Todays update from Iceland comes from intrepid guest blogger Erica Dewell, an MSc student at the University of Dundee...
Hello from the latest field campaign at the BGS's glacier observatory at Virkisjökull in southeast Iceland. We’re a diverse group here this trip, with people hailing from BGS, University of Dundee, Wallingford Hydrosolutions, and Helsinki University & Technical Research Centre of Finland VTT. Our home here is wonderfully situated below a waterfall and between two glaciers: Svinafellsjökull, and Virkisjökull. For all the Game of Thrones nerds reading, you might be excited to know that Svinafellsjökull happens to be where the scenes North of the Wall were filmed!
Virkisjökull and its sandur |
Hello from the latest field campaign at the BGS's glacier observatory at Virkisjökull in southeast Iceland. We’re a diverse group here this trip, with people hailing from BGS, University of Dundee, Wallingford Hydrosolutions, and Helsinki University & Technical Research Centre of Finland VTT. Our home here is wonderfully situated below a waterfall and between two glaciers: Svinafellsjökull, and Virkisjökull. For all the Game of Thrones nerds reading, you might be excited to know that Svinafellsjökull happens to be where the scenes North of the Wall were filmed!
The activities have been as diverse as the group, with sediment
sampling, stream flow gauging, ablation stake measuring, and piezometer data
downloads all happening on our first working day. Since then, we’ve continued
to do more of the same, with the addition of dye tracing tests on Fallajökull
and Virkisjökull, groundwater and surface water chemistry sampling, and the
collection of microbiological samples from groundwater, springs, the river, the
lake, snow, and ice. In general the activities here are related to the holistic
study of the catchment system, specifically as it relates to a rapidly melting
glacier. The microbiological component was new this trip: it is to assess the
changes in microbial communities, mainly through molecular biology based on
DNA.
Half of the group had never been to Iceland before this trip, and
are completely charmed by the waterfalls, volcanic rocks and the gorgeous,
albeit odd, landscape. Iceland provides quite a stark contrast of scenery in a
very short distance, with the flat, barren sandur just in front of the steep
iced slopes of Virkisjökull and its surrounding mountains. Most feel as though
we’re on a trip to the Moon or Mars, but love this weird world we landed in.
The Virkisjökull glacier is particularly impressive, and is one of
the many places in Iceland where the power of nature is so evident. Looking
like a mix of Mordor and the North Pole, Virkisjökull provides great views when
eating lunch. It’s a really ice-olated place (sorry), and is very quiet besides
the sounds of meltwater flowing into moulins and the occasional creak of an
imminent icefall. Despite the dangers of snow-covered crevasses, we were quite
safe and well prepared with Verity’s clever system of roping up the group of
three that head to the glacier. Impressively, when one of the three simulated
falling down a crevasse (by running hard in the opposite direction), the other
two barely felt the impact, as the rope holds and absorbs the weight of the
fallen ice-climber. Fortunately, this has not been tested with a real crevasse
yet. The team was also introduced to the system of crocheting the rope together
after use, so that it doesn’t tangle, and is easy to unravel (not to mention,
really fun to do). Despite the sore feet that come with climbing glaciers, the
views and fun are definitely worth it.
Crocheting Safety Ropes |
The glacial river, Virkisá, has been gauged on several occasions
throughout the trip, and has produced its fair share of challenges each time, the
most memorable of which include unintentionally fishing for rocks with the tape
measure (and having to cut the tape as a result), having the current flowing so
strong it carried pieces of the flow gauging equipment away with it and having
a shorter member of the team state “I can’t feel the bottom!!” while “trolling”
beneath the bridge.
In the other extreme of the terrain, the sandur, other members of
the team were busy digging pits to collect sediment samples. The samples have
to be dried before they are sorted, so that has resulted in baking a lot of
dirt …
Yum – rock cakes! |
by Erica Dewell, MSc student at the
University of Dundee
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