Explore Iceland’s Retreating Glaciers

Katla is a sub-glacier volcano in southern Iceland, which is overdue for an eruption..

From the southern small coastal city of Vik, around 2 hours 30 minutes from Reykjavik, you can take a tour of the glacier on a Jeep.

Over the course of history, Katla has erupted every 40 to 60 years (on average).

It’s now been more than 100 years since its last major eruption, so Katla is long overdue.

In 1918, the eruption created an ash crowd which blocked out the sun, causing the coastline to freeze.

It was much larger than the volcanic eruption in Iceland in 2010, which caused European air traffic to come to a halt for two weeks.

Katla has been sleeping under the Mýrdalsjökull Glacier, which is retreating quite rapidly.

The surrounding green mountains were covered with glacial ice just a couple decades ago. People in nearby Vik who grew up there remember it.

I read one report which said the glacier shrank by 19 meters in 2019, but by more than 100 meters in 2018. That’s the length of an Olympic swimming pool.

As large as Mýrdalsjökull is, it’s only Iceland’s fourth largest ice cap. It covers 230 square miles.

NASA has a disturbing before & after sliding photo which you can check out here. It shows the remarkable changes between 1986 and 2014. And just think: nearly another decade has lapsed since the last photo on that page.

The glacier ice itself is lined with layers of volcanic ash, kind of like rings in a tree. The ash layers keep a historic record of eruptions.

Small caves form over time, and collapse as the ice continues to melt. During our visit, a small cave was open. Another had recently collapsed. A few others were just starting to form.

Here is one of the caves we could enter, from the outside first, followed by what it looks like from the inside looking out.

The photos posted to some of the tour websites are a bit misleading. In this spot, you won’t be entering giant, cavernous ice caves, but rather much smaller, cramped formations. That will change over time, as more caves open up and are deemed safe to explore.

It’s still an interesting trip, and beautiful to see the white of the ice contrast against the black of the ash and lava fields, against the bright green on the mountains in the distance.

Also stunning: the waterfalls cascading out of the glacier. When we were there, one of them was inexplicably flowing out of a hole several meters above our heads, whiles another was flowing heavily off a cliff.

Again, you’ll want a guide for this. First, to explain what you’re actually looking at. Second, to avoid collapsing ice and quicksand.

Our guide, who spends several days a week at Katla, sank into quicksand once and relied on the tourists with him to yank him out.

They’ll give you crampons for your shoes, to help you grip the ice, along with helmets to wear closer to the ice cliffs and caves.

With its black volcanic ash covering, a visit to Katla is a diversion from what you’d typically imagine a glacier visit to look like.

Some would consider ice caves at Vatnajökull Glacier, near Diamond Beach, to be more beautiful and scenic. Tours are offered there between November and March, and can be found here.

Skaftafell Glacier is another option, which is open between October and March.