Skjaldbreiður

Infobox Mountain
Name = Skjaldbreiður
Photo = Skjaldbreidur_Herbst_2004.jpg
Caption = Skjaldbreiður as seen from Þingvellir
Elevation = 1,060 m
Location = ISL
Age = 9,000 years
Translation = broad shield
Language = Icelandic
Type = shield volcano
Coordinates = coord|64|24|36|N|20|45|44|W|type:mountain_region:IS|display=inline,title

Skjaldbreiður, meaning the "broad shield" in Icelandic, is an Icelandic mountain from whose name the term "shield volcano" derives. It was formed in a huge and protracted eruption roughly 9,000 years ago. The extensive lava fields which were produced by this eruption, flowed southwards, and formed the basin of Þingvallavatn, Iceland's largest lake, and Þingvellir, the "Parliament Plains" where the Icelandic national assembly, the Alþing was founded in the year 930.

The volcano culminates at 1,060 metres, and its crater measures roughly 300 metres in diameter.

Straddling the Mid-Atlantic ridge, the lava fields from Skjaldbreiður have been torn and twisted over the millennia, forming a multitude of fissures and rifts inside the Þingvellir National Park, the best known of which are Almannagjá, Hrafnagjá and Flosagjá.

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