Skjálfandafljót

Goðafoss

The mouth of the Skjálfandafljót

The river Skjálfandafljót is located in the north of Iceland and has a length of about 178 km.

Name

The name means trembling stream, which has to do with the Bay Skjálfandi ( = the Trembling ) and the earthquake frequency of this area on the Tjörnes Fracture Zone, an active transfer zone, the rift and volcanic zone of Iceland with the northern part of the Mittelaltlantischen back the Kolbeinsey - back, connects.

Course

This is a quite important river, the fourth longest in Iceland.

It rises on the northwestern edge of the Vatnajökull glacier in the Icelandic highlands. He also takes headwaters of the Tungnafellsjökull ( location ) on 64.7025-17.769166666667 associated high-temperature area at Vonarskarð (position ) 64.640833333333-17.527777777778. Then it flows approximately parallel to Sprengisandur Highland Road north to Bárðardalur and finally flows into the Skjálfandi Bay.

On the way the river cascades over numerous waterfalls, the most famous of which represent Aldeyjarfoss and Goðafoss.

In the lower reaches shortly before it flows into the Bay Skjálfandi between the mountain range Köldukinn on the peninsula and the valley Flateyjarskagi Aðaldalur is an island called Þingey in the river. After this the whole district Þingeyjarsýsla is named.

History

The first settlers of the area was in accordance with the land acquisition book Bárður Heyjangurs - Bjarnarson, nicknamed the Gnupa - Bárður. He is said to have drawn his ship coming from the sea up the river.

After this the settlers Bárðardalur and the volcano Bárðarbunga were named.

Flora and Fauna

In 2009 Flora and fauna along the upper reaches of the river were separately investigated for possibly planned construction of two hydroelectric power plants. It turned out that a majority of the area is without vegetation and desert-like, but there are also some moorland and overgrown with bushes, shrubs and small trees and mosses areas.

Particularly striking proved the bird life, breed here but numerous pink-footed geese, golden plover, Alpine beach runners, harlequin ducks and hawks.