Skeiðarársandur () is an Icelandic glacial

outwash plain An outwash plain, also called a sandur (plural: ''sandurs''), sandr or sandar, is a plain formed of glaciofluvial deposits due to meltwater outwash at the glacier terminus, terminus of a glacier. As it flows, the glacier grinds the underlying r ...

, a vast expanse of sand generated by the transport of debris by the

Skeiðará Skeiðará () is a relatively short glacier river (about 30 km long). It has its source on the glacier Skeiðarárjökull, one of the southern arms of the Vatnajökull in the south of Iceland. In spite of its short length, this river has a ...

and other rivers, whose flow is generated by the Skeiðarárjökull glacier and fed by the volcanic systems of

Grímsvötn Grímsvötn (; ''vötn'' = "waters", singular: ) is an active volcano with a (partially subglacial) fissure system located in Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland. The central volcano is completely subglacial and located under the northwestern side ...

and

Öræfajökull Öræfajökull (; 'Öræfi glacier' or 'wasteland glacier') is an ice-covered volcano in south-east Iceland. The largest active volcano and the highest peak in Iceland at , it lies within the Vatnajökull National Park and is covered by part of ...

. The coastline of the Sandur is 56 km long (from Hvalsík to Hnappavallaós). From Skeiðarárjökull—the valley glacier of Vatnajökull—to the sea is 20 to 30 km. The Skeiðará was the most important obstacle in the construction of Iceland's

Route 1 The following highways are numbered 1. For roads numbered A1, see list of A1 roads. For roads numbered B1, see list of B1 roads. For roads numbered M1, see List of M1 roads. For roads numbered N1, see list of N1 roads. For roads numbered S ...

. It was not until 1974 that it could be completely closed by a 904 m long bridge. This is currently the longest bridge in Iceland. It was temporarily destroyed by water masses and blocks of ice during the last major glacial outburst flood in 1996, triggered by an eruption of the Grímsvötn volcano, but was immediately restored. The outwash plain originated primarily as alluvial land, i.e. as an accumulation of sediments from the rivers. The sediments deposited here in the

Holocene The Holocene () is the current geologic time scale, geological epoch, beginning approximately 11,700 years ago. It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene to ...

alone range from 100 to 200 km³. However, volcanic eruptions of the volcanic systems of Grímsvötn and Öræfajökull have added to these sediment deposits. The sediments are carried during glacial floods with the glacier water, which thaws during volcanic eruptions, but also through ash deposits. The outwash plain does not consist entirely of modern sediments. For example, there is also a cliff. In addition, through seismological experiments geologists discovered a 100–150 m deep valley in the bedrock below the modern sediment layers, which was probably milled out by glacial rivers of the Ice Age. Over the last 10,000 years, the outwash plain has grown at a speed of about 1 km³/century. On 19 September 1667, the Dutch merchant vessel '' Het Wapen van Amsterdam'' stranded in Skeiðarársandur. Commonly known as Gullskipið (English: ''The Goldship'') in Iceland due to beliefs that it was carrying a large amount of gold and diamonds, several expeditions have been made to find the wreckage to no avail.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skeidararsandur Southern Region (Iceland) Outwash plains

See also

References