Glacial Ice Fragments on Black Sand Beach, Diamond Beach, Iceland

Glacial Ice Fragments on Black Sand Beach, Diamond Beach, Iceland

© Maico Presente/Moment Open/Getty Images

An iceberg's remains

Glistening ice crystals slowly melt onto dark volcanic sands here in the Land of Fire and Ice. Known in English as Diamond Beach, this remarkable stretch of southeast Iceland's shore sits where a large lagoon—made up of meltwater from Breiðamerkurjökull glacier—empties to the Atlantic. The constantly calving glacier leaves the lagoon filled with icebergs floating to and fro, breaking apart as they crash into each other. Smaller fragments flow out of the lagoon and wash up as 'diamonds' to decorate the carbon-black beach.

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