Excursion to the Eastern and Western Volcanic Zones, Iceland

August 16-18, 2000

This trip was in connection with the Volcano/Ice Interaction Workshop.

Day 1

Undirhlíðar stop.
This quarry is a great section through a pillow lava formation.
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This is the Seljalandfoss waterfall, but we actually stopped at it on the Mars Polar Trip, rather than this picture from the bus.
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Another shot from the bus looking south over the lowlands out to the Vestmannæyjar Islands. Surtsey is farthest to the right.
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We stopped to take a look at the volcanic sequences from Eyjafjöll.
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Another shot from the bus, and it was my first look at a glacier. This is Eyjafjallajökull.
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We stopped at the Jökulsá river which runs over the Skógasandur and is fed by the Sólheimajökull an outlet glacier of the Mýrdalsjökull glacier.
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We stopped on the Mýrdalssandur outwash plain near Hjörleifshöfði.

We dug into the jökulhlaup sediments. Beneath the pebbley surface the interior was all well-sorted tephra.
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This is a shot looking north at the Mýrdalsjökull.
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In the glacial streams that are running through the sandur, there were these neat, thread-like algae.
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Day 2

This is a shot looking southwest at sea spires from a gas stop in the town of Vík.
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We stopped at a location in the Laki flow that was full of cairns, called Laufskálavarða. It was the former location of a farm, and now people build cairns for luck on their journeys.
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We then turned off the ring road and headed up into the interior. We stopped at a bridge that crossed the Kúðafljót. There were these really cool little layers in the river sediments that I just had to take some pictures of.
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We also stopped in a portion of a large volcanic fissure. The road runs down the center of the old fissure.
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We stopped near a tuya next to a lake on road F208.
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We stopped to have lunch near Bláhnúkur, which is a small subglacial rhyolite volcano, and visited several locations along the Grænagil stream.

Hugh Tuffen pointed out where the base of the Rhyolite stack was exposed, and that it shows evidence of glacial drainage.
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Grænagil itself cut a beautiful canyon through these altered rhyolites and rhyolite flows.
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There was some excellent columnar jointing in rhyolite lava lobes that created tunnels under the ice, and then got dammed up.
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Further down there was lots of green hydrothermal alteration. The dark blobs are obsidian pockets, some of which are deformed. Their vesicles are stretched along their long axes, and the veins you see are full of fine ash.
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The walk from Grænagil back to the bus, had lots of good views of the surrounding geology.
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The Ljótipollur (ugly pool) basaltic explosion crater was our next stop.
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We stopped at some pillow lavas near the Þjórsá river (I think).
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This is a shot from the bus of the active Volcano Hekla which had just erupted in February giving the volcano a black covering of tephra.
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Day 3

This is my first picture of the Langjökull glacier.
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These pictures were taken from road F338 on the way northwest to the Hlöðufell tuya.
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The Sandvatn lake lies beyond the inflated lava surface in the foreground.
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People climbing around a strange-looking outcrop.
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Another bus shot of the glacier.
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This is a long distance shot of Hlöðufell from the southeast.
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There is this weird little crater structure on the side of Þórólfsfell, which is a smaller ridge next to Hlöðufell made up of pillow lava and hyaloclastite. (this picture was taken from inside the bus and that red color is a reflection from someone's jacket in the window)
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Hlöðufell Tuya is a well-known tuya in Iceland.
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This is a picture of the Vestri-Hagafellsjökull outlet glacier of the Langjökull.
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We also stopped along the northwest side of Þórólfsfell to look at some outcrops.
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I believe that this is Stóra-Björnsfell.
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Our last stop was at Þingvellir.
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-Ross Beyer


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