Jökull - 01.01.2019, Page 157

Finnur Pálsson og Magnús T. Guðmundsson
nær allan fyrri hlutann, en Pálmi Erlendsson og Har-
aldur Bjarnason frá Neyðarlínunni nokkra daga í þeim
seinni.
Farartæki: Ford JÖRFÍ (Jöklarauður), Snjóbíll HSSR,
Toyota Hilux bílar JH og VÍ, Toyota Land Crusier
Leifs Jónssonar (fyrri huta), FORD Magnúsar Þórs
Karlssonar (seinni hluta), 3 vélsleðar JH, einn sleði
HSSR, fjórir vélsleðar VÍ og tveir sleðar Vilhjálms
Kjartanssonar (fyrri hluta). Smárúta var leigð til að
ferja fólk að og frá Skálafellsjökli þegar liði var skipt.
The 2019 Spring Expedition
The annual 2019 JÖRFÍ expedition to Vatnajökull
took place from May 29 to June 10. Due to increased
requests for participation and the many surveys pro-
posed, the expedition was longer than usual. It was
split in two five-day slots, with 23 participants in the
first part and 22 in the second. The group was a
good mix of scientists and volunteers and five peo-
ple took part in both slots. The expedition has en-
tered Vatnajökull from the west via Jökulheimar and
Tungnaárjökull every year since 1953, with the ex-
ception of the period 1995–2000, when the glacier
was impassable due to a surge, and occasionally over
the last 20 years when the road to Jökulheimar has
been blocked by snow. This time, however, conditions
forced us to use the alternative route of Skálafells-
jökull, a SE-outlet glacier. Muddy conditions on the
newly exposed land in front of the fast-retreating out-
let of Tungnaárjökull made the track nearest to the
margin impassable for the first time since 1953. Dur-
ing the first half of the expedition and most of the
second half, the weather was exceptionally favorable,
calm, sunny and mostly cloudless skies, and surface
conditions were perfect for driving both cars and ski-
doos. As a result, the group could successfully carry
out all the planned survey work. This included a
mass balance survey at several sites, setup and main-
tenance of automatic weather and GPS stations, GPS
surveys at several nunataks, maintenance of perma-
nent GPS and seismic stations, including the perma-
nent station set up last year on Öræfajökull, and the
establishment of a permanent GPS site on W-Svía-
hnúkur. About 1000 km of GPS surface profiles and
a total of 800 km of radio echo bedrock profiling
were surveyed on Bárðarbunga, in the East Skaftá
cauldron, Grímsvötn, Bárðarbunga and the area be-
tween Grímsvötn and Bárðarbunga. Profiling, using
a 50 Mhz georadar in Grímsvötn, was done to study
the internal structure of the ice. Measurements and
sampling of volcanic and geothermal gas were per-
formed at Grímsfjall, in Grímsvötn, at the open ice
cauldron on the south flanks of Bárðarbunga, and in
Kverkfjöll, where a small group stayed for several
days. A survey of gravity points on Bárðarbunga
was carried out, as was also done in 2015, 2016 and
2018 to monitor possible changes in the aftermath of
the Bárðarbunga caldera subsidence and Holuhraun
eruption in 2014–15. The fast-changing areas close
to recent eruption sites in Grímsvötn were investi-
gated. Rock outcrops on the western margins of the
Grímsvötn caldera (Vatnshamar) that were buried by
advancing ice in the 1970s are now becoming visible
again due to increased geothermal melting. Journal-
ists and photographers working on several separate
projects joined both parts of the expedition. An ef-
fort was also made in servicing and maintaining the
huts and monitoring instruments on Grímsfjall. This
included participation of staff from Neyðarlínan (112,
National Emergency Response Call), who joined for
a few days for maintenance of the TETRA Telecom-
munication instruments.
156 JÖKULL No. 69, 2019