Jökull - 01.01.2020, Page 6

Glacier extent in Iceland, 1890–2019
Figure 1: Glaciers and ice caps in Iceland. Each ice cap or glacier group is indicated with boxes and figure numbers. Small
glaciers < 3 km2 (belonging to regional glacier groups) are shown with blue dots, referred to as East, Southeast, Kerlinga-
fjöll, Northwest, South and West Iceland glaciers in Table 1. D=Drangajökull, T=Tröllaskagi glaciers, F=Flateyjarskagi
glaciers, S=Snæfellsjökull, Ei=Eiríksjökull, L=Langjökull, Þ=Þórisjökull, H=Hofsjökull, Ke=Kerlingarfjöll, Tu=Tungna-
fellsjökull, V=Vatnajökull, Þr=Þrándarjökull, Ti=Tindfjallajökull, To=Torfajökull, Ey=Eyjafjallajökull, M=Mýrdalsjökull,
St=Steingrímsfjarðarheiði mountain pass. – Jöklar á Íslandi. Útmörk kortanna sem fylgja á eftir eru sýnd með svörtum köss-
um og myndanúmerum. Litlir jöklar eru sýndir með bláum punktum og eru nefndir Austurlandsjöklar, Suðausturlandsjöklar,
Kerlingarfjallajöklar, Vestfjarðarjöklar, Suðurlandsjöklar og Vesturlandsjöklar í töflu 1.
Approximately 170 glaciers are found on the
Tröllaskagi peninsula, N-Iceland, covering an area
of approximately 130 km2 in total (in 2019) (Björns-
son, 1991; Sigurðsson et al., 2017). Most of them
are located on north-facing cirques and valleys, and
range in size from 0.1–7 km2. The precipitation is
relatively low, arrives mainly with northerly winds
and varies from 400 mm a−1 in some lowland areas to
2000–3000 mm a−1 near the summits (Crochet et al.,
2007). Most of the glaciers are partly debris-covered
(due to frequent avalanches and rockfalls from steep
head walls), although a few of them are debris-free
(Björnsson, 1991; Wangensteen et al., 2006; Kellerer-
Pirklbauer et al., 2007; Björnsson and Pálsson, 2008).
The insulating effect of the debris cover makes them
less sensitive to climate variations than most other
glaciers in Iceland (e.g. Martin et al., 1991).
JÖKULL No. 70, 2020 3