Rit (Vísindafélag Íslendinga) - 01.06.1976, Blaðsíða 19

bring moisture from the Arctic waters. The deuterium content of
the surface water is somewhat lower in the Arctic than in the At-
lantic region. This gives somewhat lower deuterium content of the
first rain on the north coast than on the south coast.
Friedman’s measurements of some samples of geothermal water
emerging from horeholes and hot springs in Iceland gave similar
results to those obtained by Böðvarsson (1962). The geothermal
water had a deuterium content that could also be found in surface
water although in many cases at a considerable distance from the
hot spring.
Finally it was found that the mean deuterium content, over a
period of a few years, in precipitation at the meteorological station
Rjúpnahæð near Reykjavík is practically the same as the deuterium
content of the cold water supply of Reykjavík, the cold spring
Gvendarbrunnar. This suggested that local cold springs could pos-
sibly be used as average samples for precipitation in the correspond-
ing area.
These preliminary results were most encouraging. They sug-
gested that more intensive study of isotopic composition could be
very useful for hydrological studies in Iceland. A detailed map
showing the distribution of deuterium in precipitation throughout
the coimtry, together with deuterium measurements of ground-
water of unknown origin, cold groundwater as well as geothermal
water, might be very important in order to gather information
about the origin and main flow pattern of the groundwater systems.
The only energy sources in Iceland are hydroelectric and geo-
thermal energy. For understanding the hydrological systems, on
which these energy sources are based, such studies are of great
importance.
To carry out such work it was clear, however, that isotopic ana-
lysis of thousands of samples was needed. Therefore a special la-
boratory for this purpose was considered necessary.
In 1960 the Physical Laboratory of the University of Iceland
received a research grant from the International Atomic Energy
Agency in Vienna for hydrological studies. It included a mass-
spectrometer for deuterium and with some modifications also for
oxygen-18 analysis. The instrument was installed in the Physical
Laboratory (since 1966 the Science Institute of the University of
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