Náttúrufræðingurinn - 1993, Page 130

SUMMARY
At the North Boarder of
Vatnajökull
I. Preparation and Field Survey
for Geological Mapping
by
Guttormur Sigbjarnarson
The Icelandic Hatural History Society
Hlemmur 3
IS-105 REYKJAVÍK
Iceland
The present paper is the first part of a
series of five articles dealing with geolog-
ical mapping in the area south of mount
Herdubreid as well as various geological
and hydrogeological studies on the water-
shed of the rivers Jökulsá á Fjöllum and
Kreppa. The main reconnaissance work
and field studies for the geological map-
ping were performed during the summers
of 1970 and 1971, but since then consider-
able additional geological knowledge has
been acquired. The main scientific results
of the studies will be presented in the se-
ries together with a description of the
mapping work. This first part contains a
review of older and present literature deal-
ing with the various earth scientific as-
pects of the study area, describes the basic
field survey and discusses the geographi-
cal conditions of the area. The subsequent
articles will present: 2. Pleistocene forma-
tions; 3. Holcene lavas and tectonics; 4.
Catastrophic floods and related volcanism;
and 5. Unconsolidated deposits and
hydrogelogical conditions. The literature
study clearly shows how very isolated the
research area is, being located far away
from an inhabited area, and therefore has
been very little explored or studied from a
scientific point of view. Travels in this
area were even very rare until after the
middle of this century.
The reasons why the National Energy
Authority started such a difficult research
work can be referred to various ideas on
developing the gigantic hydro-power po-
tential of the three major rivers in north-
eastern Iceland, all of them having Jökulsá
as the first part of their name. Several de-
velopment schemes with different water
diversions and corresponding reservoirs
have been proposed and new plans are still
put forward. For a reliable evaluation of
the alternative schemes it is necessary to
have a thorough knowledge of the geolog-
ical as well as hydrological conditions at
the proposed sites for dams, reservoirs and
waterways.
The present paper starts by discussing
the romoteness of the research area and its
isolation trough the centuries. This is fol-
lowed by a short description of the geo-
graphical condilions. Available literature
regarding the research area is also re-
viewed with the main interest on its explo-
ration history, but geological studies
which have been conducted there are very
sparse. The paper ends with a brief de-
scription of the field survey performed
during the summers of 1970 and 1971, and
how the severe weather conditions in this
area, with snow storms lasting for several
days even during the middle of summer,
made it highly difficult.
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