Bill Menke’s Journal of the 2011 Columbia University Iceland Trip

Trip participants: AJ, An, Anastasia, Bill, Chen, the two Claires, Dan, Hannah, Lisa, Meghan, Nicole and Vansa.

Day 1, Monday, August 22, 2011. We meet up with Ragna, the driver of our tour bus, and with my friend and colleague Bryndis Brandsdottir at the Keflavik airport. It’s raining lightly.

Stop 1A, Reykjanes. We then drive to the lighthouse at the western tip of the Reykjanes peninsula. It’s a picturesque spot, with a tall hill, Valahnukur, that overlooks the sea and is terminated by a tall sea cliff. We drink some of the coffee that Bryndis has brought and then hike up to the top of the hill. The terrain around us is mostly flat lava fields crosses by an eruptive fissure that forms a crater row. A rift valley runs along the north side of the hill, perhaps fifty feet deep and a quarter mile across. It runs into the sea, but has been blocked by an enormous berm of boulders thrown up by waves. The landward part of the valley has a few small ponds and a horse pasture. We climb down to the sea at the base of the hill. The lava plain, which is underlain by unconsolidated tephra, is being undercut by the waves, and collapsing into jagged blocks. The hill consists of a top layer of pillow basalts underlain by a more solid hyaloclastite (cemented tephra). A few pinnacles of hyaloclastite jut out from the sea as stacks. Hannah climbs back up through a large crack in the hyaloclastite that forms sort of a cave.

Stop 1B, Gunnuhver hot spring. We then driver over to the Gunnuhver hot spring, past pools of turquoise blue water that is the effulent from a local power plant. There’s lots of steam and the sulfur smell is really powerfull. The soil is all yellow and tan, from the clays that are the weathering products of the lava. A vent in a large gully is producing huge clouds of steam and boiling water is spraying up into the air from it, too.

Stop 1C, Eruptive Crater. We stop at a nearby eruptive crater and hike up to its rim. It’s about twenty feet high and is breached on one side. The bottom is flat, without any indication of where the lava poured out of the ground. It’s sides have a few small, partially collapsed, lava tubes. It and the lava flows around it are moss-covered. I find a few wildflowers growing amid the blocks.

Stop 1D. Thorbjorn (hill). This distinctive hyaloclastite hill is cut by a large fissure. We stop at its base and walk over to the fissure, which has a scarp several meters high.

Stop 1E. Blue Lagoon. We pay the rather exorbitant entrance fee to this tourist trap and spend a couple of hours bathing in the turquoise blue hot hypersaline water that is the effluent of the Svartsengi geothermal power point. White opal deposits, precipitated from the water, coat almost all its surfaces, in places making terraces of the same type as can be found in the natural hot springs.

Stop 1F. Camping store in Hrafnafjordur. We rented three, large single-burner, propane-fueled propane stoves, two 25-liter coolers and two sets of cooking pots.

Stop 1G. Bonus Supermarket. We loaded up with food. I don’t think that the sales clerk had ever seen such a long register receipt, which totaled 72,780 Kr (about $700).

Stop 1H. Campground in Reykjavik. After setting up our tent, I walk down to a gas station and procure some ice, which was free. We eat fish soup for dinner. My friend and colleague Palli Einarsson and his sin Magnus come by and give us a lecture on Iceland’s volcanoes, using a room in the neighboring hostel. The rain stops and the evening is partially sunny. Bryndis delivers some cooking gear and metal boxes; the latter proved invaluable during the trip, for they helped us organize out food.

Day 2, Tuesday, August 23, 2011. The day is partially sunny. We eat eggs for breakfast at the campground.

Stop 2A, Hellishedi Geothermal Power Plant. This facility is just north of Route 1, on the south flank of the Hengill central volcano, about a half hour drive from Reykjavik. The power house has a central atrium set up for tourists. We take the public guided tour, which includes a walk-about with a guide and a short video. We see, through a glass wall, the turbines and generators, which in aggregate produce about 350 MW of electricity, as we as hot water for space heating. The turbine are big yellow boxes; each generates about 40 MW. The video is pretty good; my experience has been that the graphic arts are excellent in Iceland, and this is no exception.

Stop 2B, The well field. We meet up with Einar Gunnlaugsson, the head of geothermal research at the plant. We don reflective vests and hard hats and go on a bus tour of the facilty, seeing many wellhead and pipes. The well fields are close to an eruptive fissure, which has ricted a neighboring hill, and which has many volcanic craters. We make several stops, some to view the well fields from a distance and one to examine a high-pressure steam well close up. It is being vented into its silencer, which produces a loud roar and huge clouds of steam. We enter a little geodesic dome housing the well head; the pipe is about a foot in diameter. The tour takes up unto the southern flank of Hengill, so we have an excellent view of it and Lake Thingvellir to the north. Einar explains that the fissure ends many kilometers to the north at a volcanic island in the lake.

