The
glacier Torfajokull peaks at 1,190 m above sea level and its total area is
about 15 km².
It is somewhat hidden behind the surrounding mountains, especially
from the north.
It is discharged by many rivers and streams, tributaries to River
Markarfljot and River Holmsa running southeast.
A walk to the highest point is relatively easy and safe and the
view from there is breathtaking on a fine day.
The whole Torfajokull Area is probably the most colourful,
beautiful and wild rhyolite area of the country and it contains a vast
high temperature area as well. The only obsidian lava fields, 11 of them
altogether, are on the brink of a vast caldera around it, created during the latest cold epoch of the ice age.
Those
lava fields were probably created during four eruptions during Holocene,
some even after the settlement of the country.
The caldera with the solfataras, boiling mud pots and hot springs
has an area of about 100 km².
Further away, surrounding the Torfajokull Area are several
volcanoes and volcanic systems, such as Mt Hekla, the fire fissure Eldgja,
the Veidivotn Area, Katla and the Eyjafjoll glacier. |