Aerial view. Sand and water at Skeidararsandur, Iceland

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Sandur are found in glaciated areas, such as Svalbard, Kerguelen Islands, and Iceland. Glaciers and icecaps contain large amounts of silt and sediment, picked up as they erode the underlying rocks when they move slowly downhill, and at the snout of the glacier, meltwater can carry this sediment away from the glacier and deposit it on a broad plain. The material in the outwash plain is often size-sorted by the water runoff of the melting glacier with the finest materials, like silt, being the most distantly re-deposited, whereas larger boulders are the closest to the original terminus of the glacier.

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Size: 3328px × 4992px
Location: Skeidararsandur, Iceland
Photo credit: © Joan Gil / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: aerial, iceland, sand, sandur, skeidararsandur, water