{"id":81211,"date":"2020-01-18T16:30:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T16:30:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icelandaurora.com\/phototours\/?p=81211"},"modified":"2023-11-21T14:00:29","modified_gmt":"2023-11-21T14:00:29","slug":"vatnjokull","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icelandaurora.com\/archive-phototours\/vatnjokull\/","title":{"rendered":"Vatnj\u00f6kull Glacier – East Iceland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Vatnjokull Glacier dominates the landscape in southeast Iceland.\u00a0 In translation, Vatnj\u00f6kull means \u201cLake Glacier\u201d.\u00a0 Vatnjokull Glacier is not only the biggest glacier in Iceland, but it is Europe\u2019s largest piece of ice and is more than 300 square miles and almost a mile thick in places.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
On my travels around Iceland over many years, I saw Vatnjokull from the north, south, east, and west but was nowhere near seeing the whole thing.\u00a0 I once flew over the glacier, but that was only a small section of a vast area.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vatnj\u00f6kull is home to some of Europe\u2019s biggest volcanoes. \u00d6r\u00e6fi is the second largest volcano in Europe. Bardabunga is the third largest and is also covered by the Vatnjokull Glacier. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The massive glacier is also the home of the highest mountain peak in Iceland called \u2018Hvannadalshjukur\u2019. This mountain is over 2000 meters and takes a full day hike to get to the top and back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Vatnj\u00f6kull Glacier has many outlet glaciers (or glacier tongues) that can be accessed for activities such as hiking, climbing or photography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Iceland\u2019s glaciers are huge rivers of ice that cut deep grooves into the landscape. During ice ages, the whole of Iceland would have been under glaciers. The glaciers forged the fjords. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The weight of the glacier affects the height of the land with the colossal weight of ice. Recent melting and shrinking of Vatnj\u00f6kull has caused the town of H\u00f6fn in East Iceland to rise a few feet. This has caused issues in the harbour for small fishing boats who can\u2019t reach the jetty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the mountains surrounding Vatnj\u00f6kull glacier, you will also notice how the horizontal striation lines are not horizontal but slant downwards towards the glacier. Those line were perfectly horizontal when the mountains were created. This proves that glaciers can move mountains (like \u2018Faith\u2019 and \u2018Earthquakes\u2019).<\/p>\n\n\n\n