Wow, that's a LOT of water...solid AND liquid.
My flight to Iceland on Iceland Air was the most comfortable and enjoyable experiences I have had on an airplane. Our team met briefly for a few moments before boarding the plane in Boston, and approximately five hours later we touched down at Keflavik Airport about 50 miles outside of Reykjavik. Our flight over the North Atlantic was full of some pretty stunning views, and an amazing midnight sunset!
This is my view of the Greenland Ice Sheet while looking out the plane window on the way to Iceland. Thanks to my seat neighbors on the plane, I was able to get a few pictures of Greenland as we flew over. Thanks Kathy and Andy!
The first thing I noticed about Iceland that was truly unique was, in all honesty, their tap water! Here at the apartment complex we are staying at for the next few days, the hot water smells strongly of sulfur. The reason for this strong smell is because nearly all tap water here is heated by heat exchange with geothermal groundwater; which is WIDELY abundant on this highly volcanic island. It's pretty neat to know that the energy used to heat the water for my shower here this morning was entirely green. :)
This is the view of Reykjavik from the University of Iceland with the lava flow mountain Esja in the background.
University Logistics Meeting
When we woke up the morning after arriving in Iceland, we headed straight to the University of Iceland's Earth Sciences Building to begin our logistics and equipment briefing.
After a light breakfast, and a not so mild attempt to adjust to the new time zone, our team headed to the University of Iceland to meet our international collaborators and hold a briefing on logistics for the expedition. Our Icelandic and Swedish teammates have been very welcoming and generous in their efforts to help us get settled in and prepared for our departure for Mulajokull. I made sure to learn the most important Icelandic word from them right off the bat, mostly because I will be using with them many times over the next two days: 'Thank you' is 'Takk' in Icelandic.
This is only a SMALL sample of the gear and equipment we will be bringing along to Mulajokull.
The majority of the team assembled for the first time to review a map of the geomorphology of the Mulajokull landscape. In clockwise you see: Luke, Neal, Reba, Ivar, Sverr, Libby, and Tom. You will learn MUCH more about the members of our team in the coming days and weeks.
Ever wonder what kind of detailed logistics come into play for a remote scientific expedition like this? Well, here is a quick snapshot of a SMALL portion of what our meeting was all about:
- helicopter schedule for Wednesday and Thursday
- important stream crossings and camp site locations
- till sample data collection plans
- locations of where rivers have cut through drumlins, exposing deeper layers of till that we can sample without the need to dig that far down by hand and jackhammer
- how much kerosene is needed for community tent heater?
- how much gasoline is needed for our generator?
- which color cans are the gasoline and kerosene stored in!? what language are they marked in!?
- whether to mix two stroke fuel for our jackhammers now or on sight
- how many people can fit in the cook tent?
- where exactly will we haul and filter our water from?
- where will be put our latrine? how long will it typically last before filling? how far down should we dig it?
- where is the nearest warm spring to wash up or bathe?
- should we use the helicopter to drop the ground-penetrating radar and jackhammers closer to the drumlins than camp? if so, do they need to be stored in a tent?
- how will we best transport food in the helicopters? how will we keep it cold and safe from Arctic foxes when we get there?
- garbage sorting and maintenance
- how much toilet paper should we bring???!!
As you can tell, there were a lot of very important details to cover in a short amount of time. I am feeling very comfortable with the leaders of the expedition, and their expertise and experience at Mulajokull over the last few years is proving to be very helpful in our preparations for this expedition.
Testing the GPR
After the meeting, a small group began testing out the Ground-Penetrating Radar device that will be used on the ice and ice margin to try and identify where drumlins may be forming underneath the ice margin, as well as to try and identify each individual layer of till composing each drumlin. Much, much, much more information on the GPR once we get it in the field and Luke and I are out and about using it. For today, Luke and Reba worked to make sure all off the connections and software were operating properly.
Luke and Reba begin assembling and testing out the Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) device that we will bring along to Mulajokull.
Attaching the fiber-optic cable between the GPR interface computer and antenna box.
Access Granted!
To close out the afternoon, we headed to the nearest Siminn location to acquire our 3G USB modems and back-up cell phone. All tests went well, and I even managed to Google chat with my wife and daughter before heading back here to the apartment!
Testing out the new Siminn USB modem. Connection to the Icelandic 3G network went just as planned, and I successfully sent a few tests over the web; including this journal post!
We depart for Mulajokull tomorrow afternoon! We will drive by 4x4 vehicles as far inland as we can before the road ends. There, we will camp and spend the night with the vehicles. On Thursday morning, the helicopter will arrive to begin transporting the team and sling-loading all of our equipment and gear to the site of our base camp in the forefield of Mulajokull.
The next time I write will be from base camp!
Cheers, Jamie