Okjökull (, Ok glacier) was 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 ...

in western

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 ...

on top of 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. Ok is located north-east of

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

. The glacier was declared dead in 2014 by glaciologist

Oddur Sigurðsson Oddur Sigurðsson (born 28 April 1959) is an Icelandic sprinter. He competed in the 400 metres at the 1980 Summer Olympics and the 1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and commonly know ...

due to its loss of thickness. Ice crystals in glaciers collapse under their own weight to form solid ice capable of movement due to central gravitational pressure only when the ice is around forty to fifty metres thick. By 2017 its thickness no longer met this criterion and was less than the 2015 area of which in turn was much less than its size at the start of the twentieth century.

Commemorative plaque

In 2018, anthropologists Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer of

Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...

filmed a documentary about its loss, ''Not Ok'', and proposed a commemorative plaque. The plaque was installed on August 18, 2019, with an inscription written by

Andri Snær Magnason Andri Snær Magnason (born 14 July 1973) is an Icelandic writer. He has written novels, poetry, plays, short stories, and essays. Andri is also a director and producer of three documentary films that have premiered in IDFA and CPH:DOX. His ...

, titled "A letter to the future", in Icelandic and English. The English version reads:

Ok is the first Icelandic glacier to lose its status as a glacier. In the next 200 years all our glaciers are expected to follow the same path. This monument is to acknowledge that we know what is happening and what needs to be done. Only you know if we did it.

At the end is the global

atmospheric carbon dioxide In Earth's atmosphere, carbon dioxide is a trace gas that plays an integral part in the greenhouse effect, carbon cycle, photosynthesis and oceanic carbon cycle. It is one of three main greenhouse gases in the atmosphere of Earth. The concen ...

reading for that month: 415 ppm. The ceremony was attended by

Katrín Jakobsdóttir Katrín Jakobsdóttir (; born 1 February 1976) is an Icelandic former politician who served as the prime minister of Iceland from December 2017 to April 2024 and was a member of the Althing for the Reykjavík North constituency from 2007 to 202 ...

, the Prime Minister of Iceland;

Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson Guðmundur Ingi Guðbrandsson (born 28 March 1977) is a former member of parliament (Althing, Alþingi) in Iceland. He served as Minister of Social Affairs (Iceland), Minister of Social Affairs and the Labour Market, and concurrently as Minister ...

, the Environment Minister; and

Mary Robinson Mary Therese Winifred Robinson (; ; born 21 May 1944) is an Irish politician who served as the president of Ireland from December 1990 to September 1997. She was the country's first female president. Robinson had previously served as a senato ...

, the former President of Ireland. The placement of the plaque is intended to raise awareness of the decline of Iceland's glaciers due to

global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...

. Prior to the ceremony,

NASA Earth Observatory NASA Earth Observatory is an online publishing outlet for NASA which was created in 1999. It is the principal source of satellite imagery and other scientific information about the climate and the environment which are being provided by NASA for ...

tweeted images of Okjökull in 1986 and 2019. The Okjökull memorial plaque can be found at the coordinates, N 64°35.498' W 020°52.253' at an elevation of .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Okjokull Glaciers of Iceland Former glaciers of Europe