HiLDA

We already spotted it during the first dusty days. There is another active dust source area on the other side of the river fed by the Dyngjujökull, our glacier next door. It seems to be the same sort of dust source as our Flæður, although slightly more active. A bit annoying, we admit.

Driven by curiosity how this source actually may look like, we decided to check it out today. The road up to Kverkfjöll is comparable easy to drive with a 4×4 and the landscape shaped by the volcanic eruptions is just impressive! The gravel road terminates at a parking lot close to the fringe of the glacier – just a few minutes walk away from the terminal ice where plenty of milky melt water drains out of the massive ice sheet ultimately forming river-like streams.

Is this the birth of the dust we see emitted further downstream? Still suspended in water causing its cloudy-milky colour at this point, though. But further downstream along the meandering banks, where the flow slows down, it will soon deposit a fresh layer of silt and clay ready to be uplifted into the air once it’s dry and windy.

So, where does this sediment load go? Will it form a dust source looks like the Flæður region? We are here to find out – but soon realize that the dusty places on this side of the river are too far off the road to be accessed by any means of transport that is available to us. In essence, what remains from this trip, is a gorgeous visit to the Dyngjujökull – and a glimpse at the place where the milky water starts its journey towards forming future dust sources …

Stórhöfði North is now up again after a long downtime due to repeated power failures – and it is running on green energy now! During the last few days, Konrad and Kerstin went south all around Iceland to Vestmannaeyjar to install a wind generator and a solar panel at our site. As it can be quite windy there, we had to wait for an as calm as possible day. Just the healthier option when working on the roof over a cliff… . Anyway, it was a calm day and we actually could put off a layer of clothing for some hours. And we should not forget to mention our very kind, respectful but curious neighbours: Puffins and sheep.

It should be like in a halfpipe: Dust source at the bottom, mountain ridges to the east and west, perfectly channeling dust transport in north-south direction.

Admitted, this sounds a bit too ideal to be real. We are curious to know how often and how much dust is leaving the dusty halfpipe of the Flæður towards the east or the west. Two days ago, we installed one of our mobile OPC stations on the roof of the mountain fringe. And today we stop by to transfer the first recording to our server – plenty of dust seen on the hill top!

We worked it out. The whiteish sediment layer is a superb reservoir for dust particles. The brownish serves as saltators. Perfect match, perfect dust source. In any case, the water resets everything.

We see the interplay between “turning into a dust source” and “becoming flooded” since we arrived in the Dyngjusandur area end of July. Nevertheless, during the last few days the surface area drying up and changing its colour from greyish-brownish to white is larger than the area which floods during the night. So, we are kind of expecting a shift towards turning the entire area into a dust source. That’s why we are here, that’s why we set up the tower in Paradise.

Our hope for more dust in the next few days is clearly not unfounded. Nevertheless, the flood surge arrived later this afternoon washing away the dusty spots that have formed during the last days. The good thing about this “not so welcome” flooding is that it will deposit more sediment on top, which will eventually turn into a dust source – if it once turns dry. Think positive!

Our OPC network aims at revealing new perception on the way dust travels through the atmosphere when leaving the Dyngjusandur source area. For how long and far will it remain airborne? During the last week, we set up 18 stations at locations which we hope will provide us information on when, where, and how much dust is suspended in the air. Some are located directly where we observed dust emission, some are mounted in a somewhat near distance to the source, and some are placed some tens of kilometres away.

Although our station network setup looks quite ok already, we have the subliminal feeling that one station is still missing. One, that will measure dust escaping the river channel in a direction perpendicular to the bounding escarpment. A behaviour we observe in particular during easterly winds.

Eventually, A few days ago, we found a nice place for an OPC monitoring this dust transport behavior and today on our tour to the stations in the upper and middle Flæður region we found a ridge around 60 metres above the river bed perfectly suited for measuring airborne dust leaving the river bed dust source region towards the west when the wind blows from the east. We are looking forward to climb up the hill again in two days in order to receive the first recordings!

Happy faces all around! Today is the third day in a row we see dust in the Dyngjusandur area. It is THE dust spot in Iceland – and the reason why we are will spend two month somewhere in nowhere.
During the afternoon, individual dust plumes merge into a decent haze layer drifting with the wind. In particular in the middle Flæður region we observe lots of individual events … until the water floods the river bed and shuts of the dust source until the next day. 

Paradise is still not so super dusty. However, we do have individual dust plumes and devils paying our instruments a visit. Still a bit shy, though. We are sure, once the surface here is dried up like the river bed further upstream is already, it will start blowing substantial amounts of dust. It simply has to!

Some of our OPC stations are now additionally equipped with two different types of passive dust samplers: Sedimentation plates, a sticky filter disk aligned horizontally in the air flow collecting dust particles suspended in the air overflowing the disk, and passive dust samples, that collects dust from the air flow in a bottle.

According to wikipedia, “quicksand forms in saturated loose sand when the sand is suddenly agitated. When water in the sand cannot escape, it creates a liquefied soil that loses strength and cannot support weight.”

That’s clearly a statement we can confirm now.

It hit us hard on our early morning tour following the Gæsavatnaleið to the upper Flæður region visiting our mobile OPC stations. The batteries running the station need to be changed every second day in order to keep the system a live. On our way, we have to cross the river bed four times. So far, each crossing was ok, although sometimes tricky and bumpy. Despite the need for getting up early, morning crossings come with the advantage that the glacier melt water discharge which feeds the river is at a minimum. So the chances for a dry river bed and thus a somewhat smooth crossing is highest before noon.

This morning, at one spot in the middle of the river bed, the surface looked somewhat suspicious. And not longer than a blink of an eye later all four wheels got sucked into the ground. Realizing pretty soon that we have no chance to get out on our own, we asked the Search & Rescue team based at the Dreki campsite for help.

The story comes with a happy end and about one hour later the car was back on its own feet and we could continue with our morning routine. All batteries were changed in time this morning 🙂  

Walking in the desert can be an experience. Driving in the desert, too. We very much enjoy the experience here, and also some of the challenges we are facing every day. But having two seriously broken cars at the same time and only one car left driving 10 people in different directions to fulfill their duties is a challenge we would have liked to avoid. 

Ever heard of a malfunctioning exhaust recycling valve? Or a broken leaf spring which meant to carry the car’s weight and held the wheel axle in place? We do more than dust research out here …

We are ready. The dust sources are getting ready. When will the wind finally arrive? Here it comes! Finally, we saw dust being actively emitted from exactly these spots we thought it will be emitted. It’s a relief. 

However, although dust-wise we are heading towards the right direction, this blog post comes with a “but”. Paradise is still somewhat wet. Not seriously flooded, nor soaked wet, but wet enough preventing the top soil layer from drying up quickly (maybe we are a bit impatient, though). Looks like Paradise is not ready yet for the “perfect” dust event. “Be patient, it will blow soon” are the words of the day. On the other side, we had an extra day for calibration and mounting additional instruments. “Making the best out of it” is another set of words shared frequently. The weather forecast looks promising for the next days, so we expect blowing dust in Paradise somewhat soon.

Sampling on Sør-Jan is successfully completed. We have had several days hiking around the island looking for snow-patches. As of this moment, we can say that we have collected snow from almost everywhere.

The filter sampler is in it’s final stage and working well.

Now, it’s time to start packing everything to be ready to leave Jan Mayen next week. Large amounts of water and snow need to be carried to mainland Norway.