Skeiðarársandur

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View over the Skeiðarársandur
Remnants of the bridge that was destroyed in 1996
Satellite image of Skeiðarársandur
The Skeiðarársandur

The Skeiðarársandur is a sander , i. H. an alluvial plain on the south coast of Iceland .

Rivers and traffic

Flow over the Sander rivers Skeiðará , Sandgígjukvísl and Núpsvötn and Sula and Blautakvísl whose water from the Skeiðarárjökull comes, amongst a number of smaller bodies of water. They belong to the overgrown rivers .

The Skeiðará was the most significant obstacle in the construction of the Icelandic ring road . Only in 1974 could this be completely closed by a 904 m long bridge . It is currently the longest bridge in Iceland. It was temporarily destroyed by water masses and ice blocks during the last great glacier run in 1996 , triggered by a volcanic eruption of the Grímsvötn , but was restored immediately afterwards.

Most important dates

The Skeiðarársandur covers an area of ​​1000 km².

The coastline of the Sander is 56 km long (from Hvalsík to Hnappavallaós). From Skeiðarárjökull, the valley glacier of Vatnajökull , to the sea it is 20–30 km.

Origin and development

The sand was primarily created as alluvial land, i.e. H. as an accumulation of sediments from the rivers mentioned. The sediments deposited here in the Holocene alone range in size from 100 to 200 km³.

However, volcanic eruptions in the volcanic systems of Grímsvötn on the one hand and Öræfajökull on the other have contributed in particular to these sediment deposits . During so-called glacier runs , the sediments were brought in with the glacier water that thawed during volcanic eruptions, but also through ash deposits.

On the other hand, the sander does not consist entirely of modern sediments. There are e.g. B. also a steep coast. In addition, through seismological investigations, geologists discovered a 100–150 m deep valley in the bedrock under the modern sediment layers, which was probably cut by glacier rivers from the Ice Age.

The sander has grown at a rate of about 1 km³ / century in the last 10,000 years.

Attractions

The Skeiðarársandur is located directly between the Skaftafell National Park and the south coast of Iceland.

In the eastern part of it is Ingólfshöfði , where Ingólfur Arnarson is said to have been the first settler to have arrived in 870 .

See also

literature

  • Hjörleifur Guttormsson, Oddur Sigurðson: Leyndardómur Vatnajökuls. Viðerni, fjöll and byggðir. Stórbrotin náttúra, eldgos og jökulhlaup. Reykjavík (Fjöll og firnindi) 1997 ISBN 9979-60-325-9

Web links

Commons : Skeiðarársandur  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Íslandshandbókin. 2. bindi. 1989, p. 678
  2. ↑ Íslandshandbókin. 2. bindi. 1989, p. 676
  3. ↑ Íslandshandbókin. 2. bindi. 1989, p. 677
  4. ↑ Seismic soundings of sediment thickness on Skeiðarársandur, SE-Iceland Magnús T. Guðmundsson, ea: Seismic soundings of Sediment Thickness on Skeiðarársandur, SE-Iceland. In: Jökull 51.Skeidsandur, 2002, abstract (PDF file) (English) Accessed: November 3, 2010
  5. ↑ cf. Íslandshandbókin, ibid., Pp. 677–8
  6. ↑ cf. Íslandshandbókin, ibid.
  7. ↑ Seismic soundings of sediment thickness on Skeiðarársandur, SE-Iceland Magnús T. Guðmundsson, ea: Seismic soundings of Sediment Thickness on Skeiðarársandur, SE-Iceland. In: Jökull 51.Skeidsandur, 2002, abstract (PDF file) (English) Accessed: November 3, 2010
  8. ↑ Magnús T. Guðmundsson, ibid.

Coordinates: 63 ° 50 ′  N , 17 ° 30 ′  W