Video shows a 'river of fog' rolling off the coast of Iceland

The eerie phenomenon seems to be a case of 'temperature inversion'

(Kjartan Gunnsteinsson)

A video has emerged of the bizarre sight of fog falling down a cliff like a waterfall in one of the most inhabitable areas of Iceland.

Kjartan Gunnsteinsson shot the "river of fog" at Latrabjarg, Europe's largest bird cliff in Iceland's southern West Fjords. The area is known for its rugged environment and only 7,5000 people live in 22,000 square kilometres of land.

Normally, hot air will cool as it rises into the atmosphere, but the opposite can sometimes occur in what is known as "temperature inversion." Thus, what Gunnsteinsson has captured is hot air high up acting as a seal to keep cold air and fog trapped below, creating the scene of a river of fog seeming to flow into the sea below.

The bizarreness of the scene caused many on social media to assume the pictures Gunnsteinsson initially published on Facebook were a hoax, but he said that it was 100 percent real.

"When I first put the pictures online, people said they were fake," he said. "But I can assure you this waterfall of fog is a 100 per cent genuine. Therefore I have decided to add the video as well to prove it."