Stop 2C, Geothermal Field. Einar takes us to a natural geothermal field east of the plant. This one is powered by a fissure from a different central volcano than Hengill, one further south. He reminds us that the geothermal alteration of the ground progresses in stages, with the first brown stage being usually safe to walk upon, but not the more highly-altered yellow and white stages, which can contain cavities prone to collapse. The area reeks of sulfur; indeed we find a deposit of native sulfur by one of the steam vents.

Stop 2D, CarbFix facility. Einar explains that the carbon dioxide injection facility is experimental; meant only to help develop the the technology and not to store a significant amount of that gas. It’s not yet in operation; the wells are in place but the gas separator unit is not yet working. The site has two wells, one for injection and one for monitoring, and several small sheds containing analysis equipment.

Stop 2E, Hveragerdi (village). We stop in this famous hot spring town to buy food at the local supermarket. Ragnar tells us that the library is built over a fissure, with the floor being partially made of glass panels that offer a view. Sure enough, the we can see down into a fissure, a couple of feet wide and perhaps fifteen deep, that has been tastefully lit with Christmas lights.

Stop 2F, Raufarholshellir Lava Cave. This cave is said to be more than a kilometer long, but I traverse only the first few hundreds of meters, for the floor is very rough, consisting of boulders that I suppose have fallen from the roof. The cave is roughly circular in cross-section and is very big, fifty feet of more in diameter. The roof of the first section has fallen in places, making large natural skylights. Past that point, we use headlamps to light the way. Going is very slow, owing to the roughness of the floor. Some parts of the walls are smooth, reflecting the original condition of the tube shortly after it emptied of lava, and it is possible to make out ‘high-water’ (well, ‘high-lava’) marks on them. Most of the group hikes a bit further than I. I return early to the bus to make hot water for tea, for though it is three in the afternoon, the group has not had lunch yet.

Stop 2F. Fissure in the Lake Thingvellir area. We examine a large fissure on the north east corner of Lake Thingvellir. It is about as wide as the road, and although the bottom is fairly bumpy, a hiking trail rund along it. We walk down into it and look at its walls. No slickenslides are evident; the wall seems just to follow pre-existing joints. The vegetation in the Thingvellir area is pretty luxurious for Iceland and especially so in protected areas such as the fissure. Bushes and small trees are abundant, as are wildflowers.

Stop 2G. Almannagja fissure. This is the site of the Althing, the old Icelandic parliament. Ragna drops us off at an overlook at the top. We walk down a wide foot path that ruins in the deep Almannagja fissure, on the western shore of Lake Thingvellir. The western wall is the highest, at least one hundred feet in places. The land to the east of the fissure has been tilted, so that one flay-lying lava flows now form a steeply east-dipping ramp. We cross the Oxara river a little downstream of the point where it falls down the west wall of the fissure, and descend down to lake level (the lale itself being a little to our south). We pass several fissures, filled with deep clear water. People have thrown coins in them – but not me! Ragna meets us in a parking lot not far from a church.

Stop 2H, Thingvellir Campground. The campground is north of the lake, set well-back from its shore and at a considerably higher elevation. Several fissures are close by. After setting up my tent, I walk down the road, trying to find cellular service, for I want to invite Bryndis and Dallas to come up. No luck. I pass several more fissures. I walk down one to a little grove of pine trees. They are about fifteen feet tall and have trunks about five inches in diameter. I have a great view of the hills to the northeast and notice for the first time that one hyaloclastite ridge is surrounded by a broad lava shield. Back at the campground, we have a dinner of chili. Light rain falls, followed by a beautiful rainbow. The last moments of the day are partially clear and the hills to the north are dramatically lit by the setting sun.

Day 3, Wednesday, August 24, 2011. The day is partially sunny. We eat oatmeal for breakfast at the campground.

Stop 3A, Springs in Lake Thingvellir. We drive down to the northwest corner of Lake Thingvellir, a section consisting of with many tiny islets. This area of the lake has many springs; fissures bring water from glaciers to the north. We spot many springs on the shallow lake bottom; in places the lake’s surface is roughened by them. The lake shore is also rich in vegetation.

