Home»Iceland_2015»Iceland- Glaciers

Glaciers or Icecaps cover about 11% of Iceland's surface, and Iceland has some of Europe's largest glaciers. Its largest is Vatnajökull in the southeast which covers about 8% of Iceland. Vatnajökull has many subsidiary glaciers radiating from it. Beneath Vatnajökull lie several active and dormant volcanoes, including Grimsvotn and Bardarbunga, both responsible for recent eruptions, in 1996 and 2014-2015, respectively. Such eruptions can often result in catastrophic floods known as jökulhlaups, where volcanic heat rapidly melts large volumes of glacial ice. The last major jökulhlaup occurred in 1996 and breached Route 1 (Ring-road) where it crosses the vast Skei∂ararsandur outwash plain south of Vatnajökull. "Sandur" is the name given to glacial outwash plains found all over Iceland. Skei∂ararsandur is by far the largest example of its kind in Iceland.