Markarfljót and Gigjökull

I´ve been helping out on the Geography, University of Edinburgh undergraduate fieldtrip. Students study palaeo-landscape reconstruction, ecological processes, geomorphology and glaciology, among other subjects. The field area, usually along the southern margin of the Markarfljót valley in southern Iceland in an area called Langanes and on two outlet glaciers from the ice-capped volcano Eyjafjallajökull, Steinsholtsjökull and Gigjökull, is one of my favourite places in Iceland. You can read about past flood events in this area, associated in some cases with eruptions of the volcano Katla, on my research page.

Landmannalaugur to Hrafntinnasker

Fieldwork in usually about work, work, more work, though almost always in a stunning place, outside, in clean air doing fun things. For once I took a break, a weekend off .. and Nick and I had an adventure into some of Iceland´s most bizarre and stunning places. We had Flo the Landrover as our stead. We used her as our rather leaky tent at night and drove exciting mountain tracks to get to places that most tourists never see during the day. One day I´ll go back on foot with a proper timeframe for exploration. Ice, lava flows, green and yellow and orange rocks, steam and bubbling pools of mud, holes in the ground with steam that make sounds like a jet engine. Hrafntinnasker is so much more than I could have imagined; a wonderland. Add sunshine to the mix and it becomes almost unbelievably amazing.