Kárahnjúkar Dam is a 198 m high CFRD dam, the highest of this type in Europe and one of the highest CFRD dams in the world. The dam is built at the upstream end of the Hafrahvammar canyon with up to 90 m high vertical sidewalls within the dam area. The central portion of the Dam was designed to support high stresses and avoid spalling of the concrete face slab. Elastic joints in the slab were introduced at the first time. Several other new design features were also introduced. The diversion works were even more smartly designed, which deserves to be published. The fill volume of the dam is about 9 million m3. In spite of the very slim crest and high FS-Water level, the dam behaves excellently after reservoir filling.

The project is owned by Landsvirkjun, the National Power Company in Iceland.