Skeiðarársandur

It was temporarily destroyed by water masses and blocks of ice during the last major glacial outburst flood in 1996, triggered by an eruption of the Grímsvötn volcano, but was immediately restored.

The sediments are carried during glacial floods with the glacier water, which thaws during volcanic eruptions, but also through ash deposits.

In addition, through seismological experiments geologists discovered a 100–150 m deep valley in the bedrock below the modern sediment layers, which was probably milled out by glacial rivers of the Ice Age.

On 19 September 1667, the Dutch merchant vessel Het Wapen van Amsterdam stranded in Skeiðarársandur.

Commonly known as Gullskipið (English: The Goldship) in Iceland due to beliefs that it was carrying a large amount of gold and diamonds, several expeditions have been made to find the wreckage to no avail.