Stop 3B. Geysir Geothermal Area. A little rain is falling as we arrive. We all stand in a ring around the geyser Strokkur and watch it several of its eruptions, which are spaced a few minutes apart. Between eruptions, Strokur is a still pool, perhaps ten feet in diameter, with an inner mineralized ring and an outer mineralized low mound. The eruption starts with the pool rising up into a blue bubble, with then bursts into tall steam column. The eruption was followed by a second, just a few seconds later. After Strokkur, we toured the rest of the geothermal field. It lacks the strong sulfur smell of several of the other fields that we have visited and has much more mineralized crust. I believe this has something to do with its location, which is well off the central section of the volcanic zone. We visited several boiling and steaming pools, some which were still and others which were throwing up fountains of boiling water. Among these was Geysir, the “original” geyser, which now seldom erupts, but is much like Strokkur in morphology. We stop briefly at the shop. Hannah and I buy matching wool Icelandic hats.

Stop 3C. Gullfoss (waterfall). We began our walk well downstream of the waterfall, taking a hiking trail that ran along the edge of the canyon of the Hvita. This canyon is several hundred feet deep and has near-vertical sides. Several thick layers of columnar-jointed lava are exposed in its sides, sandwiched between layers of cross-bedded volcanoclastic sediments. The waterfall is created one of the lava beds, which is resistant to erosion. We walked up the trail, past luxurious bushes, purple wildflowers, blueberries and mushrooms, to a viewpoint where we could see the falls. It has several levels, the lowest having the highest drop. The river seems to make a Z-shaped jog in this region, with the center section being a north-south gorge into which the lowest level falls. We speculate that this section is fracture-controlled; yet the azimuth does not seem to match the strike of the fissures in that part of Iceland. The trail then ascends to a low overlook just above the falls. Fossil ripple marks are exposed on one of the sedimentary layers just below the falls. We then walk up a staircase to a higher viewpoint. It affords a good view of the falls, but also of Langjokull (glacier) and the jagged hyaloclastic ridges that surround it. It is brightly lit by the afternoon sun and is a beautiful sight. The rock of the overlook shows the polygonal pattern of the top of the columns and has glacial scratches as well. We come within sight of Helka volcano as we drive south.

Stop 3D, Grocery store in Hvolsvollur. Now that we’ve had a few days of cooking, we’ve had a chance to figure out what we’re missing and what things we’re using faster than expected. Skyr (Icelandic yogurt) has been very popular and we stock up.

Stop 3E, Below Solheimajokull (glacier). I was last at this exit glacier of the Myrdalsjokull ice sheet in the summer of 1987. It has retreated by more than a mile since then. We approach through its former valley, driving alongside the stream that issues from its base. Part of the road is along a gravel ridge, which I suppose to be an esker or a median moraine. We stop there for a few minutes.

Stop 3F, Solheimajokull (glacier). We hike through a chaotic terrain of moraines, glacial boulders, stranded blocks of ice, streams and pools. Lisa climbs along a ridge of ice, ten or fifteen feet high. The ground is mostly bare of vegetation, though a little grass has colonized more stable spots. We walk up to the toe of the glacier. It is brown, covered with tephra, one imbedded in the ice, but now accumulated on its melting surface. Only the upper sections, further up the slope of Katla volcano, are white. I find a small piece of ice. Surprisingly, it is crystal clear, with only a few specks of tephra within. We find the cave from which issues the little stream.

Stop 3G, Skogar Campground. The weather has improved and the heights of Eyjafjallajokull glacier are clearly visible as we drive along Route 1. We pull into Skogar campground just as the sun is setting behind the mountain. The campground is a grassy field along the banks of the Skoga river, just below Skogafoss, a large waterfall with a curtain-like downpour of water. It is surrounded by green, grassy hills. The one to our west is quite tall and has a large landslide scar, as well as huge boulders at its base. A farm is nestled against this large hill. Cows and sheep wander about on the river bank opposite us. We set up camp by a hedge and have a dinner of fish fajitas. Tomorrow is the long Fimmvorduhals hike, so we prepare breakfast and lunch tonight so that we can get a early start. I put together a list of ‘must take’ gear (especially water) and pass it around.

Day 4, Thursday, August 25, 2011. The day is sunny. We eat a quick breakfast and then begin our hike.

