Sólheimajökull (Soh-loh-HAME-a-JOH-kult) is a glacier that we visited during our trip to Iceland. This glacier is part of the larger Mýrdalsjökull ice cap. I'd always thought that glaciers would end in a mile-high wall of ice, like the one that covered much of the American Midwest at the end of the last Ice Age, but I was mistaken. Sólheimajökull is a retreating outlet glacier, which means that it is melting. As we approached the glacier, we could see the moraines that marked where the glacier had once stood in the past. Another thing we found was quicksand! Luckily, the worst that happened was that Yours Truly got mud in her boots when she fell in, though a few other students found some quicksand as well.
If you want to learn more about glaciers, check out this fun program that allows you to play with different climates to create or melt a glacier!
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