Þjórsá () is

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 ...

's longest

river A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside Subterranean river, caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of ...

at . It is in the south of the island. Þjórsá is a

glacier 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 ...

river and has its source on the glacier

Hofsjökull __NOTOC__ Hofsjökull (Icelandic language, Icelandic: "temple glacier", ) is the third largest ice cap in Iceland after Vatnajökull and Langjökull and covers the largest active central volcano in the country, which has the same name. It is si ...

. It flows out through narrow gorges in the highlands of Iceland. Further downstream, another river, the Tungnaá, flows into it (see also Háifoss), 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. 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 Iceland was historically divided into 23 County, counties known as ''sýslur'' (), and 23 independent towns known as ''kaupstaðir'' (). Iceland is now split up between 24 sýslumaður, sýslumenn (magistrates) that are the highest authority ov ...

was named after it. The '' hringvegur'' (Road No. 1) traverses the river via a bridge between Selfoss and Hella. Some distance to the southwest the river flows into the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the ...

. '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