Why Does Iceland Have Black Sand Beaches?

Iceland is one of the most unique places in the world

And one of the things that makes it so unique is its legendary black sand beaches

These beaches go on for what seem to be miles and miles

Especially along the southern coast, there are beautiful ones that are very frequently visited

and that if you get the chance, I cannot recommend enough. We have a whole course on Iceland that talks about a whole road trip journey that you can

could take there. In that course, Johnny breaks down how these black sand beaches came to be

So here's Johnny explaining a few things about these black sand beaches

Just north of these black sand beaches is a huge volcano called Katla

This volcano erupted several times during the last thousand years. During one such eruption

molten lava made it all the way down to the ocean, hitting the cold sea, which in turn

cooled the lava so rapidly that it instantly broke down into small fragments of rock. Over time

these lava fragments were worn down till eventually they became granules of sand

Other than its black sand, the beach is also known for this

These columns were also formed from lava that rushed into the ocean rapidly and then cooled According to Icelandic folklore these were once two trolls attempting to pull down a ship into the ocean but they were too slow and they got caught by the rising sun which turned them into stone

If you keep going along the southern coast, you're going to see Black Sand beaches nearly everywhere

This region is characterized by these very specific beaches, so you can explore any of them, and they're all quite beautiful

You can also explore these Black Sand beaches via a horseback riding tour, where you yourself can actually ride one of these unique

Icelandic horses. You can book a tour all year around with a company like Vic Horse Adventures

And the cool thing is you don't have to have any prior horse riding experience to do this

It takes about an hour to complete and it comes highly recommended. Black Sand beaches are one of my favorite parts of Iceland and they're definitely a major part of the geology and the visual landscape in this country

It's easy to just drive up and park and go explore for a little bit

Especially if you go during the winter you'll often see that you're the only person on the beach

If you get the chance to go see these, I cannot recommend it enough

It is a beautiful place and a beautiful experience. And if you are going to Iceland, I highly recommend the course that we provide on our website

I'll drop the link in the description below. Like and subscribe if you liked this and comment a video idea if you have one for us. Thanks

See ya