Wide angle frontal view, of the Skogafoss waterfall, with a rainbow in the spray at the foot, Skogar, Southern Iceland

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The 62m high Skogafoss Waterfall, a popular tourist attraction in Southern Iceland, is a result of isostatic uplift of the land, following the release of billions of tonnes of ice weight at the end of the Pleistocene Ice Age. Rivers, flowing south, found themselves plunging over the edge of the rising cliffs of the former coastline to reach the sea. Fluvial erosional processes have cut back the falls, the turbulent scouring action of water in the plunge pool undermining the cliff, so it collapses in time and the waterfall retreats upstream. Legend has it that a local Viking buried a pot of gold behind the falls. When the sun shines, traces of the gold are seen in the shimmering spray.

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Size: 5861px × 3892px
Location: Skogafoss Waterfall, Skogar, Eyjafjoll, Southern Iceland
Photo credit: © robert harrison / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No

Keywords: basalt, cliffs, curving, downstream, drop, erosion, fluvial, folklore, geography, geology, high, iceland, isostasy, isostatic, plunge, pool, rainbow, scenery, sheet, skogafoss, spray, tourism, travel, uplift, vertical, water, waterfall, white, wide