Þórisjökull or Thórisjökull (, Icelandic for "Thóris's glacier") is a small

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 ...

and

volcano A volcano is commonly defined as a vent or fissure in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most oft ...

in western-central

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 ...

, to the southwest of

Langjökull Langjökull (, Icelandic for "long glacier") is the second largest ice cap in Iceland (), after Vatnajökull. It is situated in the west of the Icelandic interior or Highlands of Iceland and can be seen clearly from Haukadalur. It covers the ...

glacier. It has an elevation of . Kaldidalur lies in the foreground.

Position

þórisjökull is situated between Langjökull glacier and the

shield volcano A shield volcano is a type of volcano named for its low profile, resembling a shield lying on the ground. It is formed by the eruption of highly fluid (low viscosity) lava, which travels farther and forms thinner flows than the more viscous lava ...

Ok to its east. The "Cold valley" (translation of Kaldidalur) is lying between them with its famous highland road of the same name.

The volcano

The glacier volcano Þórisjökull is a

tuya A tuya is a flat-topped, steep-sided volcano formed when lava erupts through a thick glacier or ice sheet. They are rare worldwide, being confined to regions which were covered by glaciers and had active volcanism during the same period. As lava ...

from the

Ice Age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

(in Iceland from 100,000 years ago til about 10,000 years ago). Its mountain part consists mainly of

hyaloclastite Hyaloclastite is a volcanoclastic accumulation or breccia consisting of glass (from the Greek ''hyalus'') fragments (clasts) formed by quench fragmentation of lava flow surfaces during submarine or subglacial extrusion. It occurs as thin marg ...

s. The glacier was part of Langjökull glacier probably til the end of the 18th century. Some geological research was made again on the Þórisjökull and

Prestahnúkur The peak Prestahnúkur () with a height of , is in the Western Volcanic Zone to the west of the Highlands of Iceland to the west of Langjökull glacier, or to be more specific, to the west of Geitlandsjökull glacier, a part of the Langjökull ...

area in 2009 and it shows clearly active volcanic fissures under the glacier which are part of the Prestahnúkur volcanic system (see weblink, Icelandic Meteorological Institute).

The name

The name comes from the name of the troll ''Þórir'' (from

Grettis Saga ''Grettis saga Ásmundarsonar'' (modern , reconstructed ), also known as ''Grettla'', ''Grettir's Saga'' or ''The Saga of Grettir the Strong'', is one of the Icelanders' sagas. It details the life of Grettir Ásmundarson, a bellicose Icelandic ou ...

) which is said to have been lived in a cave nearby.

Mountaineering

It is possible to hike up on the glacier from the highest point of Kaldidalur-Road near the big cairn ''Beinakerlingin'' in a height of .

References

External links

Icelandic Meteorological Institute, Prestahnúkur, Nov. 2009, Icelandic with english summaryGeomorphology from Space - NASA (Goddard Space Flight Center)
Þórisjökull Þórisjökull Þórisjökull Þórisjökull Þórisjökull Borgarbyggð Þórisjökull {{Iceland-glacier-stub