Þjórsá () is

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

's longest

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

at 230 kilometers (about 143 miles). It is in the south of the island. Þjórsá is a

glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its Ablation#Glaciology, ablation over many years, often Century, centuries. It acquires dis ...

river and has its source on the glacier

Hofsjökull __NOTOC__ Hofsjökull ( Icelandic: "temple glacier", ) is the third largest ice cap in Iceland after Vatnajökull and Langjökull and the largest active volcano in the country. It is situated in the west of the Highlands of Iceland and north o ...

. It flows out through narrow gorges in the

highlands of Iceland The Highlands of Iceland ( is, hálendið ) are a sparsely inhabited plateau that covers most of the interior of Iceland. They are situated above 400–500 metres (1300–1600 feet) and are mostly an uninhabitable volcanic desert, because the wa ...

. Further downstream, another river, the

Tungnaá The Tungnaá () is a river in the southern Highlands of Iceland. It flows from the western edge of Vatnajökull to the reservoir Sultartangalón, where it joins the Þjórsá. The river has been used extensively for hydroelectricity, with power ...

, flows into it (see also

Háifoss Háifoss () is a waterfall situated near the volcano Hekla in southern Iceland. The waterfall Granni is next to it. The river ''Fossá'', a tributary of Þjórsá, drops here from a height of 122 m. This is the fourth highest waterfall of the isla ...

), before it enters the lowlands. There it passes the valley of Þjórsárdalur (Thjorsardalur) where the historical farm of Stöng is located. In the lowlands it flows along the eastern border of the Great

Þjórsá Lava The Great Þjórsá Lava ( Icelandic: ''Þjórsárhraunið mikla'' ) is the largest lava flow in Iceland (by both area and volume) and the largest lava that is known to have erupted in a single eruption in the Holocene. It belongs to a group of lav ...

. In the middle of the now rather wide river, there is a big island called ''Árnes'', where there used to be a '' Þing''. The administrative unit of Árnessýsla was named after it. The ''

hringvegur Route 1 or the Ring Road ( or ) is a national road in Iceland that circles the entire country. As a major trunk route, it is considered to be the most important piece of transport infrastructure in Iceland as it connects the majority of towns ...

'' (Road No.1) traverses the river via a bridge between Selfoss and

Hella ''Hella'' is an American slang term that originated in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is used as an intensifying adverb such as in "hella bad" or "hella good" and was eventually added to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' in 2002. It is possibl ...

. Some kilometers to the southwest the river flows into the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

. 'Á' signifies river while 'þjór' means bull and is cognate to Danish - tyr, Swedish - tjur and Latin - taurus. According to the '' Book of Settlement'', the river was named after the bovine prow statue of one of the first settlement ships.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Thjorsa Ramsar sites in Iceland Rivers of Iceland Southern Region (Iceland)

See also

References

External links