Melting glaciers
Glaciers cover around 10% of Iceland. After 1890, most glaciers began to retreat and since the year 2000 the outlet glaciers have retreated exceptionally fast, and their mass loss is among the highest recorded in the world. Due to climate change the glaciers will continue to melt and retreat and they could lose half of their volume by 2100. After 200 years, only small ice caps will remain on the highest mountains.
Melting glaciers - the project
This website is part of the project Icelandic Glaciers – a natural laboratory to study climate change, Melting Glaciers for short. The Ministry for the Environment and Natural Resources has appointed the Vatnajökull National Park in cooperation with the Icelandic Meteorological Office to implement the project, in collaboration with the South East Iceland Nature Research Center and the Institute of Earth Sciences of the University of Iceland. The goal of the project, which is a part of the government’s climate change agenda, is to increase awareness about climate change and the associated consequences for glaciers in Iceland and elsewhere.
News of Icelandic glaciers
A newsletter is published yearly with updates from the glaciers in Iceland that have retreated rapidly for a quarter of a century, and glacier downwasting is one of the most obvious consequences of a warming climate in the country. In this newsletter, glacier changes since about 1900 are described briefly along with the results of monitoring of glacier termini, glacier mass balance and crustal movements induced by glacier changes in recent years. Updated maps of glacier outlines in the fall of 2021 and updated mass balance time series are presented.
Overview of Icelandic glaciers at the end of 2025
Overview of Icelandic glaciers at the end of 2024
Overview of Icelandic glaciers at the end of 2023
Overview of Icelandic glaciers at the end of 2022
Overview of Icelandic glaciers at the end of 2021
Overview of Icelandic glaciers at the end of 2020
Overview of Icelandic glaciers at the end of 2019
Glaciers & climate change
Global surface temperatures increased by 0.8°C on average during the 20th century and twice as much in the Arctic and sub-polar areas.
Glaciological research
How do glaciers form and how do they respond to changes in climate? How fast do glaciers move and what is beneath the severl hundred meters thick glaciers? Research and knowledge is needed to be able to answer questions like these. Various methods are used to shed light on how glaciers behave and to monitor them, which can also provide evidence on their former existence and how their future might look.