TEACHING A FIELD COURSE IN ICELAND

Iceland is a spectacular venue for extended field trips, and the Geology Department at Hamilton College has made many field excursions to Iceland over the past 25 years. Iceland is an incomparable place for students to experience active or very recent tectonism, volcanism, hydrothermal activity, and glaciation and a unique place to study the interactions among these processes.

To prepare for the field trip to Iceland, we teach a one-semester partial credit seminar that focuses on geology and geologic processes in Iceland but also incorporates aspects of history, culture, language, and literature. Students read extensively in the geologic literature but also read several of the Icelandic sagas and general background on history and culture.

In the field, we have done a number of different things over the years, but, in one of our more successful approaches, we divided the students into three teams of experts, the volcanologists/tectonicists, the glacial geologists, and the hydrogeologists/sedimentologists. At each locality, teams examined the area from the viewpoint of their expertise, asked questions, collected data, and documented processes. Each individual then worked with people from the other two specialties to see how the processes of each of their specialties interacted. Students presented summary posters early in the following semester.

We have found that three weeks allows time for a week of exploring the Mid-Atlantic Ridge at Reykjanes and recent volcanism on Heimaey and a two-week loop including south and east Iceland, the northern part of the Vatnajokull at Kverkfjoll, Askja and Herdubreid, Myvatn, Tjornes, the central highlands, and the Hekla area. We stay in Youth Hostels in Reykjavik and guest houses on Heimaey, and we camp during the two-week loop. Renting ones own vehicles to get around is quite costly, and travel in the remote interior is potentially risky for those unfamiliar with the area. For the two-week loop, we have found it very economical to hire an outfitter who has provided tents, cook, great Icelandic food, and transportation in a large 4WD bus. Our groups have averaged about 20 students. At the ICD, we will have information on costs and logistics of planning a field excursion to Iceland.