Fieldwork around volcano Askja
Two weeks in August were spent in Iceland and started with a fieldwork campaign around the volcano Askja in the central highlands. My tall nephew Adrian Heldrup had volunteered to be our field assistant, which he was the perfect candidate for as it is an advantage to be tall for the levelling measurements. We went more or less straight from Reykjavík to the north, but not before Adrian was interviewed by Swedish newspaper, Sydsvenskan. When we left the central station in Lund the evening before, Adrian’s mother Helena took a photo of us and posted it on Facebook. This post got viral and ended up with a journalist at Sydsvenskan, who was writing articles about people doing odd kinds of summer holidays. Hence, Adrian going to Iceland to measure volcanoes was the perfect candidate for such a story and he ended up with a whole page article ‘Adrian, 24, ska mäta vulkaner på semestern‘. However, this was only the beginning of the media attention. Upon arrival in Mývatn and meeting up with Melissa Pfeiffer and Michelle Parks from the Icelandic Meteorological Institute (Veðurstofa Íslands), they informed us that journalists and camera men from both Iceland National Broadcast Association, RÚV (ruv.is) and the newspaper Morgunblaðið (mbl.is) were joining us the first day to Askja. First of all, we had to wait for an exchange of rental car for one set of journalists because on the way to Askja you have to pass the river Lindá, which requires a proper size 4×4 car and they were given a Suzuki Jimmy. Finally, we were on our way with three Toyota Landcruisers and a Hilux. Adrian learned how take air out of the tires when going on the highland roads and to drive a big car like ours. Erik, Adrian, and I were staying in the university house (our work was carried out on behalf of University of Iceland), whereas Melissa and Michelle were staying in Dreki (dragon in Icelandic), the mountain huts. It turned out that several groups of researchers were staying at Dreki. There were probably more researchers and students compared to tourists, which is unusual. The reason being the recent years of uplift around Askja, i.e. magma flowing in under the volcano making an eruption a probability. Our work was exactly to measure how much new uplift has happened to the area, and that is done by measuring the same levelling line each year and deploying GPS stations. The only downside of this fieldwork is all the heavy gear you have to carry over uneven lava fields, so it was good to have extra help. Former colleague and geophysicist, Ásta Rut Hjartardóttir were luckily there to help once more, and so did Michelle and Melissa when they had finished their own work of water and gas sampling. We were lucky with the weather and the field campaign was a success. And we were able to show that uplift is still taking place at the same rate around Askja as the previous year. Melissa and Erik got interviewed, partly in Icelandic, and this led to several news posts on RÚV and a nice article on mbl.is: Mikinn kraft þarf til að taka tappann úr Heklu. The title refers to another volcano Hekla, which Erik and others managed to measure just days before going to Askja, and that volcano is showing uplift, too. Adrian did a good job as field assistant. He got to meet a lot of crazy but dedicated researchers, and take part in the Rangers’ annual Christmas party in Dreki. After the fieldwork, Adrian and I took two days of vacation in the north and visited Dettifoss, Ásbyrgi, Húsavík, the Eurovision museum, whale safari, the GeoSea Spa, and Goðafoss. Erik was picked up by a group from Stockholm University to lead their excursion around northern and eastern Iceland. Lastly, I should not forget to mention that we managed to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary during the fieldwork with a nice dinner at restaurant Mylla in Reykjahlíð.