4A, Fimmvorduhals Hike. We begin by hiking up the wooden staircase next to Skogafoss, pausing at the top to admire the view. We can see the campground below and the Skoga river winding its way through the plain of glacial outwash to the sea. We then follow a footpath that follows the canyon of the river gently uphill, though green grassy terrain. We pass many waterfalls, some on the Skoga itself, others from tributaries. The river has occasional island. One particularly tall one is vegetated with small trees. I presume that this is the natural state, protected from grazing of the sheep by the water. We have a good view of Eyjafjallajokull (glacier) – a broad white dome to our west. We puzzle over an unexpected trail intersection; we have been expecting none. One trail continues to follow the river; the other trail moves further away and seems to follow a ridge. We choose the former, though I believe that both trails probably lead to our destination. We cross occasional high spots that afford especially nice views. We stop on one of these for a snack. Dan, one of the less practiced hikers, is finding the continuous uphill grade tough. I work with him for a while, teaching all the hiking tricks that I have learned over the years: taking small steps (learned from an old lady on my 1976 Grand Canyon hike); going at a slow but steady pace; choosing the ground that is the most firm and avoiding lose sandy soil; detouring around dips in the trail; taking occasional small sips of water; stripping off the jacket when even a little hot; taking frequent but very short rests, to avoid stiffening up. It seems to work; after an hour of so he’s doing fine. The vegetation slowly changes from grass to moss as our elevation increases. We cross a footbridge and then pass a jeep track. There’s much less vegetation at the altitude and the trail is looser and the footing more difficult, owing to all the tephra. We can now see the white dome of Myrdalsjokull (glacier) to our east. The sides of the canyon now have many small springs, starting perhaps two-thirds of the way up and surrounded with vegetation, very reminiscent of Vacy’s Paradise in the Grand Canyon. One sping even has enough flow to make a thin waterfall. We come across a second trail junction, this one with a sign indicationg that Posmork is to our left and Fimmvorduhals is to our right. This proves problematical, for we understand ourselves to be going to both places. We choose the right hand route (correctly as it turned out), believing that Fimmvorduhals is the closer destination. The trail crosses several very dirty snow fields and then ascends a very steep hill. This section is weakly geothermal, with clouds of vapor clinging to the hillside. We are spurred on by the sight of the Fimmvorduhals hut at the top. The hut commands a great three-sixty degree view, with Eyjafjallajokull (glacier) to the left, Mydrasjokull (glacier) to the right, the sea to the south and the mountains of central Iceland (including the horned peaks of Tindfjallajokull) to the north. We have lunch at the hut – I have a tuna sandwich - and then push on northward, through grey tephra hills that wind slowly downward. We pass another intersection, with one trail heading back to Skogar and cross several more snow fields, most of them very dirty from accumulating tepgra on their melted surfaces. Finally, we sight the steaming lava flows and the crater row of the April 2010 Fimmvorduhals fissure eruption. We climb up onto the nearest of the eruptive craters. It is bright orange in color and shrouded with geothermal steam. Its summit, which is cut by a fissure, reeks of sulfur. From this vantage, I can see that the lava flow as impinged upon a greyish tephra ring. Later, Bryndis said that it was from a much older eruption. We continue northward, down a very steep grade that leads to a bare flat tableland about halfway down the mountain. The final descent to the tableland is via a steep gulley where a chain has been affixed for safety. I hold on to it for safety but am able to walk the path without needing it for support. The tableland affords a wonderful view of Myrdalsjokull and several of its exit glaciers, as well as a huge waterfall. The view to the north is also very good. It is really the first time that I’ve seen Tindfjallajokull, a small icecap surrounded by horned peaks. I’m also surprised by the number of small butte-shaped table mountains. They are grass-covered and quite pretty. We exit the tableland via another gulley which leads into a much grassier valley. The trail slowly descends a scree slope decorated with many wildflowers. I can see some sort of natural arch in the distance, but we have no time to investigate it. We rest at the bottom of the scree slope, and then continue onward. We’re still well above the level of our destination, which is in flood plain of the Krossa river. We can see the valley and the braided river, but it is well below us. The last section of the hike is especially tough, for it has steep sections one or two of which need to be rappelled via fixed lines and one of which was a narrow ledge above a deep ravine, as well as a couple of knife edges. These lower slopes are heavily wooded with birch trees up to six of eight feet tall. Finally, the trail becomes an easy walk through birch woods, passing occasional tor and caves, and ending by a hut in the flat part of the valley.

4B, Jeep ride. We are driven back in two jeeps. The view of the Krossa valley and the Posmork mountains to the north is great. We ford many small streams. Our driver points out to us Gigjokull, one of the exit glaciers of Eyjafjallajokull. It became the conduit of a flood during the May 2010 summit eruption and the moraine lake that once graced its base is now completely filled in by sediments. He also points out the narrow entrance to a valley that is said to have been Tolkein’s inspiration for the Mines of Moria. The final part of this leg of our journey is through a farm that is displaying fragments of a military aircraft that crashed onto the glacier during World War Two and was later salvaged from the ice.

4C, Seljalandsfoss (waterfall). We meet up with Ragna and the tour bus in the parking lot near this ribbon of a waterfall.

