Jökulsá (Breiðamerkursandur)

Jökulsá (Icelandic pronunciation: [ˈjœːkʏlsˌauː auː ˈpreiːðaˌmɛr̥kʏrˌsantɪ]) is a river in Southeast Iceland in Austur-Skaftafellssýsla (municipality) in the middle of Breiðamerkursandur, a glacial outwash plain. It connects the Jökulsárlón glacier lake with the sea, the Atlantic Ocean. The river is very short, at the moment about 500 m. It was still 1,500 m long in 1989, but its length was 1,000 m around the year 1900, when it discharged directly from the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier; the lake did not start to form until 1935–40. The lake grew very fast from 1950 onwards, and changed the course of the river. The medium discharge today is 250–300 m³/s. From time to time, icebergs from the lake enter the river. Erosion could with time break down the spits and connect the glacier lake directly with the sea, forming a fjord. The government fights the erosion by stabilising the shoreline of the sea and also of the river, not least in order to save the road.

Flows through: Iceland.

River data from Wikidata (CC0); lengths normalised to a common unit.