Víðgelmir

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title: "Víðgelmir" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["lava-tubes", "ice-caves", "show-caves", "caves-of-iceland", "tourist-attractions-in-iceland", "west-volcanic-zone-of-iceland"] description: "Lava tube in Iceland" topic_path: "general/lava-tubes" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Víðgelmir" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Lava tube in Iceland ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Vidgelmir-03.jpg" caption="Víðgelmir in [[Iceland]] - Expeditioners are walking on top of a "pipe" formed when half molten lava "skin" rolled down the walls when the eruption receded."] ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5c/Vidgelmir-05.jpg" caption="Víðgelmir has many ice-formations deep within the cave."] ::

Víðgelmir () is a lava tube situated in the Hallmundarhraun lava field (formed around 900 AD) in west Iceland, around 2 km southeast of Fljótstunga{{cite web |title = Víðgelmir Cave |url = http://www.fljotstunga.is/efni/lava_cave |accessdate = 2007-09-11 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110704230313/http://www.fljotstunga.is/efni/lava_cave |archive-date = 2011-07-04 |url-status = dead

Lava tubes are formed when a low-viscosity lava flow develops a continuous and hard crust which then thickens and forms a roof above the molten lava stream. When the eruption subsides, the still-molten lava moving beneath the crust will continue to drain downhill, leaving an open lava tube.{{cite web | title=Birth of Lava Tubes | url=http://www.goodearthgraphics.com/virtual_tube/birth.html | accessdate=2011-07-02 }} Many other lava tubes have been discovered in Hallmundarhraun, most notably Surtshellir and Stefánshellir.

References

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::