4D, Skogar campground. We have a quick dinner and then go to bed. Hannah goes through a set of stretching exercises with me, and a few others join in.

Day 5, Friday, August 26, 2011. I awake to sunlight warming the side of my tent. Today is a late day; we’re not leaving until 10 AM. I eat a breakfast of bread and buttermilk.

5A, Vik (village). I am surprised that I can see Myrdalsjokull (glacier) so well from Vik. I suppose that on my many previous visits over the years, the sky has been too cloudy for long vistas. We stop at the municipal swimming pool in Vik, but it is closed. We exchange gas bottles at the local gas station.

5B, Kirkjubaejarklastur (village). The pool at Kirkjubaejarklastur (village) is open. We use the showers to scrub off yesterday’s grime and then hang out in the hot tub for half an hour or so. I’ve never been to this pool; it’s very nice. Afterward, I walk down below the pool to the confluence of a stream and the river and examine the vegetation. I also view a waterfall on a bluff beyond the pool. Looking towards the distant east, I can see the heights of Oraefjajokull volcano and its many glaciers. This is the first time I’ve seen it in its entirety; it’s an impressive edifice.

5C, Laki lava flow. We stop along Route 1 and examine the edge of a lava flow that dates from the great 1783 Laki eruption. We examine the visiculated basalt, which is now covered with thick moss. A nearby hill has a spectacular exposure of much older columnar-jointed lava.

5D, Svinasfelljokull (glacier). We park near the moraine lake of this glacier. I am mystified by Hannah jogging off as soon as we park. She returns a few minutes later with a large chuck of ice and gives it to Meghan, who (unknown to me) has just bumped her head. We walk up a trail along its edge to a point where we can see its upper reaches, dramatically flowing down from Oraefjajokull volcano above. We also walk part of the rim of the moraine lake, which is full of icebergs. We examine the rocks in the moraine. We find quite a few rocks that Meghan says are andesitic; they are mottled brown in color, with inch-wide amphibole crystals. Others are white and felsic. Parts of the moraine are covered over with Alaskan Lupin, a plant that was introduced to control erosion. Now it’s just another invasive pest that the Icelanders would like to get rid of. It has pretty purple flowers, reminiscent of hyacinth, and many seed pods. By climbing another, adjacent morine, I can see nearby Skaftafelljolull (glacier) and the impressive arête beyond. This glacier has an interesting median moraine, a grey strip that runs down it, just left of center.

5E, Skaftafell National Park. We set up our tents in a grassy field below the wooded hill – Stafafell - that composes the central part of the park. It’s started to rain lightly. A group of us hike up to see the waterfall, following a wide footpath that ascends through low birch woods. I had everyone sit down so that we can enact the old ‘What do you do when lost in an Icelanic forest?’ joke. We stood up. The hill is dissected by several stream flowing in deep gullies. We first encounter Hundafoss (waterfall), and then after crossing a footbridge, Svartifoss (waterfall). The latter exposes beautiful columnar jointing. The land below the falls is littered with broken columns, some perfect hexagonal prisms two feet across. I take off my shoes and wade a bit in the stream below the falls. It is very cold. We encounter an old stone foundation beside the trail, and also an old steel plow. The sun begins to shine as we head back, lighting up the wildflowers and other vegetation. Back at the campground, we eat chili over rice and compose troll jokes.

Day 6, Saturday, August 27, 2011. It’s another sunny day. We eat a quick breakfast of hash browns and eggs and then walk over to the Glacier Guide hut to be fitted with crampons, harness and ice ax. We also meet our two guides, Einar and Eirikur.

6A, Fjallsjokull (glacier) hike. Einar drives us over to the glacier in an old yellow school bus and parks in an old gravel quarry. We hike through an old, well-vegetated morine and then through a fresh moraine that dates from the 1990’s. The latter contains many stranded blocks of ice, covered with till, that are slowly melting. This is pretty chaotic terrain with an ever-shifting pattern of streams. We cross a little footbridge over a dry gully. Einar says it had a little stream under it a few weeks ago. We don our crampons upon reaching the toe of the glacier, which at this point is a smooth ramp. Its surface is salt and pepper colored; black tephra mixed in with crystal clear ice and is rather rough to the touch. Small streams are meanding across the surface of the ice. Einar shows us a triangular pile of tephra with an ice core. he says it started as a tephra-filled hole in the ice, but as the ice melted the insulating quality of the tephra caused the topography to reverse. He also shows us “glacial mice”, moss-covered stones that occur in colonies on the surface of the glacier. They slowly roll about and thus have moss on all sides. We stop to examine a water-filled pit or sink called a moulin. Einar tells us that they can empty instantaneously when a connection forms withing the ice, sometimes causing a fountain further down on the glacier. We climb one-by-one into a little tunnel, and then in a different occasion, climb through a hole in an ice cave into a shallow crevasse. Einar and Eirikur carefully steer us around deeper crevasses which constitute a serious hazard. We stop for lunch in a spot beneath the ice fall that dominates the upper part of the glacier. Enormous teeth of ice protrude from its broken surface. We stop by several more moulins on the way back; both have glacial streams emptying into them, causing small waterfalls. The views during this hike have been fantastic. We can see all of Fjallsjokull (glacier) and many of the neighboring glaciers as well. We can also see the upper reaches on Oraefajokull volcano, high above us, and the many jagged rocky peaks that protrude from the ice. The view is also very nice back at the campground. I spend some time photographing Oraefajokull volcano from that vantage, too.

