Gullfoss
This is the famous Gullfoss that you see on the Golden Circle tour in Iceland. The 'Gull' part of the name is approximately pronounced like 'gult' in English (but further back in the mouth and with a hiss of air a bit like 'll' in Welsh). The thing is that this reveals the connection with 'gilt' or 'golden' in English. 'Foss' is waterfall in English, so what we have here is 'The Golden Waterfall'. The golden idea may be because of colours in the spray or perhaps reflections of the setting sun on the water surface. The river is the Hvítá, or White River, probably so named because of the rock flour which turns the water milky - the river drains the icecap Langjökull (sort of pronounced Lang-jurkult, but with that small explosion of air on the 'lt' at the end). The contrasting angles of the two stages of the waterfall reflect widespread fault directions in Iceland, the result of its particular tectonic history.
Gullfoss
This is the famous Gullfoss that you see on the Golden Circle tour in Iceland. The 'Gull' part of the name is approximately pronounced like 'gult' in English (but further back in the mouth and with a hiss of air a bit like 'll' in Welsh). The thing is that this reveals the connection with 'gilt' or 'golden' in English. 'Foss' is waterfall in English, so what we have here is 'The Golden Waterfall'. The golden idea may be because of colours in the spray or perhaps reflections of the setting sun on the water surface. The river is the Hvítá, or White River, probably so named because of the rock flour which turns the water milky - the river drains the icecap Langjökull (sort of pronounced Lang-jurkult, but with that small explosion of air on the 'lt' at the end). The contrasting angles of the two stages of the waterfall reflect widespread fault directions in Iceland, the result of its particular tectonic history.