Dettifoss Facts

Everything here is sourced. Where two reputable bodies disagree — and on the headline claim about Dettifoss, they do — both figures appear with the reason for the difference, because the reason turns out to be more interesting than either answer.

Measurements

The disputed record

You will see Dettifoss called the most powerful waterfall in Europe. Vatnajökull National Park says so and so does Visit North Iceland. You will also see it called the second most powerful, after the Rhine Falls in Switzerland. Both are honestly held, and they are measuring different things.

Rank on volume of water and the Rhine Falls wins. Multiply volume by the height it falls from — which is what determines the force arriving at the bottom — and the two are within a couple of per cent of each other. That is why both claims circulate, and why neither side is being careless. What is not in dispute: 193 cubic metres a second going over a 44-metre edge is enough to feel through the soles of your boots from the viewpoint.

The river

The canyon

Access — the two roads and the walk

The name

From the Icelandic detta, to fall or to collapse, and foss, waterfall: the collapsing falls. Icelandic place names in this canyon are uniformly literal. Selfoss is roughly the ledge falls; Hafragilsfoss takes its name from the ravine it sits in; Jökulsárgljúfur is simply the glacial river's canyon. Ásbyrgi, the shelter of the gods, is the one that reaches for something else.

On screen

The opening sequence of Prometheus (2012) was filmed at Dettifoss, standing in for a primordial Earth. It is the reason a number of people arrive already knowing the shape of the place without knowing its name.

The neighbours

Protection

For how the canyon was cut, how Dettifoss was made. For the practical side, visiting Dettifoss. To see it with someone who knows the road, Dettifoss Tours.