Breiðafjörður

Breiðafjörður is a large shallow bay, about 50 km wide and 125 km long, in the west of Iceland. It separates the region of the Westfjords from the south of the country. Breiðafjörður is encircled by mountains, including the glacier Snæfellsjökull on the Snæfellsnes peninsula to the south and the West Fjord peninsula to the north. An interesting feature of the bay is that the northern tip was formed about 15 million years ago, whereas the southern end at Snæfellsnes was formed less than half that time ago.

Breiðafjörður has a spectacular land and seascape consisting of shallow seas, small fjords and bays and an inner part of intertidal areas dotted with about 3,000 islands, islets and skerries. The area contains about half of Iceland's intertidal area and tides can be six metres. The bedrock was formed during rift volcanism in the late Tertiary. The area consists mainly of pile of basaltic lava that was deeply eroded by glaciers during the quaternary age thus creating diverse landscape with several geothermal sites, some visible only at low tide.

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