# What if Iceland were destroyed? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 20, 2010, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-iceland-were-destroyed/536732 "2010-04-20T11:51:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-iceland-were-destroyed/536732/1 "2010-04-20T11:51:06Z")
What happens to a nation’s assets and debts when that nation is destroyed? Suppose volcanic eruptions kick off big time in Iceland, killing lots of people and rendering the land uninhabitable. Does financial responsibility rest in the expatriates? ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-iceland-were-destroyed/536732/2 "2010-04-20T12:29:46Z")
I guess they’d be hoping to fast track their [membership of the EU](http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/feb/24/iceland-eu-membership-application) so the rest of us can bale them out/take in their citizens ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-iceland-were-destroyed/536732/3 "2010-04-20T12:40:36Z")
Not in any real sense. “Iceland” as a country has ceased to exist and even if a group of expats came together and voted themselves the government-in-permanent-exile their personal assets would not be eligible for use in repaying the country’s debts, even if any debtors were crazy enough to try to claim them. I don’t know what Iceland has in the way of offshore state-owned assets but I wouldn’t think it was much. I agree that the EU would likely fast-track them for humanitarian reasons to allow the expats a place to go to, or else (less likely) their former Danish overlords could reclaim ownership in return for covering any debts and absorbing the survivors. It’s not such a crazy question, by the way. Although the odds of Iceland exploding are exceedingly slim, the Seychelles continue to worry about the effects of rising sea levels which could, in theory, cause the entire island chain to vanish under the sea. ---
**Author:** ![Rune](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e68b1a/32.png) [@Rune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rune)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-iceland-were-destroyed/536732/4 "2010-04-20T12:42:45Z")
Denmark almost evacuated the whole population of Iceland during the Middle Ages. People that move to another country and become citizens there are no longer obliged to anything of their former nation. Including debt. ---
**Author:** ![carm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c2a13f/32.png) [@carm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carm)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-iceland-were-destroyed/536732/5 "2010-04-20T13:54:52Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > Denmark almost evacuated the whole population of Iceland during the Middle Ages. Surely not? [To evacuate](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5d82ndui_s) ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-iceland-were-destroyed/536732/6 "2010-04-20T17:24:03Z")
Two-thirds of the population of [Montserrat](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montserrat) fled a volcanic eruption, but that island was a British possession, and those former residents were later granted UK citizenship. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-iceland-were-destroyed/536732/7 "2010-04-20T17:53:49Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > Denmark almost evacuated the whole population of Iceland during the Middle Ages. People that move to another country and become citizens there are no longer obliged to anything of their former nation. Including debt. Depending on what you mean by “of their former nation”, you might be completely wrong here. If you mean personal debts they incurred to private or public creditors in their former nation, then no, it’s absurd that you can absolve yourself of debt simply by moving and taking up citizenship somewhere else. If you mean any ongoing legal obligation to pay public debts, such as taxes, then you’re still wrong in some cases; the US, for example, is notorious in imposing income tax on expatriates, even if they’ve acquired citizenship of another country, and even if they attempt to renounce their citizenship. As a hypothetical matter, one’s legal obligations are whatever the law says they are, and legislators are free to add or change laws at any time. If the Republic of Iceland ceases to exist and some of its citizens take up residence in, say, Greater Banunistan, then the government of Greater Banunistan is free to pass a law saying that all former citizens of Iceland resident within its borders are legally obligated to pay the government €5000 each in reparations for the former Republic’s debt to the country. I’m not sure if any country has ever done such a thing, but it wouldn’t surprise me. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-iceland-were-destroyed/536732/8 "2010-04-20T20:56:31Z")
If a country’s territory is completely destroyed or submerged, does the country keep existing in the legal sense? Is the government allowed to continue operating, and do the citizens keep their citizenship? ---
**Author:** ![ataraxy22](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ataraxy22/32/307_2.png) [@ataraxy22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ataraxy22)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-iceland-were-destroyed/536732/9 "2010-04-22T05:19:46Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > It’s not such a crazy question, by the way. Although the odds of Iceland exploding are exceedingly slim, the Seychelles continue to worry about the effects of rising sea levels which could, in theory, cause the entire island chain to vanish under the sea. The Seychelles are mountainous. You are probably thinking of The Maldives! ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2010, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-iceland-were-destroyed/536732/10 "2010-04-22T09:58:55Z")
[Seychelles](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/20/AR2009112002973.html), [Maldives](http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,341669,00.html) - same difference. They’re both going under if the seas rise. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-iceland-were-destroyed/536732/11 "2010-04-24T01:24:37Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > [Seychelles](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/20/AR2009112002973.html), [Maldives](http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,341669,00.html) - same difference. They’re both going under if the seas rise. Don’t forget the Pacific Island nations are in just a great danger: [Kiribati](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiribati) and [Tuvalu](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuvalu) in particular worry ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2010, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-if-iceland-were-destroyed/536732/12 "2010-04-24T17:25:49Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > [Seychelles](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/20/AR2009112002973.html), [Maldives](http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,341669,00.html) - same difference. They’re both going under if the seas rise. No, the Maldives are the flattest country on earth (maximum altitude 2.4 metres) because they’re coral islands (like Tuvalu). The most populated islands of the Seychelles are granitic, not coral, and reach a maximum elevation of 914 metres. Of course the Seychelles would be affected by a sea level rise, but nowhere near to the same extent as the Maldives.