Hraunfossar

The Hraunfossar are waterfalls of the river Hvítá near the places Húsafell and Reykholt in western Iceland. They are located in the municipality of Borgarbyggð.

Name

The name derives from the fact that they seem to spring directly from the lava ( Isl hrown ).

Geography

The Hraunfossar lying north of the Ok volcano. A neighbor of the Hraunfossar is the waterfall Barnafoss.

Description

At a length of about 700 meters flowing in over a hundred small waterfalls foamy and bubbly water from the black rock of the 1,000 year-old lava field Hallmundarhraun.

The reason is a little further up the river: The Langjökull fed by glacier river called Hvitá digs its river bed along the border of the Hallmundarhraun associated lava flow Gráhraun who came there to a halt. A small tributary seeps into the porous lava and flows underground to a slightly deeper, water-impermeable layer of basalt further. Approx. one kilometers downstream the water comes in the form of numerous small waterfalls and rivulets back to the surface.

About the foaming river Hvítá in the small canyon leads a footbridge. From this one can very well overlook the Hraunfossar and Barnafoss.