Found a stunning cave by accident
Photo/The Environment Agency of Iceland
Recently a lava cave was discovered near Mývatn Nature baths , where a foundation for new buildings was being excavated. When a construction contractor was breaking rocks, the roof of the cave collapsed and the huge cave suddenly appeared.
A notice on the Environment Agency’s website indicates that the agency’s staff has already made two field trips to the cave and it seems clear that it holds special and extremely rare earth formations.
“Until the cave’s roof was broken, the cave was probably hot and full of geothermal air. Under these conditions, very special, fragile deposits have been formed.
The exact deposits involved are unclear, but their rarity and uniqueness are unambiguously considered a great value for protection. The deposits form in certain areas of the cave with continuous widths covering an uninterrupted distance of several square meters."
Ljósmynd/Umhverfisstofnun
To minimize the disturbance to the cave’s geosites, traffic has been severely restricted. The spillway is so diffuse that it is difficult to traverse the cave without causing irreversible damage. The engineers have been working on the mapping and scanning of the cave, as well as bounding the cave floor by means of a fixed route.
