Ice, Capped

An Icelandic glacier is awesome—and melting away

Photos by Benjamin Hardman

January 4, 2023

Close-up of Vatnajökull, with mist covering its top and chunky ice at its base.

Glaciers cover nearly one-tenth of the surface of Iceland, and no ice cap is bigger than Vatnajökull (pictured here), which includes some 30 distinct glaciers. But this signature feature of the island nation is disappearing. Icelandic glaciers have shrunk by about 850 square miles since the end of the 19th century. One-third of that loss has occurred since 2000.