IL-04, SÓLHEIMAJÖKULL, ICELAND
Time Period: March 27, 2007–February 23, 2009
Narration by: James Balog
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| Sólheimajökull (the name means “sun house glacier” in Icelandic) is disappearing very rapidly, but different dynamics are at work here than in the tidewater glaciers in Alaska and Greenland. An inland glacier, Sólheimajökull doesn’t shed volume by pushing icebergs into the ocean. It’s receding because of the forces of melting and erosion. Melting deflates the glacier upvalley and creates streams like the one you see in the foreground, which eat away at the sides of the glacier. These streams also roll underneath the glacier where the heat of the water melts the ice from below. The meltwater collects in the lake you can see repeatedly forming and draining in front of the glacier. |
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