6B, Jokulsarlon (glacial lagoon). The sun is shining beautifully as we approach the suspension bridge that crosses the channel that connects the glacial lagoon to the sea. The icebergs that have calved off Breidamerkurjokull (glacier), one of the huge exit glaciers of the Vatnajokull ice sheet. The tide is flowing in and seals are frolicking among the icebergs. The icebergs do not seem as blue as when I visited them previously, in 1993 and 1997. A wheeled tour boat is crossing the lagoon. Looking across the lagoon, I can see steep bright-white cliffs on the toe of Breidamerkurjokull where icebergs have formed. We stand on a little hill near the parking area and admire the view. I point out that the lava flows exposed on the mountainside to our northeast are westward dipping, a pattern common to many of the beds in this area. We are treated to other great views of Vatnajokull and its exit glaciers on the way back. Back at Skaftafells campground, I spend a half hour trying to fix one of our Primus stoves, which appears to have a partially blocked orifice. No luck. We have rice and chili for dinner.

Day 7, Sunday, August 28, 2011. We eat hash brown potatoes for breakfast. We pack up amid a little light rain.

7A, The East Coast. Our drive along Iceland’s eastern coast is very beautiful. It’s clear enough to see many of Vatnajokull’s exit glaciers. The sea is surprisingly clam, much calmer than I would have supposed the North Atlantic to be. We see many instances of westward dipping lava beds, many of which are intruded by mafic dikes.

7B, Ancient Magma Chamber. Bryndis gave me the coordinates of an old magma chamber noteworthy for having both a white, felsic magma and a green-gray mafic magma that are intermixed: 64:25:29.18 N, 14:32:24.01 W, a location just east of Route 1, just north of the first stream crossing north of Hvalnes. The mixed magmas prove a very interesting puzzle for our petrologists, especially over the issue of whether the mafic material predated the felsic material, or whether the two were formed simultaneously. The consensus was for the latter, since they seemed to have the same mineral suites, just in different proportions.

7C, The Sedimentary Layer. For years I have aware that sedimentary laers are sandwiched between Iceland’s mant lava flows. One in particular is indicated by a black line on my geologic map and labeled a “major sedimentary horizon with lignite”. But until today I have never been able to identify one. Today, we passed an outcrop of this greenish layer on the northern shore of Berufjordur (fjord).

7D, Stodvarfjordur (village). The students visited Petra’s Rock Museum, while I walked down to the local bank and used the ATM. The sun is now shining and the view of the fjord is very nice. The village has a small rectangular harbor for its fishing fleet.

7E, Tunnel. I am surprised to see that a new and very long tunnel has been built between Faskrudsfjordur and Reydarfjordur (fjords).

7F, Egilstadir. We stop at the supermarket at this town. I buy marinated lamb for a barbeque. I also walk over to the gas station an buy more “minutes” for our cell phone. We have a nice view of Lagarfljot (lake) as we head west.

7G, Hrossaburg Tephra Ring. Ragna drives the bus right into this partial tephra ring. We get out and examine the outward-dipping strata exposed in the gap in the ring.

7H, Reykjahlid (village) Campground. We set up camp in a grassy hollow that escaped inundation by the 1724 lava flows, which almost completely surround it. We encounter the “my”, which is to say midges. At first I am worried that we have picked to damp a spot and the midges are concentrated there. But no, the midges are everywhere. They look like small flies, but surprisingly, they do not bite. They are seriously annoying, though.

7I, House in Reykjahlid (village). We meet up with Bryndis Brandsdottir, Brandur Karlsson and Dallas in a house owned by the University of Iceland. Bryndis and I fire up the gas-fueled grille on the deck and cook the lamb, while the students prepare the salad. After dinner, Bryndis gives us an overview of the Krafla Central Volcano and makes suggestion on sites we should visit. I stay at the house for the night; most of the rest of the group returns to the campground.

