Jökull - 01.12.1965, Blaðsíða 28

Fig. 8. On of the deeper channels, showing
the highest point o£ the channel, from which
it falls steeply into Lundarreykjadalur, more
gently into Skorradalur.
cover had melted, perhaps when local ice cover-
ed the tops of the ridges. In Skorradalur there
are the remains of sandur plains at a height. of
about 65 m above present sea level. The most
marked of these lies at the front of the valley,
forming an alluvial delta in the gaps of the
rock threshold. The top of this delta runs up
into the most westerly of the drainage channels,
Fig. 9. Log-probability diagram of grain sizes
of sedimetary materials found in spillway No. 2.
The conglomerate lies between the upper and
lower silts.
Kvígsstaðasneið, and appears to be partlv grad-
ed from it. A gulley cut in the front of tlie
delta may have carried a small flow of water
from the Kvígsstaðasneið, since tlie base of the
gulley has a small alluvial fan of its own, at a
height of 34 m above present sea level, per-
haps indicating the base level at the time of
erosion of tlie gulley.
The remaining patches of sandur in Skorra-
dalur, often covered with trees, must, like that
at the front of the valley, date from the end
of the glacial period, since they are largely un-
disturbed. However, it appears that the ends
of the drainage channels coincide with sections
where the sandur deposits have been removed —
in other words, flow from tlie channels has re-
rnoved the sandur deposits, thus pointing to
comparatively recent use of these drainage
channels.
Ví
Thanks are due to many people of this
district who helpecl the author while he was
making this investigation, in particular to Guð-
mundur Jónsson and Magnús Óskarsson, of
Hvanneyri, ancl Guðrún Davíðsdóttir, of Grund.
REFEREN CES
Ashwelí; I. Y. 1966: The Pleistocene history of
some rivers in Western Iceland. Geograf.
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Einarsson, T. 1958: Landslag á Skagafjallgarði,
myndun þess og aldur. Náttúrufræðingur-
inn, 28: 1-25.
Kendall, P. F. 1902: A system of glacier lakes
in the Cleveland Hills. Q. J. Geol. Soc.,
London, 58: 471-571.
Kjartansson, G. 1955: Fróðlegar jökulrákir.
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Mannerfelt, C. M. 1945: Nágra glacialmorfo-
logiska formelement. Geograf. Annaler, 27:
1-239.
Peel, R. F. 1949: A study of two Northumbrian
spillways. Trans. Inst. Brit. Geogr. 15: 73—
89.
Sissons, J. B. 1958: Supposed ice-dammed lakes
in Britain. Geograf. Annaler 40: 159—187.
Thorarinsson, S. 1951: Laxárgljúfur and Laxár-
hraun. Geograf. Annaler 33: 1—86.
134 JÖKULL