Iceland review - 2015, Page 30

eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano.” The amount of lava ejected
so far actually makes this the largest effusive eruption in
Iceland since the 1783-84 laki eruption in the southern high-
lands and there’s no sign of it faltering.
“you can see that the eruption isn’t stopping, it isn’t going
anywhere. and we’ll be here all winter if it continues,”
Sigurður says. But six weeks in, there are fewer people visit-
ing the site and the scientists are no longer based full-time at
Drekagil. “They’ve been measuring the gas and other factors.
I think they have enough material now for the next five years,”
he says. Ármann, who was based at the eruption during the
first weeks after it started on august 29 and has since made
regular trips to the site, later explains that he and his col-
leagues have also been measuring the eruption’s volume flux.
a couple of hours later, we get a visit from the police.
“The situation is completely different to Fimmvörðuháls and
Eyjafjallajökull. First and foremost it’s the fact that there’s so
much toxic gas here. The other eruptions emitted gases too
but as far as I know that wasn’t really a problem,” says Sigurður
Betúel andrésson, on duty from Reykjavík on behalf of the
National Commissioner of the Icelandic police, when asked
how Holuhraun differs to the so-called ‘tourist eruptions’ of
2010. The term refers to the eruptions’ relatively harmless
nature, at least to people outside their immediate vicinity, as
well as easy access to them. While—unlike Eyjafjallajökull—
28 ICELAND REVIEW
erUPtioN
From above: the police patrolling the area;
associate professor Sigurjón Jónsson and his students
change the battery at the gPS station.
the eruption by night lights up
the snowfall and clouds.