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Diamond Beach

Iceland

A black sand beach where glacial fragments wash ashore and look like sparkling diamonds. 

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Sharing a parking area with the Jökulsárlón lagoon, Diamond Beach is reliably scattered with chunks of ice that have recently fallen from a glacier and drifted out to sea. bthrockmorton (Atlas Obscura User)
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They say that diamonds are forever, but the sparkling gems that give this volcanic black sand beach its name could melt away in the right conditions. The “diamonds” of Diamond Beach are chunks of ice from Breiðamerkurjökull, a nearby glacier. Diamond Beach is located across the road from Jökulsárlón, Iceland’s largest lagoon.

When ice calves from the glacier, the chunks float in the lagoon, flow down a stream that passes under Iceland’s Ring Road, and float out to sea. Some of them wash ashore in pieces as large as a car.

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Added by
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Edited by
tbobpage, bthrockmorton
Published
January 25, 2024
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Nearby
Jökulsárlón
2.19 miles
Karl og Kerling
13.34 miles
Hvannadalshnjúkur
15.17 miles
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