Diamond Beach is a strip of jet-black sand covered in shimmering portions of ice. The beach is a stone’s get rid of from Iceland’s Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, a clear lake that ferryboats huge icebergs to the Atlantic Ocean.

The icebergs stem from the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, which releases meltwater and ice into the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon. The bergs and other glacial particles float slackly around the lagoon and ultimately discover their method to the ocean through a brief waterway that runs perpendicular to the shoreline.

Related: Polar bear sleeping on small iceberg wandering in Arctic sea caught in heartbreaking image

Not all the fractured ice makes it out to sea. Blocks of it clean up on Diamond Beach– or “Breiðamerkursandur” in Icelandic– where they shine like gems scattered throughout the black sand, according to Guide to IcelandThe “diamond” impact grows more powerful with time, as the waves and wind polish the stranded ice portions.

Diamond Beach is among numerous black sand beaches in Iceland. The beach owes its striking color to previous volcanic activity that painted the landscape with a kind of dark, runny lava called basaltic lava. This lava solidified into basalt rocks, and these were then ground into black sand by moving glaciers, according to Guide to Iceland.

Diamond Beach sits downstream from Europe’s biggest ice cap, Vatnajökull, which is rimmed on all sides by glaciers– consisting of the Breiðamerkurjökull and neighboring Fjallsjökull glaciers.

And if the bejeweled look of Diamond Beach wasn’t enchanting enough, the sandy stretch is home to seals and is among the very best areas in Iceland to view whale from the coast. It’s likewise an outstanding area to see auroras (likewise called the northern lightsin the winter season, according to Guide to Iceland.