Jökulsá (Breiðamerkursandur)

The river is very short, at the moment about 500 m. It was still 1,500 m long in 1989, but its length was 1,000 m around the year 1900, when it discharged directly from the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier; the lake did not start to form until 1935–40.

[1] Erosion could with time break down the spits and connect the glacier lake directly with the sea, forming a fjord.

The government fights the erosion by stabilising the shoreline of the sea and also of the river, not least in order to save the road.

The Hringvegur (national ring road, route 1) crosses the river on a bridge.

If the road were destroyed, East Iceland would be cut off from Reykjavík except by ferry or by a much longer northern route.