The landscape in Vatnajökull National Park is characterised by diversity and contrasts, and the geological variety that can be found there is unique on a global level. The National Park has steep mountains, flat glacial plains, and everything in between. The contrasts in the landscape are not the least apparent in its colourful nature, and each area in the National Park has its identifying colours. These colours appear in varied shades and shapes that distinguish one area from another, there are black sands, grey rocks, brown glacial rivers, green moss and forests, red volcanic slag and clay from hot springs, colourful rhyolite, white glacier and blue sky.

The landscape of the National Park is shaped by the synergy between volcanoes and glaciers. It bears witness to lava flows, geothermal activity, hyaloclastite ridges and table mountains, terminal moraines, ice dammed lakes and glacial plains, with the ice sheet looming above. At the south part of Vatnajökull there are coastal areas and open sea.

The landscape in the National Park can be roughly divided into a number of main categories. Beyond the glacier itself there is a plateau on which stand separate mountains, many of which bear the marks of having been eroded by the glacier. The northernmost and southernmost areas have flood plains, and there are heathlands to the southwest and northeast. The area west and north of the glacier is dominated by hyaloclastite ridges, whereas to the north there are canyons and hills.

In addition to these rough forms, the more detailed features of the landscape are carved out by volcanic activity, erosion and the material carried along with glaciers and glacial waters, and also by geothermal activity. The diverse environment results in ecosystems characterised by a wide variety of plants and birdlife.

To the north of Vatnajökull there are scorched wilderness areas with many kinds of volcanoes, hyaloclastite formations, lava fields, black glacial sands and pumice plains. The very deep Öskjuvatn is one of the most picturesque mountain lakes. To the north of the glacier there are also multiple signs of the effects of the great floods from Jökulsá á Fjöllum, from Kverkfjöll to the south to Jökulsárgljúfur and the delta of Jökulsá í Öxarfirði to the north.

Vatnajökull is at the centre of Vatnajökull National Park and covers about one twelfth of the total area of Iceland. The glacier has an area of about 7,700 km² and in most places it is about 400–600 m thick, with a maximum thickness of 950 m. To the west, north and east it extends into the plateau at an altitude of 700-900 m, and to the south parts of it reach down to lowland areas. In front of the glacier there are sands that bear witness to the erosive power of the glacier and the material carried forth by the glacial rivers. The largest creeping glaciers are Síðujökull, Tungnaárjökull and Köldukvíslarjökull to the west, Dyngjujökull and Brúarjökull to the north, and Breiðamerkurjökull and Skeiðarárjökull to the south.

Jökulsárgljúfur has many contrasting features: scrub and floral vegetation, blue springs and the dark, turbid waters of Jökulsá in rugged canyons in the background. The area has a unique series of waterfalls: Hafragilsfoss, Dettifoss and Selfoss.

On the east side of Vatnajökull the fast-moving glaciers Brúarjökull and Eyjabakkajökull are creeping along. As the glaciers have advanced, large mounds have been displaced from the moraine and soil.

On the fringes of the glacier in the southeastern part of the country there are rhyolite slides and plutonic rock intrusions and also various features shaped by the glacier: end-moraines, ice dammed lakes, glacial ridges, kettle holes and eskers.

Kverkfjöll are mountains where glacial ice, geothermal heat and varied formations of volcanic origin come together. To the north of them stands Krepputunga, a young volcanic area that in most places is covered by formations created by lava flowing after the end of the ice age.

The verdant and tall birch forests in the hills and dales stand opposite the black glacial sands and the white glacier in many places in the National Park. The forest Bæjarstaðarskógur at Skaftafell has birch trees with a white trunk that grow straight and tall unlike the birch in most other places in the country.

The landscape to the west of the glacier is characterised by wilderness areas devoid of vegetation, hyaloclastite ridges that were formed below the ice age glacier, long volcanic fissures dating from recent times, and also lava formations covered with moss of the species Racomitrium lanuginosum.

The hyaloclastite ridges Grænifjallgarður, Tungnaárfjöll and Fögrufjöll define the area around Langisjór, the largest lake in the National Park. Lakagígar, a 25 km long crater row that was formed in the Skaftá eruptions in 1783– 1784, and the eastern part of Eldgjá, which erupted in 934–938, are within the National Park and so is the uppermost part of the lava formations left by the Skaftá eruptions. To the southeast of Fögrufjöll, the Skaftá river flows through outwash plains and into Skaftáreldahraun and Fögrufjöll during outburst floods.

Mossy areas, lakes and glacier outburst floods

By Vatnajökull there is the central volcano Tungnafellsjökull, with its multi-coloured rhyolite formations and high temperature area, and Vonarskarð has a colourful geothermal area and is the site of the water divide between the north and south of Iceland.

The lava field of Ódáðahraun has Herðubreiðarlindir and to the south of those there are Hvannalindir, which are two oases lush with vegetation surrounded by wilderness. In many places around the glacier it is also possible to find clear spring water that flows from under the lava formations or the sand.

History & culture of Vatnajökull National Park

Landscape

Landscape

Fire-scorched wilderness

Vatnajökull

Canyons & waterfalls

The glacier shapes the land

Plutonic rock

Fire & Ice

Birch forests

Wilderness

Mossy areas, lakes and glacier outburst floods

Tungnafellsjökull

Verdant oases and springs

History & culture of Vatnajökull National Park

History & culture

Wilderness

Vatnajökull ice cap

The unique nature of the National Park

Geology

Biome