Mýrdalsjökull

Aerial view of Mýrdalsjökull from the north in July 2009

Myrdalsjökull seen from the south

Solheimajökull, an outlet glaciers of the Mýrdalsjökull

Mýrdalsjökull is a plateau glacier in southern Iceland. It has an area of 596 km ², the fourth largest glacier in Iceland .. It covers approximately 100 km ² caldera of the volcano Katla.

Name

Mýrdalsjökull means glaciers of the marshy valley '. This term is used not only for the actual glaciers, but also for the mountain range as a whole, similar to other Icelandic glaciers such as the Eyjafjallajökull. In contrast to this but the underlying volcano has its own name, namely Katla.

The position and shape

Mýrdalsjökull, the southernmost glacier in Iceland, is located north of Skógar and Vik í Mýrdal and south of the Torfajökull. Between the Mýrdalsjökull and the western glaciers Eyjafjallajökull and Tindfjallajökull lies the valley Goðaland, which is often attributed to the Þórsmörk. Southeast of the Mýrdalsjökull extends the outwash plain Mýrdalssandur.

The central part of the glacier forms a plateau at an altitude of about 1300 m, surrounded by the higher margins with the highest elevations in the Goðabunga ( 1505 m) and Háabunga ( 1497 m ) and the Nunatakkern Austmannsbunga ( 1377 m ) and Kötlukollar (1320 m ). These include the 100 km wide caldera of Katla hides. On the south and west side flow from there steep outlet glaciers descend to altitudes between 100 and 800 meters. Wider outlet glaciers flowing eastwards down to about 200 to 400 meters. The northern flank is covered by a large glacier tongue extends down to about 600 meters. The outlet glaciers Sléttjökull and Entujökull located in the northwest, the Króssárjökull and Tungnakvíslajökull in the west and Sólheimajökull in the southwest. The main outlet glaciers in the east is the Kotlujokull.

The located under the glacier, circular caldera has a diameter of 700 meters height of 20 kilometers, at the base, there are 30 to 35 kilometers. The reason of the caldera lies at an altitude of about 650 meters, about 700 meters below the rim. The rim of the caldera is oval, the long axis measures 14 km and runs from southeast to northwest, the short is 8 km long.

Volcano Katla

( See main article: Katla )

Under the broad shield of the volcano Katla Mýrdalsjökull hides with a crater diameter of about 10 kilometers, the depth of the caldera is about 500 to 700 m. The resulting in a large explosive eruption about 10,000 years ago Caldera is entirely filled with glacial ice.

In volcanic eruptions of Katla thaw depending on the intensity of the eruption more or less large parts of the glacier and tidal waves pour out as so-called glacier passes over the upstream levels, especially on the Mýrdalssandur.

Glacial rivers

The glacier fed several rivers. This is in addition to some tributaries of the larger rivers Markarfljót Krossá, Jökulsá Sólheimasandi, Múlakvísl and Hólmsá.

They are, in terms of water quantity, chemical composition and electrical conductivity, constantly monitored in order to get a picture of the processes in the volcano under the glacier can.

Traffic

Before removing the ring road crossing of the glacier towards the sea upstream Sander was very unpopular, as always one of the glacier runs ( Isl Jökulhlaup ) could tear the traveler with it. The crossing of the criss-crossed by rivers plane could take many days.

Meanwhile, the crossing of the Mýrdalssandur of Vik í Mýrdal takes after Kirkjubæjarklaustur on well-built asphalt road for about 1 hour.