Jökull - 01.12.1953, Qupperneq 21

Fig. 10. The ice cauldron
NE of Pálsfjall 26 June
1953.
Ketilsig NA af Pdlsfjalli
séð úr lofti 26. júní 1953.
Aerial photograph
by S. Þórarinsson.
and then noticed a distinct smell of sulphur; that
smell we detected already on our way down-
wards the western slopes of the depression. Ab.
0.5 km NE of Vatnshamar there were deep
crevasses in the firn, the walls of which had a
light brown-yellowish colour, probably due to
solfatara activity. Standing near the open water
at Gríðarhorn one could detect a faint smell of
sulphur.
The ice cauldron NE of Pálsfjall.
During our flight on 26 June we observed
ab. 80 m NE of the highest part of the nunatak
Pálsfjall (cf. Noe-Nygaard, 1952), an ellipse-
shaped cauldron ab. 200 m in length (cf. Fig.
10). This cauldron is of the same type as the
cauldrons formed in the NE part of the Gríms-
vötn depression (cf. Sigurðsson and Thorarins-
son 1947). The same cauldron at Pálsfjall
was also observed by Einar Pálsson and me
during the reconnoitring flight on 28 Aug. 1950,
and was then of about the same shape. It seems
possible or even probable that the Pálsfjall
cauldron is like the cauldrons in Grímsvötn and
Kverkfjöll, caused by subglacial melting due to
subglacial thermal activity.
Some remarks on the topographical map of
Western Vatnajökull.
As already mentioned, S. Sigurðsson built a
cairn on Svíahnúkur eystri in 1942 and deter-
mined its height to be 1702 m. Our altimeter
readings showed that this point is not by now
the highest one on Grímsfjall. The firn level
90 m NNW of the cairn and near the edge of
the cliff was 14 m higher than the trig. point
marked by the cairn.
The highest part of Kverkfjallahryggur along
our route is, as mentioned on p. 9, consider-
ably farther south than shown on the Geodætic
Institute map, or 11 km NE of Gríðarhorn,
and accordingly the slope towards the Grims-
vötn depression is considerably steeper than
shown on that map.
South of Kverkfjöll eystri there is a clear pass
between the intake areas of Dyngjujökull and
Brúarjökull (cf. the map Fig 1). As Guðmund-
ur Jónasson was the first to travel through this
pass in his Bombardier named Gusi in 1951, I
have named this pass Gusaskarð.
On the Geodætic Institute map the col of
the pass between Kverkfjöll eystri and Kverk-
fjöll vestri is in ab. 1680 m height. We found
the height difference between this col and the
trigonometrically determined highest point of
Kverkfjöll eystri (1920 m) to be only 114 m. The
height of the col is thus ab. 1805 m or 125 m
higher than shown on the topographical map.
The height of the ice-covered cupola W of the
pass, which is the highest part of Kverkfjöll
19