Jökull - 01.12.1985, Page 47

Fig. 16. a) View S towards Thverfell on
E side of Fljótsdalsheiði plateau, near
Snaefell road, over line of eskers
running across upper Bessastaðaá
valley. b) Esker opened for road mate-
rial, with sloping layers of sands and
gravels on either side and mainly un-
sorted core. — 16. mynd. a) Horft
suður til Þverfells af austanverðri
Fljótsdalsheiði.
fljót, an anticlinal section of layered deposits is
exposed, resting on a core of apparently unsorted mate-
rial rising about a metre from the present river level,
(Fig. 13). The height of the exposure is about 7 m to a
cover of unsorted material, of variable thickness but on
average about a third of a metre, and then thin soil. This
appears to be a classic section of a buried esker. As a
comparison, several hills covered with birch trees wind
across the Eyvindará valley some 5 km E of Egilsstaðir
and a section through one for road material shows
mainly sandy material, with a well-sorted and layered
middle section, (see No. 79/1 in Fig. 6). and poorly
sorted base and top. These hills are eskers.
Although similar deposits are relatively infrequent on
the E side of Lagarfljót, a very large deposit of sand and
gravel is being used for road material between Hafursá
and Freyshólar N of Hallormsstaðabjarg, at an altitude
of about 60 m. The original form of the deposits has
been destroyed by the quarrying activities, but the
feature seems to be associated with a shallow channel
system running northwards on the rock platform
between the lake shore and the base of Freyshólafell,
between 60 m and 100 m altitude.
It is difficult to be precise about the area covered by
these higher-level fluviatile deposits because the best
exposures are the result of the search for road material
and therefore biased towards that type of material.
However, observation suggests that they are wide-
spread, especially in connection with the channel sys-
tems and it is suggested here that they are similar in
origin and scale to features found in part of Western
Iceland (Ashwell, 1975). They appear to be connected
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