What is Vatnajökull National Park?
'''Vatnajökull National Park''' ([[Icelandic language|Icelandic]]: ''Vatnajökulsþjóðgarður'') is one of three [[national park]]s in [[Iceland]]. It contains the entire [[Vatnajökull]] [[glacier]] and the former [[Skaftafell National Park]] in the southwest and the former [[Jökulsárgljúfur National Park]] in the north. What's special about the Vatnajökull National Park lies mainly in its great variety of scenic features, which are created by rivers, [[glacier]]s, [[volcanism]] and [[Geothermal energy|geothermal activity]]. == History == Vatnajökull National Park was opened in June 2008. It had an area of 12,000&nbsp;km². Since its expansion to include [[Lakagigar|Lakagígar]], [[Langisjór]] and Krepputunga, the park now contains 14,200&nbsp;km², or around 14% of Iceland's land area. The only park in Europe bigger than Vatnajökull National Park is the [[Jugyd Wa National Park]] in [[Russia]]. On the 25th of June 2017 <ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-07-25|title=Jökulsárlón friðlýst: Óttast ekki málsókn|url=http://www.ruv.is/frett/jokulsarlon-fridlyst-ottast-ekki-malsokn|access-date=2017-07-26|language=Icelandic}}</ref> the national park was upsized by another 189&nbsp;km². The [[Jokulsarlon|Jökulsárlón]] and parts of the [[Fjallsárlón]] and [[Breiðamerkursandur]] have been placed under protection by the Environment Minister [[Björt Ólafsdóttir]]. In 2019 the park was declared a [[World Heritage Site]] by [[UNESCO]].<ref>{{Cite web/German|url=http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1604|titel=Vatnajökull National Park - dynamic nature of fire and ice|hrsg=UNESCO World Heritage Centre|zugriff=2019-07-09|sprache=en}}</ref> == Geography and geology == The Vatnajökull has a surface area of 8,100&nbsp;km² Europe's largest [[glacier]]. The thickness of the ice is between 400 to 800 m, at the thickest point the ice is 950 m. The glacier ice covers a multitude of mountains, valleys and plateaus. It even covers some active central volcanoes, of which [[Bárðarbunga]] is the largest and [[Grímsvötn]] the most active. The ice masses extend