NEMOH Iceland field school
by Hannah Reynolds and Werner Wittmann
The second NEMOH field school took place from 22-29 August in Iceland. Participants stayed at Hotel Leirubakki, with a beautiful view of Hekla volcano. All 18 NEMOH fellows attended the school, and were joined by 13 affiliated participants. The participants’ academic backgrounds ranged from Mathematics to Geology, and with nationalities from 16 different countries made for a very diverse group. The school comprised four lecture days, which were interspersed by three field days.
Day one aimed to give students a grounding of topics which would be covered during the school, including an introduction to Icelandic volcanism (Magnús Tumi Gudmunsson, University of Iceland) and case studies of ground deformation in both Iceland and Italy (Freysteinn Sigmundsson, University of Iceland and Giuseppe Puglisi, INGV Catania). Later days went into more detail regarding both theoretical and applied aspects of techniques such as InSAR (Andy Hooper, University of Leeds) and GPS (Karolina Michalczewska, University of Iceland). Alan Linde (Carnegie Institute of Washington) gave several lectures which explored the complexities of installing strain meters in active tectonic areas, providing many interesting case studies. Students also undertook exercises related to each of these techniques, and gained practical experience of installing GPS campaign stations and levelling lines with NEMOH fellow Werner Wittmann.
The school also gave participants the opportunity to discover the amazing scenery and geology of Iceland during fieldtrips. The first field day focussed on the erupted products from Hekla volcano, investigating tephra layers and lava flows. This trip also gave the group the opportunity to see several of the permanent monitoring stations in the area. During the second field day the group visited Laumannalaugar and the Eldgjá graben, led by Ármann Höskuldsson (University of Iceland). The final field trip included a visit to Hengill geothermal power station, as well as stops at some of Iceland’s most popular tourist sites – Geysir, Gullfoss and Thingvellir.
While the school focussed primarily on Hekla, Bárdarbunga volcano deserves a special mention. An episode of increased seismic activity begun at Bárdarbunga one week prior to the school, and Iceland’s seismic network allowed for near real time tracking of the movement of magma deep below Vatnajökull glacier. Freysteinn provided an update each day, inspiring a great deal of group discussion, and was often joined by Elías Rafn Heimisson (University of Iceland) who gave a number of presentations on his models fitting the GPS data. On the final day of the school the dyke reached the surface, producing a fissure eruption at the site of the Holuhraun lavas.
The second NEMOH field school was an unforgettable and unique experience, both due to the skills learnt, friendships and connections made, and the perfect timing of Bárdarbunga’s eruption.
