Skaftafellsjökull Melting By About 50 To 100 Metres Per Year

The iconic Icelandic glacier is continuining its rapid retreat, and shows no sign of slowing, as a series of annually taken photographs depicts starkly.

Guðmundur Ögmundsson, who has been monitoring Skaftafellsjökull for the past eight years now, added two new photos to his ongoing annual photo survey. The results are striking:

In all, Skaftafellsjökull has retreated by 850 metres since 1995, and at the current rate, is retreating by anywhere from 50 to 100 metres each year.

Skaftafellsjökull is not alone, either. As the Grapevine has reported extensively, all of Iceland’s glaciers are in fact retreating at alarming rates. The sheer weight of the ice means not only increased flooding; it can also mean increased volcanic and seismic activity, and directly affects the shape of the coastline.

Guðfinna Aðalgeirsdóttir from the Faculty of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland told the Grapevine last year that we can expect even higher volumes of melting ice in the years to come.