Day 8, Monday, August 29, 2011. The day is partly cloudy. Meghan makes us all French Toast for breakfast at the university house and Bryndis makes real coffee (all of us except Hannah have been living off of the instant variety).

8A, Viti Crater. The explosion of Viti on May 17, 1724 was the start of the Myvatn Fires, which inundated much of the area around Reykjahlid in lava. We hike around its raised rim and peer down into its blue water. The rim dips down on the Krafla (mountain) side and we encounter geothermal activity – mudpots, boiling pools, steam vents and a stream. The stream is merely lukewarm to my touch. Several sheep are hanging out in the hollow, but trot away as we approach.

8B, Leihnukur Geothermal Area. Bryndis has suggested that we take a broad loop to the west and north, avoiding the geothermal area (which is similar to others that we have seen) and concentrating on the crater rows and lava flows beyond. We cross several fissures as we walk westward. We then cut south towards what appears to be an old crater row, probably from the Eighteenth Century eruption. We cross old, grey mossy lava and a narrow flow of much fresher black lava from the 1976 eruption. We pass many old lava tubes and channels. We then hike north along the crater row. It is on the eastern edge of a broad lowland and we can look down into a region of both old and young flows, plus a few “islands” of original soil that were missed by both. We cross a “lava waterfall” where the Twentieth Century lava has poured down off the crater row into the lowland. We enter an area of Twentieth Century crater rows that are still steaming and which reek of sulfur. Must of the lava is black in color, but I come across one section that is yellowish-white – encrusted with sulfur. We pass one final crater, a pretty cone about forty feet high, broken on one side, and then cut across to an overlook by the geothermal field. There we sit on benches watching the steam and boiling water and enjoying the colors, which are vivid yellows and browns. This geothermal area has a larger pond than most. We have a nice view of Krafla (mountain) and the Viti crater. I buy a packet of Hraun, a popular candy that looks like its namesake, lava, from a vendor in the parking lot. Our drive back takes us through the Krafla Geopthermal Power Plant.

8B, Hverfjall Tephra Ring. We park near a small pond at the base of this grey hill of loose tephra. dan and I speculate that the pond may represent drainage from inside Hverfjall, which is a completely enclosed cone, but very porous. We hike up to the rim from the northwest corner and then head southward, along the western section of the rim. We have great view of neighboring features: the Raven fissure, the steam plumes from the geothermal areas near Reyljahlid, Myvatn (lake) and its pseudocraters, the Dimmuborgir lava lake and several smaller tephra cones, including Ludent. I am pleased that the graffiti at the bottom of Hverfjall that was there for my last 1996 visit, lines of stones that spelled out people’s initials, is gone. We then descend via many switchbacks (enforced by rope rails) and hike southeast along a track. The trees in this area are much taller and much more numerous than I remember them. We cross several small fissures, one with an extensiometer that looks like it dates from the 1970’s. We stop on a huge, very old crater row and climb to the top of one of the craters. We struggle up the steep side only to find that the crater is U-shaped; the interior trail would have been much easier. We have come about three kilometers and can now see the Ludent tephra ring and the neighboring dacite lava flow, but it is another kilometer away. Some of the group decide to wait by the fissure while I lead the rest across a hummocky heath to the flow. The toe of this very viscous lava flow stands at least fifty feet high, in contrast to just six feet for the typical basalt flows that are ubiquitous in Iceland. The dacite is green-black in color and very fine grained. Trees are growing on it, some looking rather bonsai. We take the same route back, but lose Lisa briefly when she crosses the crater row and is blocked from our view by the topography, producing a few moments of anxiety. We return to Hverfjall and take the trail through the old Dimmuborgir lava lake. It contains many lava pillar, though to be steem vents that solidified before the lava lake drained. The trail winds among the pillars and passes through a large natural arc. Some of the pillars are smooth, with “high lava marks”, others just loose lava blocks. The area has lots of vegetation and some rather tall trees, I guess because it is protected from both the wind (naturally, by the topography) and from sheep (on account of its being a park). We are pretty tired by the time we reach the entrance, where Ragna is waiting for the bus.

8C, Search for Vansa. Vansa’s knee had been hurting, so she had stayed in Reykjahlid for the afternoon. We spent quite a bit of time driving about, trying to find her. She was sitting on a chair outside the Campground office. She said that that area was free of the ubiquitous midges and quite pleasant, perhaps because nearby artificial lighting attracted them.

