All the best experiences
24/7 customer support
Only verified quality services
Icelandic travel experts

Gígjökull Travel Guide

5.0
9 Verified reviews
High season
Autumn
Family-friendly
No
Average rating
5.0
Number of reviews
9

 

Gígjökull is one of the two glacier outlets of Eyjafjallajökull. The other is Steinholtsjökull.

Explore this area while on a self drive tour in Iceland.

Eyjafjallajökull is best known for its 2010 eruption. It caused an enormous ash cloud, that not only destroyed the agricultural region around it, but grounded flights across Europe.

For days, and in some cases, weeks, travellers were trapped in foreign airports, waiting for the winds to change. The event dominated international news, causing no end of problems for newsreaders attempting to pronounce it.

The many crater of this eruption was near to Gígjökull. This caused floodwater to surge from under the glacier’s tongue, flooding the Markarfljót river that flows from it.

These glacial bursts are incredibly dangerous and unpredictable results of an eruption under a glacier, and have been known to wash away entire towns and villages. For that reason, Iceland’s South Coast, in areas beneath glaciers such as Gígjökull, is very sparsely populated, and defined by black-sand-plains where they have happened before.

Attractions Nearby

Popular categories

Link to appstore phone
Install Iceland’s biggest travel app

Download Iceland’s biggest travel marketplace to your phone to manage your entire trip in one place

Scan this QR code with your phone camera and press the link that appears to add Iceland’s biggest travel marketplace into your pocket. Enter your phone number or email address to receive an SMS or email with the download link.