Hofsjökull
Satellite image of the independent glacier Hofsjökull, Langjökull left, right Vatnajökull
Hofsjökull, Múlajökull left and right Þjórsárjökullgletscher
There are two glaciers of the name Hofsjökull in Iceland. One is a large private Glacial Shield exactly in the geographic center of the country, the second is a former tributary glaciers of Vatnajökull.
- 5.1 Photos and Videos
- 5.2 Scientific contributions
- 5.3 Sports on Hofsjökull
The icecap Hofsjökull
The third largest glacier of Iceland is located in the west of the Icelandic highlands.
925 km ² of its area, at the highest point it measures 1765 m. However, it has been noticed a strong retreat also with him, similar to the other large glaciers of Iceland.
Name
Its name comes from the possession Hof í Vesturdal in Skagafjordur.
In southern Iceland, however, he was called Arnarfellsjökull after upstream in southeastern mountain Arnarfell HID Mikla.
Shape
He is circular shaped roughly and its highest point it falls fairly evenly in all directions. The only exception are the spiers and walls of Hásteinar in the south of the summit, which consist of acid rock and tower over their surroundings about 100 m.
Glacier tongues
The famous glaciers of the ice cap Hofsjökull are clockwise as seen from Arnarfell from: Múlajökull south-east, the south Blautukvíslarjökull, Blöndujökull westwards Kvíslajökull direction west-north -west and Þjórsárjökull the east.
The deepest glaciated stop is under the glacier tongue Múlajökull at 470 meters and is approximately 130 m lower than the surrounding land.
Upstream mountains
Besides the already mentioned Árnafell more mountains lie before the Glacial Shield: Álftabrekkur in the northwest, and Miklafell Klakkur in the east, and Hjartafell Ólafsfell in the south and Blágnípa in the West.
Glacial rivers
In the icecap Hofsjökull some big glacial rivers have their origin: Blanda, Þjórsá, Jökulfall, Austari - Jökulsá above Vestari - Jökulsá.
Volcanism under the icecap Hofsjökull
The glacier is situated on an east-west aligned volcanic zone, the eastern volcanic and rift zone in Iceland with the Western ( Reykjanes - Langjökull ) connects.
West under the glacier there is a caldera, whose existence was not known until 1983. It is 6-7 km wide, its area is 30-40 square km and it nevertheless reaches a depth of up to 650 m and can be easily identified on satellite imagery. At times, you could measure series of small earthquakes that indicate magma movements. However, we know nothing about the time of origin of the caldera or the last eruptions from the volcano.
The associated volcanic system is up to 90 km long and 30-35 km wide measures.
In the southwest is a shield volcano.
Traces of some smaller Lavaausbrüche could be detected on the slopes of the glacier volcano. You are younger than 10,000 but more than 1,000 years. The crater itself are now under the ice sheet, the lava coming out from under it.
Geologists expect the volcanic system of Kerlingarfjöll sometimes to that of Hofsjökull.
Upland slopes
The glacier can be seen from the sprengisandur slope of that passes between it and the Vatnajökull.
The highland road Kjölur leads between him and the Langjökull through.
The small independent Hofsjökull glacier in eastern Iceland
In eastern Iceland, between the easternmost glacier tongue of Vatnajökull ( Axajökull ) and the Þrándarjökull, at 64 ° 37 '0 " N, 15 ° 3' 0" W64.616666666667 - 15:05, there is a small glacier (area about 4 km ²), of also bears the name Hofsjökull.