8D, Reykjahlid Municipal Pool. We dropped by the spa by the geothermal area, but judged it too expensive at $25. So we went to the Municipal Pool ($4), and spent an hour taking showers and sitting in the hot tub. It is heated artificially, and so lacks the ambiance of a geothermal spa, but is still very nice. We outlasted the midges; they dissipated as the evening grew darker and cooler. We had a relaxing time back at the campground, eating a dinner of pasta shells and pesto.

Day 9, Tuesday, August 30, 2011. The morning is clear. I arise early and hike up onto a local hill that affords a great view of Myvatn (lake) and its pseudocraters and Reykjahlid (village). The Hverfjall tephra ring is lit by the morning sun and is especially beautiful. Back at the campsite, I eat oatmeal from breakfast.

9A, Godafoss (waterfall). The morning is very clear and this waterfall is breathtakingly beautiful. Skjalfandafljot (river) has rather modest flow, way smaller than, say, the Hvita at Gullfoss, yet the falls are especially nice. As with Gullfoss, they are created by a thick lava flow.

9B, Akureyri (city). We stop briefly by the Akureyri bus stop. I walk along the harbor, past sailboats, to a shopping area where I use the ATM and but soda at the Subway.

9C, Blonduos (village). We stop briefly for a snack. I buy another soda.

9D. Kjolur (highland road). Ragna now drives the bus south, taking Kjolur (highland road) through the highlands of central Iceland. It passes between two of the big ice sheets, Hofsjokull and Langjokull. This is the first time that I’ve taken this track; back in 1993 I took the alternative Sprengisandur track that passes between Hofsjokull and Vatnajokull. As one drives south, the vegetation becomes sparser and sparser, until the land becomes a highland desert; just rocks and soil with just an occasional clump of vegetation. I tell Hannah that you really need to drive through central Iceland to understand the Icelandic culture. The whole center of Iceland is uninhabitable; only the lowlands ringing the coast are suitable for farming and for habitation.

9E, Hveravellir Hot Spring Field. This field is reminiscent of the Geysir field. The ground is covered with mineralized crust, most of the springs have mineralized rims, little yellow clay is evident and the sulfur smell is very mild, if not absent. I suppose that this similarity is related to the position of the two field, both which are on the periphery of a neovolcanic zone. We walk around on a boardwalk, viewing several small geysirs spewing boiling water, a small waterfall with mineralized terraces, a bubbling mud pot and several steam vents, one with a mineralized edifice that looks like a mini-volcano and which is spewing a continuous cloud of steam.

9F, Hofsjokull (glacier). The weather is clear enough that we can see the flank of Hofsjokull volcano, with many exit glaciers flowing down from the icecap on its summit. Ragnar stops the bus for me and I take a few photos.

9G, Port-a-potties by the roadside. We have gone past the crest of the highlands and are returning now to vegetated territory. I examine the vegetation while others use the facilities.

9H, Gullfoss (waterfall). We stop at the shop at Gullfoss for a coffee break. The students write out a thank-you card for our driver, Ragnar, who has been so helpful during our trip.

9I, During the final section of road, a group of students sing a bawdy song that they have composed in honor of the end of our trip.

9J, Reykjavik Campground. We set up camp in the same spot as last Monday. We manage to set up in dry weather, but light rain begins to fall shortly afterward and continues through the night. Bryndis drops by and she and Hannah return the rented camping gear and the other gear that Bryndis, herself, had provided.

Day 10, Wednesday, August 31, 2011. The day is cloudy with occasional light rain. This final day of our trip is unscheduled; each of us can do as we want.

10.A, University of Iceland. I go with Bryndis to the University of Iceland, and spend some time examining Bryndis’ volcanic tremor data. I have lunch with Ingi Bjarnason, a former Lamonter, in the University cafeteria.

10.B, Sjavarbarinn Restaurant. In the evening, Hannah and I take a long walk along Saebraut, an avenue that follows the edge of the sea. We pass the new music hall, a tastefully-done structure which was built after my last visit. We wind up at the Sjavarbarinn sea food restaurant near the port where we meet most of the rest of our group. I have haddock, which was quite good. The proprietor, learning of my taste for rotten shark, presents me with a complimentary platter of it, together with a shot of Brennivín, an Icelandic schnappes.

10.C, Brandur Karlsson’s party. Many of us drop by Brandur Karlsson’s apartment, where we sit around chatting and having an impromptu party. Bryndis gives us a ride back to the campground.

Day 11, Thursday, September 1, 2011. We wake early and pack up. Light rain is falling, so we put all our baggage in the lobby of the nearby youth hostel. Ragnar arrives with the bus at 7:40AM and drives us over to Keflavik Airport. It’s been a fabulous trip.