Tourists in Iceland have been forced to dash to higher ground to avoid large waves created by giant slabs of a glacier collapsing into freezing waters.

Key points: The tourists raced across rocky ground to escape the waves

The tourists raced across rocky ground to escape the waves The Breidamerkurjokull glacier and Jokulsarlon lagoon are popular with tourists

The Breidamerkurjokull glacier and Jokulsarlon lagoon are popular with tourists Glaciers and volcanoes are culturally significant in Iceland

About 10 people were observing the Breidamerkurjokull glacier when four large sections of it detached and plunged into the still waters below, creating a huge splash and a surge of water that travelled right towards the beach where the group was standing.

All the tourists appear to have made it to safety in time, but they had to move quickly across icy, rocky ground.

In footage of the incident, gasps of relief can be heard as the waves smash into the foreshore and the booms of the collapse roar across the previously tranquil area.

The glacier and nearby Jokulsarlon lagoon in south-east Iceland are popular with tourists.

The lagoon appeared in the mid-1930s when the Breidamerkurjokull glacier started to retreat.

Declared a nature reserve in 2017, it is now the country's deepest lake and is growing bigger every day.

Vatnajokull, Europe's largest ice cap and the source of Breidamerkurjokull, is thinning rapidly due to rising global temperatures, and it could be completely gone in 200 years, scientists say.

A lava field close to the Vatnajokull glacier shows why Icelanders call their country the Land of Fire and Ice. ( Reuters: Marco Nescher )

'We are losing five years of history every year'

Iceland is becoming greener and some of its land mass is rising as climate change gathers pace bringing economic and other consequences, according to Oddur Sigurdsson, a geologist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The loss of the glaciers is deeply personal in a country where the slow-moving rivers of ice are a cultural and social touchstone.

Many Icelanders call their nation the Land of Fire and Ice as a tribute to the glaciers and volcanoes that forged the country's stunning, otherworldly landscape.

The ice contained "a thousand years of history" about volcanoes and the climate, Mr Sigurdsson said, and encapsulated "the entire history of Icelanders".

"We expect the glaciers will completely disappear within 200 years, so we are losing five years of history every year."

"Their history is something we must retrieve before they melt."

ABC/Reuters