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> Home > Find Out More > Twinning Sites > Lomond Glaciers > page 2: A Modern Glacier SettingThe beautiful island of Iceland sits just below the Arctic Circle and is home to Europe's largest ice-cap - Vatnajökull. Lying in the south of the island, covering an area roughly the size of Sutherland and up to about 500m thick, this ice-cap can be compared to the ice that covered the southwest Highlands of Scotland around 12,900 to 11,500 years ago. Tongues of ice flow from Vatnajökull as outlet glaciers. Of these, it is the glaciers in Skaftafell National Park - namely Skaftafellsjökull, Morsárjökull and Skeiðarárjökull - that have been chosen as a twin site for Loch Lomond. 'Jökull' is the Icelandic word for glacier. Today, these three glaciers flow from the ice-cap towards the sea, each forcing its way down a deep valley carved into volcanic rocks. As the glaciers flow, they scrape and gouge the rock beneath them, forming spectacular U-shaped valleys – a testament to their erosive power.
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