The Kúðafljót () is a river in the south of

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 one of the largest

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 ...

rivers in the country.

Name

The ''

Landnámabók (, "Book of Settlements"), often shortened to , is a medieval Icelandic written work which describes in considerable detail the settlement () of Iceland by the Norse in the 9th and 10th centuries CE. is divided into five parts and ov ...

'' reports that the name is from the ship of Vilbald, one of the first settlers in Skaftátunga. The name of the ships was ''Kúði''.

Location and tributaries

It flows east of the

Mýrdalsjökull Mýrdalsjökull (pronounced , Icelandic for "(the) mire dale glacier" or "(the) mire valley glacier") is an ice cap on the top of the Katla volcano in the south of Iceland. It is to the north of the town of Vík í Mýrdal and to the east of ...

through the ''Skaftátunga'' district and 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 ...

through the

Mýrdalssandur Mýrdalssandur () is an outwash plain on the south coast of Iceland. Location and description The outwash plain is located between the rivers of Kúðafljót in the east and Múlakvísl in the west. Both rivers carry water from the Mýrdalsjö ...

from numerous tributaries, the most important of which are Hólmsá, Tungufljót and Eldvatn. An arm of the

Skaftá The Skaftá () is a river in South Iceland. It is primarily glacial in origin and has had its course modified by volcanic activity; as a result of both, it often floods because of glacial melting. Course The river's primary source is two subglac ...

also flows into the Kúðafljót.cf.

Water quantity

The mean water volume is 230 m³/s. The lowest measured value was 110 m³/s and the maximum measured value 2000 m³/s. The Kúðafljót is one of the rivers whose water level may indicate volcanic activity of Katla under the Mýrdalsjökull. Therefore, it is monitored closely. The

Icelandic Meteorological Office Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO; ) is Iceland's national weather service and as such a government agency under the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. It is also active in volcano monitoring, esp. volcano seismology, and, toget ...

monitors the Hólmsá, Eldvatn and Skálm tributaries. Eruptions of Katla cause

jökulhlaup A jökulhlaup ( ) (literally "glacial run") is a type of glacial outburst flood. It is an Icelandic term that has been adopted in glaciological terminology in many languages. It originally referred to the well-known subglacial outburst floo ...

s of the Kúðafljót.

Transport connection

In former times, horses were pulled across the river in shallow places. A real ford did not exist, so travellers needed local leaders and risked their lives again and again. However, it was always regarded as quite dangerous, with deep and drifting

quicksand Quicksand (also known as sinking sand) is a colloid consisting of fine granular material (such as sand, silt or clay) and water. It forms in saturated loose sand when the sand is suddenly agitated. When water in the sand cannot escape, it crea ...

. Today the Icelandic Ring Road crosses it at a narrower place on a bridge. The Kúðafljót was a navigable

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 ...

in the Middle Ages. There are also reports of a trading station on an island in this fjord. It was obviously buried by the sediments of the Katla jökulhlaups.

Ship cemetery south coast

Numerous French fishing boats were found in the 19th century on Icelandic coasts. They had their main base in

Fáskrúðsfjörður Fáskrúðsfjörður (; previously named also Búðir ) is a village (''þorp'') in eastern Iceland. It has a population of 735 (as of 2024) and constitutes one of the villages composing the municipality of Fjarðabyggð. Geography Fáskrúðsf ...

. Between 1850 and 1914, there were up to 5,000 men from

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

during the seasons, so that at the end of the nineteenth century, the French government had also sent some of the hospital ships to support them. The first of these, the ''Saint-Paul'', was stranded at the mouth of the Kúðafljót on 4 April 1899. The crew members were rescued, but the contents of the ship had to be auctioned to the delight of the local population. The cheap purchase of food and 900 bottles of wine were particularly valued. The southeast coast of Iceland was notorious until the 1950s as a regular ship cemetery.

References

External links

{{Authority control Rivers of Iceland Drainage basins of the Atlantic Ocean Southern Region (Iceland)