James Stewart

And many are a combination of both, slipping in and out of activity over centuries.

So depending on the geological criteria used to define active, the number sits somewhere between 28 and 33.

And thanks to lying on such a rare tectonic sweet spot, Iceland produces almost every major style of volcanic behaviour on the planet.

From flood basalts that spread lava in vast sheets, gently built shield volcanoes, ground-splitting fissure eruptions, explosive composite volcanoes, sticky rhyolite domes and even huge ash flow calderas.

Nowhere else puts this entire volcanic toolkit on display quite like Iceland.

In fact, the country's image as a land of fire has become central to its identity and its economy.

But it also hides a hard geographic reality.

For all its beauty, the interior of the country is a vast, high, freezing desert.

Often compared to the surface of the moon, its harsh conditions leave it largely uninhabited.

Instead, nearly everyone lives around the coast, especially the southwest corner.

The Gulf Stream keeps this part of the country relatively balmy.

Winter temperatures rarely drop below minus five degrees Celsius, leaving harbors ice-free year-round.

Combine that with rich cod stock season, why wouldn't you want to stay here?

Over time, small settlements grew into towns and cities, pulling in even more people.

I really can't state enough that this area is the nerve centre of the nation.

80% of the population lives within an hour's drive of Reykjavik.

Icelanders have cleverly leveraged the country's geological activity here to their advantage too.

Over 85% of homes are heated by geothermal water, underpinning Iceland's position as a green energy leader.

High-temperature geothermal fields where hot water and steam circulate above shallow magma bodies are tapped by boreholes.

Housing, swimming pools and even pavements are warmed by the earth itself.