Iceland glaciers

Abstract

Glaciers constitute 11% of the area of Iceland. About 20% of the total precipitation falls on the glaciers. The outlines of about 280 glaciers have been identified and mapped in the country, most of them mountain glaciers in the northern districts but the main area and volume lies in the five major ice caps. Glaciers have posed great hazards to human populations historically by advancing over inhabited districts and causing jökulhlaups (glacier outburst floods) that have inundated hundreds of square kilometers in various districts of the country. In postglacial time glaciers had their minimum about 7000 BP when they were limited to the very highest mountains. Records of advancing glaciers go back to the fourteenth century and they advanced more or less continuously to about 1890. During the last century, glaciers have lost volume and retreated accordingly particularly during the second quarter of the twentieth century and again, even faster, at the turn and the beginning of the twenty-first century. The glacial discharge has increased as a result. Rivers have gathered in fewer courses as glaciers retreated. A few small mountain glaciers have vanished entirely during the last century. The vast majority of Icelandic glaciers are expected to disappear during the next two centuries if current warming trends continue.