It consists of volcanic deposits. In the pictures, there are humans in the foreground of a scarp that appears to be at least 90–100 meters in height. Far more than sea level rise in the last few years.

Actually, at first I thought it might be beach peas, the seeds of which survive for months in salt water, enabling the plant to spread to beaches all over the world, but the flowers are all wrong for any of those, apparently.

Morning glories have thin, heart-shaped leaves. These leaves are oval and thick, succulent-like. The trumpet part of the bloom is too long, too. Morning Glory blossoms are more flattened, more like plates than trumpets. I also wonder what these glorious flowers are!

Back when I was taking geology in the early 1970s the Surtsey formation was still big news. They were not sure if Surtsey would last but it seems as though it has and scientists are still monitoring the island that was formed with the volcanic eruption. There is even a website with a lot of photos, from formation to colonization of the island and lists of reports on the island: http://www.surtsey.is/index_eng.htm

I still remember it, called The Little Island, it was the simple story of a volcano in the ocean followed by erosion making soil, birds dropping seeds and debris washing up, until there is a picture of a big log floating towards shore with a couple of animals on it. Kind of doubt that last part.

Probably the reason I remember this is that, when I told my parents about it, they couldn’t stop laughing because I thought the word in the title was pronounced like two words - “is land,” which made perfect sense.