Volcanoes under ice
An eruption beneath the glacier melts it suddenly and releases a vast flood.
Justraveling.com — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Giles Laurent — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Giles Laurent — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Holger Uwe Schmitt — CC BY-SA 4.0
The largest national park in western Europe, covering around fourteen per cent of Iceland's entire surface, centred on the Vatnajökull glacier that gives it its name. The ice cap itself is Europe's largest glacier by volume, exceeding a thousand metres thick in places. Beneath it lie active volcanoes, and that combination is what makes the area geologically exceptional: when a volcano erupts under the ice, the ice melts suddenly and releases an enormous flood known by its Icelandic name, jökulhlaup. These floods have reshaped the southern plains repeatedly and swept away bridges within recent decades. The park is too vast to visit as a single unit. It has several entrances hundreds of kilometres apart: Skaftafell in the south, the most visited; Jökulsárlón on the coast; Ásbyrgi in the north; and Askja in the interior. Decisive practical points: entry to the park is free though some car parks charge. Walking on the ice requires a guide and equipment — do not go onto the glacier alone however solid it looks, because the crevasses are snow-covered and invisible. Interior roads open only in summer and need a four-wheel drive.
An eruption beneath the glacier melts it suddenly and releases a vast flood.
Such floods have swept away bridges and reshaped plains in recent decades.
Skaftafell, Jökulsárlón, Ásbyrgi, Askja — it cannot be visited as one.
South-east and central Iceland
It depends on your route. On the south road: Skaftafell for day walks and the Svartifoss waterfall, and Jökulsárlón for the iceberg lagoon and the black beach beside it. In the north: Ásbyrgi and the Dettifoss waterfall. In the interior: Askja and its volcanic caldera, needing a four-wheel drive and a summer road. Do not attempt north and south in one day.
Only with a certified guide and equipment, on tours available commercially from Skaftafell and Sólheimajökull. Going onto the ice alone is lethally dangerous: crevasses are covered by a thin snow layer that looks solid, and visitors have fallen into them. The glacier edge also calves without warning — never stand under an ice wall or on a floating iceberg.
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