Skeiðará

The river on the Sandur named after him

The Skeiðará is a relatively short glacier river (about 30 km long), which rose from the eponymous glacier Skeiðarárjökull in southern Iceland. This is within the Vatnajökull National Park.

Most important data

The river rises in the volcanic and glacial lakes Grímsvötn has measured from the glacier of the Skeiðarárjökull to, one named after him glacier of Vatnajökull, a length of 30 km.

The average amount of water is 200 m³ / s, in the winter, this can be reduced to only 10 m³ / s.

Nevertheless, it is one of the mightiest rivers of the country, which can swell to a volume of effluent - as far as measured so far - can exceed 20 % of that of the Amazon.

Glacier runs

The Skeiðará was and is the venue of a phenomenon that is called in Iceland glacier run.

By volcanic activity below a glacier, in the case of the Grímsvötn central volcano, which is located under the large glacier shield of Vatnajökull, thaw immense amounts of ice during an outbreak in a very short time.

This break through the ice barrier in front of him, when in the subglacial lakes enough water has accumulated. The ice floats on the water and often a huge tidal wave that consists of a mixture of water, ice and sediments, pours into the valley. The last major glacial overflow from the neighboring Grímsvötn the Gjálp streamed in 1996 on the alluvial plain of black Skeiðarásandurs and damaged severely the ring road.

Monuments of this flood are still on the sands. A film documenting the process and should be seen in Skaftafell National Park Centre.

2004 was the last such event took place. However, it did not reach the proportions of its predecessor by far.

At the beginning of November 2010 signs of a certain glacier run on the Sandur could be detected. On the night of November 1, a small iceberg damaged a power line pretty strong, so ausfiel.Gleichzeitig in Kirkjubæjarklaustur the power an earthquake shook the mountain Grímsfjall, which is part of the Grímsvötn caldera.

It turned out subsequently that this is apparently the sign of the imminent eruption of Grímsvötn in May 2011 were.

Skeiðarársandur

Due to the numerous glacier runs the Skeiðará has destroyed fertile land and a sander, the Skeiðarársandur formed. It is a crisscrossed by streams, rivers and creeks black sand plain, across which the ring road between Kirkjubæjarklaustur and Skaftafell to about 35 km.

The Grimsvotn volcano is one of the best monitored volcanoes in the country. Predictions of a flood can be taken with a long lead time, because the volcano is situated about 50 km from Sander and the gap is not very large.