Unlike most other glaciers in Iceland, new measurements reveal that Drangajökull has actually grown.
Icelandic experts, in cooperation with the United States Geological Survey, have been set upon the task of chartering the glacier and came to the conclusion that the glacier has both thickened and widened. Other glaciers in Iceland, in particular in the Highlands, have been thinning.
The measuring project is a continuation of one begun in April 2005, and gauges many aspects of Iceland’s glaciers, such as thickness, breadth, movement, and internal water levels.
One possible explanation for the anomolous behavior, according to scientists on the scene, is that the West Fjörds, where the glacier is located, lies in a climatic subzone drastically different from the rest of the country. Drangajökull is Iceland’s northernmost glacier, and the West Fjörds are indeed on the periphery of the Gulf Stream air currents that are said to contribute to Iceland’s mild climate, and is Iceland’s closest point to Greenland, from which cold blasts often move southerly towards the West Fjörds.