Icelandic officials, activists and others have said goodbye to what once was a glacier, with poetry, moments of silence and political speeches about the urgent need to fight climate change.

Icelandic geologist Oddur Sigurdsson pronounced the Okjokull glacier extinct about a decade ago.

On Sunday he took a death certificate to the made-for-media memorial.

Iceland Glacier
Photos from September 14 1986, left, and August 1 2019 show the shrinking of the Okjokull glacier on the OK volcano (Nasa/AP)

After about 100 people made a two-hour hike up a volcano, children installed a memorial plaque to the glacier, nicknamed OK.

This was the first of Iceland’s glaciers to disappear, but Mr Sigurdsson said all of the nation’s ice masses would be gone in 200 years.

Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir called the glacial loss a consequence of the climate crisis.