Glaciers Today

Iceland

How this region’s glaciers are changing – monthly data from CryoSat-2

July 2026 bulletin

What's happening to Iceland's glaciers?

Iceland hosts around 570 glaciers, covering about 1.5% of Earth’s global glacier area. Glaciers in Iceland play an important role for tourism and hydropower generation. Since the year 2000, Iceland’s glaciers have been continuously losing mass. This retreat has taken place along with rapid increases in Arctic air temperatures, which is warming more than twice as fast as the global average.