Jökull - 01.11.1998, Síða 34

snow or ice together with rock candy. On the basis of
this ascent of a glacier, as well as of other such climbs
that I have made, I maintain that the intolerable heat,
about which all glacier climbers complain, comes not
at all from atmospheric heat or heat from the sun. In
order to be convinced of this, one only needs to stand
still for a quarter of an hour to find out whether or not
the heat dissipates. By contrast, it is easily understood
that the blood expands in the veins as a result of the
thinner air and with the least movement or very limit-
ed activity is agitated significantly, from which the fa-
tiguing heat is produced. For this very reason, too,
most people during an ascent, can hardly make it
more than a dozen or so steps without feeling faint or
being out of breath, when the barometer has fallen by
about 3.5-4 inches [about 100 mm] less than what is
normal at sea level. However, if one then stands still
or throws oneself down upon the snow for a few se-
conds, the relaxed muscles are revived, and one
seems to be rid of all fatigue and anxiety, and one is
capable of running around the world, even though the
sequence will soon repeat itself.
On the hill just noted, we built a stone pyramid
(Icelandic varða) and placed a Danish copper coin on
top of it, so that if anybody should try to follow our
steps, they would here find the location from which
we started our ascent of the glacier. This location un-
doubtedly is the most convenient as long as the glacier
does not undergo any changes here. The barometer
now showed a reading of 25' 9.25” [698 mm] here, and
the temperature reading was 18° [22.5°C]. We arrived
back at our tent at Kvísker at 1630 hr.
The height of Öræfajökull I calculated to be 6,060
Danish feet [1903 m a.s.l.], in other words, 930 feet
[292 m based on the recorded barometric observa-
tions] higher than Eyjafjallajökull but 802 feet [252
m] lower than Snæfell glacier '5.
Völcanic eruptions from Öræfajökull and the re-
sulting destruction will be discussed in a later section.
ENDNOTES
1. Eggert Ólafsson (Olafsen) and Bjarni Pálsson (Povel-
sen), 1772 (Danish publication), and 1975 (latest publi-
cation), Ferðabók Eggerts Ólafssonar og Bjarna Páls-
sonar (um ferðir þeirra á íslandi árin (1752-1757):
Reykjavík, Bókaútgáfan Öm og Örlygur hf., v.2, p. 105-
106 [Section 782] [Reprinted version of 1942 transla-
tion by Steindór Steindórsson].
2. Sveinn Pálsson used a mercury barometer. Readings
were in French inches ('). Each inch equals 27.07 mm,
and each inch is divided into 12 lines (”); e.g., 28' 4.25”
is 28 inches, 4.25 lines.
3. The Réaumur scale (named after the French physicist
and inventor René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur) is a
temperature scale in which 0° is the freezing point of
water and 80° is the boiling point. It is abbreviated as
°R. Measurements were usually made unsheltered re-
gardless of weather. Therefore readings may seem quite
high in bright sunshine.
4. Here Sveinn Pálsson is describing a terminal moraine.
5. In Sveinn Pálsson's time and until the middle of this
century, two rivers, Eystri-Kvíá and Vestari-Kvíá, ema-
nated from the terminus of the outlet glacier Kvíár-
jökull. The latter part of this century melt water from
Kvíárjökull has been confined to one river, Kvíá, in the
bed of Vestari-Kvíá.
6. Volcanic bowl refers to the volcanic caldera of Öræfa-
jökull.
7. The manuscript reads 26’6” which must have been a
lapse of the pen.
8. A point on the compass is 1/32 of a circle (11.25°).
Sveinn Pálsson’s measurement of a declination of 22.5°
is relatively accurate. How he went about defining trae
north is, however, unclear.
9. On Sveinn Pálsson's 1794 map of Klofajökull (Vatna-
jökull) (fig. 1), the Hornafjörður outlet glaciers (e.g.,
Skálafellsjökull, Heinabergsjökull, Fláajökull, and Hof-
fellsjökull are collectively called “Homafjarðar-Jöklar”
[Sveinn Pálsson, 1795, Tab. I].
10. Sveinn Pálsson is describing two medial moraines that
merge down glacier into one on Breiðamerkurjökull. No
doubt he is here referring to Esjufjallarönd, which is the
medial moraine from Esjufjöll nunatak. Máfabyggðir
nunatak is not to be seen from the place he visited as
pointed out by Flosi Björnsson (1957).
11. On Sveinn Pálsson's 1795 map of Eyjafjallajökull
(Mýrdalsjökull and Eyjafjallajökull) (fig. 2), “Mýrdals-
jökull” is shown as the name of a glacier on the eastern
part of the ice cap [Sveinn Pálsson, 1994, Tab. II]. In
32
JOKULL, No. 46, 1998