Breiðamerkursandur (, ) is a

glacial A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

outwash plain An outwash plain, also called a sandur (plural: ''sandurs''), sandr or sandar, is a plain formed of glaciofluvial deposits due to meltwater outwash at the glacier terminus, terminus of a glacier. As it flows, the glacier grinds the underlying r ...

in southeast

Iceland Iceland is a Nordic countries, Nordic island country between the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between North America and Europe. It is culturally and politically linked with Europe and is the regi ...

. The area is mostly sand, although some vegetation is beginning to grow in the area. Breiðamerkursandur is located in the municipality of Hornafjörður. It was formed by the glaciers

Breiðamerkurjökull Breiðamerkurjökull (, ) is an outlet glacier of the larger glacier of Vatnajökull and a piedmont glacier in the southern part of Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland. Emerging as a tongue of the Vatnajökull, it ends in two lagoons, famous J ...

, Fjallsjökull and Hrútárjökull during the last few centuries. As the climate cooled during the little ice age, the glaciers advanced down and out to the lowlands, piling gravel ahead. The glaciers are sources of muddy rivers who commonly change their channels frequently and carry the sediment that the weight of the glacier grinds down and across a large area. The pro glacial lake

Jökulsárlón Jökulsárlón (; translates to "glacial river lagoon") is a large glacial lake in southern part of Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland. Situated at the head of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, it developed into a lake after the glacier started r ...

, one of Iceland's best-known tourist attractions, is located on Breiðamerkursandur. The glaciers that formed the sandur are a part of

Vatnajökull Vatnajökull ( Icelandic pronunciation: , literally "Glacier of Lakes"; sometimes translated as Vatna Glacier in English) is the largest and most voluminous ice cap in Iceland, and the second largest in area in Europe after the Severny Island i ...

, and therefore a part of

Vatnajökull National Park Vatnajökull National Park ( ) is one of three national parks in Iceland, and is the largest one. It encompasses all of Vatnajökull glacier and extensive surrounding areas. These include the national parks previously existing at Skaftafell in th ...

. In 2017, the borders of the park were changed to include also the plain itself and the Jökulsárlón lake. Breiðamerkursandur is an important breeding ground for birds, for example

Arctic tern The Arctic tern (''Sterna paradisaea'') is a tern in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar breeding distribution covering the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of Europe (as far south as Brittany), Asia, and North America (as far south ...

and

great skua The great skua (''Stercorarius skua''), sometimes known by the name bonxie in Britain, is a large seabird in the skua family Stercorariidae. It is roughly the size of a herring gull. It mainly eats fish caught at the sea surface or taken fro ...

References

Southern Region (Iceland) {{Iceland-geo-stub