LEARNING ABOUT VOLCANISM AND LIVING WITH VOLCANOES: ICELAND VOLCANOLOGY FIELD CAMP

Iceland is an outstanding field laboratory for the study of volcanic geology. With a >1,100 year history since settlement, and a historic record well preserved by a highly literate society, Iceland is also an excellent place to learn about living with volcanoes.

The Black Hills Natural Sciences Field Station of the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology has run an annual volcanology field camp in Iceland for four years. The camp is project-based and functions on a model inspired by traditional geology field camps in the United States. The camp has been three weeks in duration (3 credits), but is transitioning to a four-week schedule (4 credits). Major mapping projects include mapping historic and Holocene volcanic rocks where the Mid-Atlantic Ridge comes ashore and later mapping volcanic strata exposed in fjords. Smaller topical projects examine tephras, rhyolite lavas, and subglacial volcanism. The camp is made relatively affordable by a logistical model that mixes camping with short intervals in lodgings where students’ final work products are prepared.

But while the primary focus is on the science of volcanology and geologic mapping, we are frequently in contact with the present and past of Icelanders living with volcanoes. Students learn about modern volcano monitoring from Iceland-based researchers. We visit archaeological sites of farms in southern Iceland abandoned after the 1104 AD eruption of Hekla, and then learn about the experience of a modern farm’s struggle with the Eyjafjallajokull eruption in 2010. We visit Heimey in Vestmaneyjar (the Westman Islands) and learn about the 1973 eruption that nearly destroyed the town while standing atop the volcano, Eldfell, formed in that eruption. We camp at the farm of a family where the current generation’s paintings of the 1980 eruption of Hekla hang on the walls next to their grandparent’s paintings of Katla erupting in 1918. These farmers also have an awareness of tephra layers found in soil profiles dating back to 4,000 years ago. Students visit a geothermal power plant and learn about the role this volcano-related energy resource plays in modern Iceland. Thus, the field camp leverages both the outstanding geologic setting and the unique history of Iceland to give students an international learning experience with both science and society components.