Eyjafjörður (, ''

Island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island ...

Fjord'') is one of the longest

fjord In physical geography, a fjord or fiord () is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Alaska, Antarctica, British Columbia, Chile, Denmark, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Ice ...

s in

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 ...

. It is located in the central north of the country. Situated by the fjord is the country's fourth most populous

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

Akureyri Akureyri (, locally ) is a town in northern Iceland. It is Iceland's fifth-largest municipality, after Reykjavík, Hafnarfjörður, Reykjanesbær and Kópavogur, and the largest town outside Iceland's more populated southwest corner. Nicknamed ...

Physical geography

The fjord is long and narrow and measures 60 km from its head to its mouth. Its greatest width is 15 km between Ólafsfjörður and Gjögurtá at the fjord's mouth, but for the greater part of its length it is mostly 5–10 km wide. The fjord is surrounded by hills and mountains on both sides; the mountains are taller on the west side, in the mountain range of the

Tröllaskagi Tröllaskagi () is a peninsula in northern Iceland on the Greenland Sea, between the fjords of Eyjafjörður and Skagafjörður. The peninsula is mountainous, with several peaks reaching over 1,000 meters above sea level, the tallest being Kerli ...

peninsula. In the outer part of the fjord there are no lowlands along the coast as the steep hills roll directly into the sea. Further south in the fjord there are strips of lowland along both coasts; these are wider on the west side. Several valleys lead from Eyjafjörður: most of them to the west, where the two most significant are

Hörgárdalur Hörgárdalur () is a valley in north Iceland, the valley of the river Hörgá. It is long and extends southwest from Eyjafjörður, which it meets inland. It is now part of the municipality of Hörgársveit. The valley is wide and fertile at ...

and

Svarfaðardalur Svarfaðardalur (, " Svörfuður's valley") is a large valley in central north Iceland. It is a part of the Dalvíkurbyggð municipality. The Svarfaðardalsá River flows down the valley, having its mouth near to the town of Dalvík Dalvík ( ...

. Dalsmynni is the only valley on the east side. However the largest valley in the area is Eyjafjarðardalur, which runs directly south from the fjord itself. It is about 50 km long, and is home to one of Iceland's largest agricultural regions. Several rivers flow into Eyjafjörður: the most significant are Eyjafjarðará and Hörgá (whose valleys are named above), and Fnjóská (which flows into the fjord via Dalsmynni). The island of

Hrísey Hrísey () is a small island off the north coast of Iceland, situated approximately north of Akureyri, in Eyjafjörður, at . Since 2004, the island has been a part of the municipality of Akureyri, having previously been a municipality in its ...

in the middle of Eyjafjörður is the second largest island off the coast of Iceland and often referred to as "The Pearl of Eyjafjörður". Eyjafjörður contains a number of

hydrothermal vents A hydrothermal vent is a fissure on the seabed from which geothermally heated water discharges. They are commonly found near volcanically active places, areas where tectonic plates are moving apart at mid-ocean ridges, ocean basins, and hotspot ...

in shallow (20 to 65 metres) water, with cones rising up to 20 metres below the water surface.Nature
hydrothermal vents map
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Settlements

The largest town by far is

; other settlements in the region are:

Dalvík Dalvík () is the main village of the Icelandic municipality of Dalvíkurbyggð. Its population is approximately 1,400.

(the only other settlement with over 1000 inhabitants),

Ólafsfjörður Ólafsfjörður () is a town in the northeast of Iceland located at the mouth of the fjord Eyjafjörður. The town is connected to Dalvík on Eyjafjörður by the 3.5 km one-lane Múli tunnel (the '' Múlagöng'') and to Siglufjörður by t ...

, Árskógssandur,

Hauganes Hauganes () is a village located in Eyjafjörður in northern Iceland. Hauganes has about 137 inhabitants. The place name Hauganes means "mound peninsula". Fishing is an important industry to the village. Salted fish is produced there, the factor ...

Hjalteyri Hjalteyri () is a tiny fishing village in northern Iceland in the Norðurland eystra region. Hjalteyri has 43 inhabitants and was the largest settlement in the former municipality of Arnarneshreppur before it merged to become part of Hörgársv ...

Hrafnagil Hrafnagil (; also known as Hrafnagilshverfi and formerly Reykárhverfi ) is a small village in Eyjafjarðarsveit, northern Iceland, which in 2016 had 260 inhabitants. In the village is a school and a community center. In the area, geothermal ...

Svalbarðseyri Svalbarðseyri () is a small village in the Svalbarðsstrandarhreppur municipality, northern Iceland, which in January 2011 had 245 inhabitants. It is located on the east coast of Eyjafjörður Eyjafjörður (, ''Island Fjord'') is one of t ...

and Grenivík. Most of these settlements base their livelihood on fisheries and agriculture, but Akureyri is also a service center and the site of a growing

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

References

External links

Fjords of Iceland North Iceland Counties of Iceland {{iceland-fjord-stub

Physical geography

Settlements

See also

References

External links