Náttúrufræðingurinn - 1962, Blaðsíða 38

82
NÁTTÚRUFRÆÐINGURINN
bollalegginga að sinni, og læt ég mér nægja að benda á, að þarna
er skemmtilegt jarðfræðilegt rannsóknarefni, eitt af mörgum í þessu
landi.
RITSKRÁ (REFERENCES)
Bemmelen, R. W. van, and Rutten, M. 1955: Tablemountains of Northern
Iceland. E. }. Brill. Leiden.
Magnusson — Lundqvist — Granlund. 1957: Sveriges Geologi.
Mannerfelt, G. M:son. 1945: Nágra glacialgeologiska formelement. Geogr.
Ann. Stockh. 27: 1-239.
Ramsay, W. 1931: Geologiens grunder. Holger Schildts förlag. Stockholm.
Thorarinsson, S. 1959: Some gcological problems involved in the liydro-electric
development of the Jökulsá á Fjöllum. A report to the State Electricity
Authority. (Fjölrit — Mimeographcd).
Todtmann, E. M. 1960: Gletscherforsclningen auf Island (Vatnajökull). Cram
de Gruyter & Co. Hamburg.
Tryggvason, T. og Jónsson, J. 1958: Jarðfræðikort af nágrenni Reykjavíkur.
Reykjavík.
Woldstedt, P. 1939: Vergleichende Untersuchungen an islandischen Gletsch-
ern. Jb. preuss. geol. Landesanst. 59: 249—271. Berlin.
SUMMARY
Eskers in Iceland
by Sigurdur Thorarinsson
Museum of Natural History, Reykjavih.
Although the main part of Iceland was ice covered during the last glacial,
eskers are astonishingly rare in the country. There may be many causes for
this. Subglacial volcanic activity may have disturbed the formation of eskers
within the neovolcanic areas. Eskers eventually formed on the strandflat
areas may have been more or less flattened out and destroyed by the breakers
of the receding open sea. They may also have been destroyed by the lateral
erosion of braided rivers and they may be partly and wholly covered by
sandur deposits and loessial sediments. One rnight even take into account the
possibility that the inland ice receded from the strandflat area before the sea
transgraded it.
A short esker, covered by loessial humus soil, is found within the town of
Reykjavík. The largest esker known below the highest marine limit is a
2 km long, sinuous esker at Vestmannsvatn in Reykjadalur, Nortliern Iceland.
Tliis esker is 40 m above sea level. The largest eskcr known in the country