While driving on Route 1 from Skaftafell to Fjallsárlón, you will marvel at several glacier fingers squeezing between V-shaped mountain ridges as they slowly reach their ablation zone and begin to melt and calve icebergs. Kvíárjökull glacier is a scenic example. Besides being beautiful, they share three things in common. First, they are outlets of the massive Vatnajökull, a glacier covering 8% of Iceland. Two, they are capped by Hvannadalshnúkur, the country’s tallest summit at just under 7,000 feet. Finally, their ice covers Öræfajökull, the largest Icelandic active volcano. The giant stratovolcano has been dormant since the early 18th century but has explosive potential.
