{"id":358,"date":"2011-08-17T14:37:29","date_gmt":"2011-08-17T13:37:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/all-geo.org\/volcan01010\/?p=358"},"modified":"2011-08-17T15:19:01","modified_gmt":"2011-08-17T14:19:01","slug":"grimsvotn-3-truck-pictures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/volcan01010\/2011\/08\/grimsvotn-3-truck-pictures\/","title":{"rendered":"Gr\u00edmsv\u00f6tn 3 – Bonus truck pictures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last month, the Institute of Earth Sciences<\/a> of the University of Iceland and the Iceland Glaciological Society<\/a> organised an expedition to Gr\u00edmsv\u00f6tn to study the deposits of the eruption that took place there in May.\u00a0 This post describes some of the difficulties in working on the debris-covered glacier.\u00a0 There are other posts describing the adventurous journey up to the volcano (Gr\u00edmsv\u00f6tn 1 – Crossing the glacier<\/a>), and the huge volume of material produced during the eruption (Gr\u00edmsv\u00f6tn 2 – What was in the plume?<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Hiking in the clouds<\/h3>\n

The journey across the glacier had been slow, as patchy cover of volcanic-debris and uneven melting had created a maze-like landscape of ridges and platforms on the surface of the glacier.\u00a0 It was decided that the best way to get to the interesting geology would be to hike the 5 km from the huts.\u00a0 The cloud was down, it was 2 degrees C, damp and windy.\u00a0 The loose pumice and ash were soft underfoot.\u00a0 Visibility was 20-100 m and navigation on the featureless terrain was by GPS.\u00a0 The hike took 3 fairly-miserable hours in each direction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nIt was decided that the best way to get to the interesting geology would be to somehow get the trucks through to where the surface was more continuous.<\/p>\n

Building a road<\/h3>\n

The following afternoon, a ‘road’ was constructed.\u00a0 Narrow ridges were dug through, holes were filled with snow, sharp edges on walls were softened to form ramps.\u00a0 It was hard work.\u00a0 Fortunately, the definition of ‘road’ for these trucks is quite broad.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe road meant the we could get to the interesting region in 1.5 hours, and arrive dry and warm, ready to work.\u00a0 We could also move quickly between sites where the surface was smooth.\u00a0 We used it for the following days, and scenes like the one below became almost routine.<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a>Welding in a blizzard<\/h3>\n

During the days that we worked on the glacier, the snow was melting.\u00a0 By the time we were ready to leave, it had lost about 10 cm, weakening the snow bridges that we had used to cross crevasses on our way up.\u00a0 On the homeward journey, a bridge collapsed beneath the front left tire of the big Ford F350 and it dropped to its belly.\u00a0 We couldn’t get it out using the jack alone (as we had done previously<\/a>) so the Hilux came round and winched it out.\u00a0 A close look showed that the axle had been broken.\u00a0 We had a spare, so it was changed there and then.<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Further inspection showed that part of the suspension had been damaged, too.\u00a0 It turns out that we also had a generator and welding equipment, so that was fixed there and then as well.\u00a0 On a glacier, in a blizzard, in less than two hours.\u00a0 It takes a week to get an appointment for the annual MOT test at my local garage!\u00a0 It seems that a mechanic is top of the list of things to bring on this type of expedition.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Bridging the crevasse<\/h3>\n

To finally cross the crevasse, it was ‘bridged’ with wooden planks, which spread the weight of the truck across a wide area of snow.\u00a0 The same principle allows a skier to cross snow bridges that a hiker would fall through.\u00a0 Once out of the crevassed area, the return journey was straightforward, but slow.\u00a0 We reached the edge of the glacier 12 hours after setting off.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nThe outward journey to Gr\u00edmsv\u00f6tn is described in the post Gr\u00edmsv\u00f6tn 1 – Crossing the glacier<\/a>, and there are descriptions of the results of the eruption itself in Gr\u00edmsv\u00f6tn 2 – What was in the plume?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last month, the Institute of Earth Sciences of the University of Iceland and the Iceland Glaciological Society organised an expedition to Gr\u00edmsv\u00f6tn to study the deposits of the eruption that took place there in May.\u00a0 This post describes some of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/volcan01010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/volcan01010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/volcan01010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/volcan01010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/volcan01010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=358"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/volcan01010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":386,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/volcan01010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/358\/revisions\/386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/volcan01010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/volcan01010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/all-geo.org\/volcan01010\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}