Taken on January 5, 2017

Location: Between Skafatfell National Park and Svinafellsjökull. The view is over Skaftafellsjökull glacier tongue and we are about a kilometer from the ice.

According to our Geologist, photo-guide Owen Hunt,

“The moraine is relatively recent (post Ice Age, less than 8,000 years old) and has been modified by meltwater rivers which have flowed from the snout of the glacier. There are many kettle holes and kettle hole lakes in the area formed when blocks of ice break from the glacier snout, get covered in moraine and slowly melt. This leaves a kettle hole and if it fills with water it becomes a kettle hole lake.

This area was probably under ice maybe 600-800 years ago or maybe longer but not that long ago geologically.

The kettle hole blocks of ice broke off from the snout of the glacier and may have been moved by water or they could have been dead ice that had become detached from the glacier snout and then buried.

The glaciers in this area stretched much further from the mountains and were much thicker than they are today. They were more likely to be blocks broken from the glacier or dead ice. These were then covered in more deposits which were probably brought down by meltwater streams from the retreating ice.”