Eyjafjörður (, ''

Island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

Fjord'') is one of the longest

fjord In physical geography, a fjord (also spelled fiord in New Zealand English; ) is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier. Fjords exist on the coasts of Antarctica, the Arctic, and surrounding landmasses of the n ...

s in

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 ...

. 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 municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

Akureyri Akureyri (, ) is a town in northern Iceland, the country's fifth most populous Municipalities of Iceland, municipality (under the official name of Akureyrarbær , 'town of Akureyri') and the largest outside the Capital Region (Iceland), Capital R ...

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 between 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 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 and Svarfaðardalur. 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 the Eyjafjarðará, Hörgá (whose valleys are named above), and Fnjóská (which flows into the fjord via Dalsmynni). The island of Hrísey 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 in shallow (20 to 65 metres) water, namely the Strýtan vent field, with cones rising up to 20 metres below the water surface. As they are not visible on the surface, when the Icelandic Coast Guard did not detect the vent chimneys, they declared the vents non-existent in 1987. In 1997 divers Erlendur Bogason and Árni Halldósson and German research

submersible A submersible is an underwater vehicle which needs to be transported and supported by a larger ship, watercraft or dock, platform. This distinguishes submersibles from submarines, which are self-supporting and capable of prolonged independent ope ...

HOV ''JAGO'' separately explored them and identified them as a real geologic feature. The vent field was designated as an Icelandic protected preserve in 2001.

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 1,000 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 the ...

, Hrísey, Árskógssandur, Hauganes,

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 Hörgársve ...

, Hrafnagil, Svalbarðseyri 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 educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

References

External links

Eyjafjörður Northeastern Region (Iceland) Counties of Iceland {{iceland-fjord-stub

Physical geography

Settlements

See also

References

External links