicine, dentistry, theology, philosophy, social sciences, engineering, natural sciences, and economics. The Department of Natural Sciences encompasses the subjects physics, mathematics, computer science, chemistry, biology and geology, and has 800 students. B.S. and M.S. degrees are offered in these subjects. Yearly number of physics students (including geophysics) is 5-10. The Science Institute is a research institute of the Department of Natural Sciences, but with a separate budget. It has divisions of mathematics, physics, geophysics, geology, chemistry, and computer science. Most of its funds come from the government budget, but a substantial part comes from grants and contracts. The Geophysics Division has a staff of 14: 2 professors, 4 senior research scientists, 3 research scientists, 3 technicians and 2 research assistants. Main research areas are seismology, crustal movements, glaciology, paleomagnetism, geomagnetism, mass spectrometry, and geothermal research. The division runs a geomagnetic observatory (Leirvogur), 20 seismographs throughout the country, and a mass spectrometer. The Geophysics Division has conducted research on seismicity and crustal movements for almost 30 years. Studies of the South Iceland seismic zone go back to 1974, with emphasis on seismicity, crustal deformation, radon precursors and mapping of recent earthquake faults.