Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.02.2019, Síða 20

20 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 02— 2019
the energy of the sun was required to
create an ice age, or an ice-free earth.
The forcings that humans are creat-
ing through climate emissions are of a
similar magnitude. And so, we expect
similar results. We can expect very
serious consequences from our serious
disruption of the climate.”
RISING LAND
The list of projected consequences
includes isostasy—a process whereby
reduced ice removes weight from the
earth’s crust, causing the land to slowly
rise. Around Vatnajökull, this will have
considerable consequences for local
people.
“We can already see a substantial rise
in the land around Höfn,” says Tómas.
“It’s rising by one or two centimetres a
year. Over a whole century this rise is
substantial—a metre, or even several.
This means the harbour becomes worse
as the coast becomes shallower. In most
countries, people are worried about sea
level rise, but in this region, the land is
rising faster than the ocean, so the sea
is retreating away.”
ERUPTIONS FOR ALL
Deglaciation can also lead to increased
seismic and volcanic activity, which is
expected to result in more earthquakes,
eruptions, unpredictably changing river
paths and floods. “When the weight of
ice is reduced, there’s a change in the
melting point of magma in the lower
crust, and a somewhat increased
production of magma,” says Tómas. “In
the end, this will increase the volume
of lava that comes to the surface. We
expect that the reduction of glaciers
will lead to a noticeable increase in the
eruption of Icelandic volcanoes. You’d
never expect this, but people driving
cars could indirectly lead to an increase
of volcanic eruptions in Iceland.”
If the projections hold true, these
effects will intensify over the coming
decades and centuries.
“It’s safe to say that if things
continue as they are now,” says Tómas,
“the glaciers will be mostly gone in a
couple of hundred years. I view the
current reduction in size as a sign of a
much bigger problem. So in that sense,
it’s something that should wake people
up.”
CRYSTALLINE
BOULDERS
A few days later, I crunch up the icy
path into the Sólheimajökull valley with
a couple of companions. Cresting the
hill over a bed of ashen snow, I’m taken
aback by the view. Since my last visit,
just a couple of years ago, the gentle ice
slope up towards the jagged blue snout
of the glacier has been replaced by a
wide, iceberg-strewn meltwater lagoon.
We wander along the shore to the
base of the ice, where giant, viscerally
blue glacier fragments stand drip-
ping in black sand. Embedded in a
solid surface at ground level, it’s safe
to mill around between the shards. A
welcome, familiar feeling returns as my
initial shock is replaced by wonder at
the sheer sensory overload of the arte-
rial blue ice. Beyond their rhythmically
rippled surfaces, endless seams and
patterns vanish into the depths of each
crystalline boulder.
A well known appreciator and docu-
mentor of glaciers is renowned photog-
rapher Ragnar Axelsson, also known
as Rax, who recently published a book
of glacier pictures entitled, simply,
“JÖKULL.”
He was brought up in the foot-
hills of Vatnajökull. “I grew up for six
years near glaciers in the South East
of Iceland, and fell in love with the
glaciers from the minute I saw them,”
he recalls. “I always enjoyed walking on
the glacier. We would go into the valleys
and mountains inside the glacier to
collect sheep, and go into the ice caves.”
FACES IN THE ICE
Ragnar found early inspiration in the
ice that continues to this day. “I would
look for faces and figures in the ice ”
he says. “It changed the way I think.
You don’t know what you’re learning as
you grow up, but it stays with you and
informs how you think about nature
and the world.”
Rax has first-hand memories of the
shifting glaciers. “The ice came down
much farther back then,” he says. “We
had to walk over it to get between
farms. I took pictures of it from the
beach, and you can compare them to
now, and see how much lower the
glaciers are today.”
THE MELTING BOOK
Icelanders haven’t always thought of
glaciers as something to treasure and
protect. Just a generation or two ago,
they were seen as a threatening, inva-
sive presence. “People certainly used
to think of the glaciers
a s h o s t i l e ,” s a y s
Ragnar. “They didn’t
go there, and didn’t
want to. When they
first climbed Snæfell-
s j ö k u l l , t h e y t o o k
breathing apparatus
because it looked so
high. It was the same
in Greenland: I was
once sledding past
a tall mountain and
I asked my hunter
friend: ‘Have you been
up there?’ He replied:
‘Why should I? There
is nothing there.’
“ I d o n ’ t t h i n k
anyone in old times
t h o u g h t g l a c i e r s
would be an attrac-
tion in the future. But
today, glaciers are a
huge part of the beauty of this country.”
There’s also irreplaceable informa-
tion in the ice, says Ragnar. “When
there is ash in the glacier, we can tell
what eruption it was from. There is
history in the glaciers. When you drill
into the ice, you can get information
about weather patterns over the centu-
ries. The glacier is like a book full of
information—and we are losing pages
every year. This book is melting.”
SOLID GROUND AGAIN
Einar Öræfingur is a mountain climber
and tour guide who grew up not far
from Rax. He was the first guide to
take people into the ice caves of Vatna-
jökull, and spends much of his life on
the ice. His work has led him to summit
Hvannadalshnúkur—Iceland’s highest
mountain, and the peak of the Vatna-
“When you drill
into the ice,
you can get
information
about weather
patterns over
the centuries.
The glacier is
like a book full
of information—
and the book is
melting.” - Rax,
Photographer
“A year and a half ago,
there was suddenly a
huge, endless crack
in the middle of the
plateau of the crater on
the highest mountain of
Vatnajökull. I thought,
‘This is impossible!’”
Einar Öræfingur,
Guide & Climber
RAX
Einar
Öræfingur
Tómas
Jóhannsson