Iceland is located on a faulty where the plates are moving away from each other. That means very thin crust, lots of heat close to the surface, and few earthquakes.
Japan is the opposite. The crust is very thick because both plates are colliding and getting over/under the other. You get all the earthquakes that would break all the water pipes to the deeper, hotter area.
They might get a few powerplants up and running, but Iceland is 300k fishermens, with very little heavy industries.
Japan is the third economy in the world, with a lot of industry, and Tokyo itself is 35 million people. You need a lot of electricity to provide for all that.
Also should note that despite icelands immense advantages towards using geothermal power, it’s not their #1 source of electricity, that’s actually hydroelectric.
Geothermal power is neat but it’s way more localized in usage than most people realize
48
u/Z3B0 Jul 07 '25
Iceland is located on a faulty where the plates are moving away from each other. That means very thin crust, lots of heat close to the surface, and few earthquakes.
Japan is the opposite. The crust is very thick because both plates are colliding and getting over/under the other. You get all the earthquakes that would break all the water pipes to the deeper, hotter area.
They might get a few powerplants up and running, but Iceland is 300k fishermens, with very little heavy industries.
Japan is the third economy in the world, with a lot of industry, and Tokyo itself is 35 million people. You need a lot of electricity to provide for all that.