The blue lagoon: how global warming is affecting a glacier in Iceland

[Julai]

The blue lagoon: how global warming is affecting a glacier in Iceland

The Breidamerkurjokull glacier in Iceland has raced in from the mountains, smothering a shimmering lagoon that sits at the edge of the Atlantic on the country's south coast

Pictured above is the glacier and lagoon in 2002...

..here's the lagoon in 2008, before it became filled with glacial ice...

..and here it is in June 2009, filled with icebergs

The worrying change in conditions means the lagoon is now full of melting glacial ice that is causing gallons of additional fresh water to flow into the sea

Even though there is little threat to structures or human life - the nearest town is over 60 miles away and the only nearby construction is a bridge

Ragnar, 51, from Reykjavik, said: "There is no threat of a disaster. The rate that the water rises, it would take more than 50 years for it to take the bridge but people in the area still feel it's global warming that's doing it. The end result is this extra freshwater is pouring into the sea at an alarming rate"

The huge glacier is actually just the tip of a gigantic sheet of grinding ice that sprawls back into the Vatnajokull mountain range shouldering the lagoon

The lagoon is fed by a 300-metre-deep fjord running underneath the glacier. But Ragnar says even that formed just 50 years ago and is perhaps another distressing sign of the impact of rising global temperatures

Even in wintertime the lagoon remains unfrozen except for an occasional iceberg drifting silently on the water...

...But now even in summertime the view of the lagoon has dramatically changed and now looks like a solid frozen mass

Despite the frozen look of the pool from afar, the ice is gradually melting - increasing the overflow of the lagoon into the sea

Aerial view of packing ice, huge ice towers and crecasses, surging glacial patterns, and melting ice