Bárdarbunga eruption: NEMOH fellows among the scientist how manage the crisis

An interview to Hannah Raynolds 

Dear Hannah, the Bárdarbunga eruption has had great relevance around the world. You and Werner are fully involved in managing the crisis. Can you tell us when the crisis started?

An intense seismic swarm began at Bárdarbunga volcano on 16th August, prompting increased monitoring and preparation for a possible eruption.

Thanks to your activity, you gained the front page on a national newspaper. What analysis were you doing when the photo were taken?

Bárdarbunga is a sub-glacial central volcano, beneath the Vatnajökull ice cap, and I was part of a group who went by helicopter to look for signs of activity on the ice surface. While on this task we stopped to clear the ice from a webcam at Kverkfjöll which would potentially have a view of an eruption, and a photo of this earned a place on the cover of Morgunblaðið, an Icelandic national newspaper.

When did the eruption begin, then?

At approximately 01:00 on 29th August a fissure eruption began at the site of the old Holuhraun lavas, north of Dyngjujökull glacier. This coincided with the last night of the NEMOH Iceland field school, and resulted in an exciting night as many of the NEMOH fellows and affiliates stayed up to monitor the activity. Magnús Tumi and I rushed back to Reykjavík during the first hours of the eruption, and attended an emergency meeting at the Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland, where our scientific response was coordinated. By this point the eruption had finished, but I was part of a field team who travelled to the site to investigate the eruption products. The group planned to return to Reykjavík the following day, but were awakened by the alert of a second fissure eruption. Everyone jumped out of bed and got to work straight away to plan the monitoring strategy.

What kind of monitoring strategy?

Tasks included lava flow mapping and sampling for geochemical analysis, and imaging lava flow advancement and lava fountaining using high-speed cameras and an infrared camera. The fissure is located in a very remote part of Iceland, on a flood plain which is prone to sand storms and can be a harsh environment to work in. Many safety issues must be considered while working in the area, including harmful gas levels and hazardous weather, and an awareness of glacial flood risk connected to sub-glacial eruptions.

What are doing now?

Since returning to Reykjavík I have become more involved in glacial monitoring, where surface observations are used to infer what is happening beneath the ice, which covers Bárdarbunga volcano. Overflights are used to take elevation profiles of the ice surface using radar altimetry, and visual observations are made of crevassing which reveal new depressions on the ice surface. I feel very lucky to be able to take part in this!