BARREN

MOOR WATER

Iceland’s south coast is always cool and windy. Only a sparse blanket of grass holds together the black volcanic sandbank that separates the sea from the bed of a yellow stream. The stream emanates from a moor area, and splits into numerous smaller offshoots. The moor water is acidic, which enables it to dissolve iron minerals from the black volcanic rock. They give the stream its yellow colour, which turns rust-brown in the dry areas.

It flows into the wide bed of the River Thjorsa, one of Iceland’s largest rivers, which reaches the Atlantic a little further downstream.