In Iceland, Glacier Ice Keeps Washing Ashore

Jökulsárlón is a glacial lagoon in southern Iceland, sitting at the head of Breiðamerkurjökull, an outlet glacier of the Vatnajökull ice cap. The glacier came down as far as the coast and reached its greatest extent around 1890, then started to pull back; the lagoon opened in its wake in the 1930s and keeps growing, by about half a square kilometre a year. 12

Icebergs calve off the glacier, drift down the lagoon and out into the Atlantic, and the waves push the smaller pieces back onto the black sand at Breiðamerkursandur — the beach the national park calls Fellsfjara and everyone else calls Diamond Beach. 3 The ice cap took its present shape a thousand to fifteen hundred years ago, which makes the ice landing on that sand older than the shore under it. 4

Visual credits: drone footage of the lagoon from Pixabay (videos 47614 and 47615) 56; ice at the water's edge and waves among the ice from Pexels 78.