I love before and after pictures. You also know that I love Iceland and its nature. I recently explored historical satellite pictures and compared some Icelandic glaciers how these are now vs about 30 years ago. By that I mean outlet glaciers from the main ice sheet. Many glaciers have lost a lot of volume during this time and most of the melting has happened after 2008.
I have saved saved screenshots from Google Earth and want to share some of these in here. Maybe It's interesting to see for you too, the difference between then and now.
Fjallsjökull
I have been there in 2017 a gorgeous place. Where I stood, at the edge of the lagoon, used to be under ice. The first picture of this glacier is from 1986.
Fjallsjökul in 2024, and has lost about 1600m of glacier lenght since then, crazy.
Svinafellsjökull
I have also been there. This is a glacier where part of Interstellar was also filmed. Photo is from 1985.
This glacier in 2020. Has not lost much lenght but definitely a lot of volume and created 500m wide lake since then. You can also notice the black area in the middle. Its a landslide from a mountain next to the glacier.
Breidamerkurjökull
One of the most famous lagoons in Iceland with many icebergs floating around. This is the fastest retreating glacier in Iceland and now loses about 100m of glacier lenght EVERY year. Photo from 1985.
The lake has grown A LOT in size, and glacier has retreated drastically since then, about 6400m.
Photo from 2024.
Solheimajökull
Photo from 1985
Photo from 2025, has lost about 650m of lenght.
Flaajökull, Heinabergsjökull, Skalafellsjökull
3 glaciers in this photo of 1984.
Photo from 2020, The upper one has lost 1200m of lenght and bottom ones 300-500m
Mulajökull
A glacier in a middle of Iceland, photo from 1986.
And a photo from 2020, has lost about 800m of lenght.
Iceland has a ton more glaciers, these are just some examples. All of these are retreating, some faster some slower. Temps are getting warmer and is often more noticable in colder regions and will get warmer no matter what. The process can be slowed a bit if greenhouse gases will be reduced in the atmosphere. Anyway I thought It's interwesting to see for you as well because it is for me.
