Emmett H. here!

As I sit in our hostel in Reykjavik on our last night in Iceland together, I find myself with profoundly mixed feelings. I’m sad that this adventure we’ve shared is coming to a close; I think I can speak for all of us when I say that this trip is one that will live in a special place in my heart for many years to come. It feels strange to say goodbye to these people with whom I’ve shared such an incredible and intense experience. We started this trip as peers, friends, students, and professors, but as we’ve lived, worked, played, traveled, and explored together, we’ve become a sort of family. Tomorrow, some of the group will fly back to the US together, parting from some students in Chicago, some in Dayton, and some in Richmond where we started this adventure together. Others of us will stay in Iceland, where our families will join us for vacation, and still others will travel on to other places in Europe. As someone who plans to travel Iceland with family starting tomorrow, I’m also beyond excited to share all of the wonders of this country that I’ve discovered – and to pass along some of Charlie’s many fun facts!

After our second free day in Reykjavik, we reconvened tonight to have our final dinner together at Reykjavik Pizzeria. As we were waiting for our food, Emmett S. asked us each to share some of our highlights of the trip. Here are some of the responses that my group members and I shared:

“The boat ride where we collected the DNA samples. The clarity of the water was amazing.”

“Flying the drone from the boat!”

“Being on the glacier.”

“Hiking the pass!”

“Making friends with locals at the bar I went to the other night.”

“The people! I don’t think we’ve met anyone here we didn’t like.”

“The kind strangers who picked me up and drove me back into town when I was so sick on Grímsey.”

“I had the best COVID roommate. Fist bump, Teagan!”

“All the research I did. It was a really cool experience of doing science.”

“Yeah, the field research! Especially on the glacier.”

“All the hiking and climbing I did. I’m super proud of myself.”

These are just some of the many amazing things we did, and each of us could probably have named dozens more personal and group highlights. Looking back on the last three and a half weeks, it’s hard to pick a singular favorite moment, and I hope that we’ll each continue to remember moments of joy and strength and growth from this trip, and that we’ll keep the connection we’ve made as a group so we can share those moments with each other.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who has supported us on this trip – our friends and family at home, the Earlham faculty and staff who make this trip possible, our research colleagues at other universities, and especially our hosts and friends here in Iceland. Takk takk!

P.S. As I’m writing this, there’s evolving volcanic activity not terribly far from Reykjavik, so maybe just maybe you’ll hear from us one more time if we get to see an eruption on our way out!

Howdy all blog followers, family, friends, and research enthusiasts! Sam here and I am going to be recapping our day out at Grimsey Island.

This morning was an early one as we had a wake up call bright and early at 6 AM. After a quick breakfast, we hit the road to Dalvik so we could catch the ferry. When we arrived in Dalvik, we discussed the main tourist spots and other interesting places to see on the island before we boarded the ferry and set sail at 9 AM. Most of the group collected some Z’s for the first hour of the voyage, but shortly after, the sea had other plans in store for many members of the group. As the sea sickness set in and many breakfasts were reintroduced to the outside world, we journeyed on to Grimsey where we arrived at 12 PM.

Upon arrival, the group split up and adventured on the island to discover all the cool sights it had to offer. A few of the group members and myself hit golf balls into the ocean at an old, 3-hole golf course, played soccer, shot some hoops at the local school, and even swam in the Arctic Ocean while the rest of the group chose to toss a frisbee at various spots along the island and hike the cliffs ridden with puffins.

After walking and exploring the island for 4 hours, we boarded the ferry and geared up for the ride back to Dalvik. Someone must have put in a good word with Mother Nature because the ride back was A LOT smoother than the trip to Grimsey. Many of the group took to the main deck at the front of the boat to watch the scenery of the fjord as we slowly made our way towards Dalvik. We were fortunate enough to see many dolphins and even a whale, but we were not able to capture any great footage of them (Sorry!) Instead, below is a picture of Grimsey I took towards the harbor! Tune in tomorrow for the update on our weekend here in Akureyri!

Hi, this is Emmett S, coming to you live from Akureyri, our new home base.

Today we travelled from Skalanes, the nature reserve on the East Coast, to Akureyri, a large (for Iceland) city on the North Coast. Our route took us into the barren, windswept highlands. Patches of green moss and grass were interspaced with bare, black and brown dirt and rocks. As we drove along, I imagined how hard it was to traverse that landscape with only a trusty steed for company. Being in any fog or mist would be immediately disorienting. There would be nothing to mark your path except stone cairns. It’s no wonder many parts of Iceland were isolated for so long.

We made a few stops during the day. Our first was at a colorful rock canyon called Moira (not to be confused with Moria from Lord of the Rings).

Next we drove to Namafjall Hverir geothermal area, which had hot pots and fumaroles (vents). The area stank of sulfur and the wind was intense. We hopped out of the vans to see a the small vents and bubbling pools, and quickly got back into our vehicles to make a quick trip over the mountain to Lake Myvatn.

At the lake, we did a short hike into a lava tube that contained hot water suitable for swimming. Then the group split. Most of us went on a longer hike to another lava tube, while a few of us went to Sigurgeir’s Bird Museum where we saw the unique moss balls. We also spotted Horned Grebes, a Red-throated Diver, Velvet Scooters, and a Tufted Duck swimming in Lake Myvatn, along with many other waterfowl we didn’t have time to identify.

After that, a small group drove ahead to Akureyri to get groceries and make dinner. The rest of the group climbed up to the rim of Hverfjall Caldera, where we were met with lovely views and extremely intense wind. We hiked the entire rim of the caldera, then drove to Akureyri where we had dinner and an early evening. You’ll find out why tomorrow!

Hi its Andy!

Today we spent the day away from Skalanes, first we went to a national forrest near Egilsstaðir. We spent about an hour or so exploring, climbing trees, and throwing rocks into the ocean.

After the forrest we went to Gunnar Gunnarssons house where we chowed down on a delicious buffet. Gunnar was a prolific Icelandic writer who built a small estate that today houses a restaurant, cultural center, a museum with virtual reality and an archeology site of an old monastery and church.

After the museum we went to the Vok baths. The baths had 3 thermal pools which steadily increased in heat, a sauna and the ability to jump in the river and then quickly get back in the warm tub right after. Kate told us that jumping into the freezing cold river and then back into the hot tub 9 times provides special health benefits. Not everyone did it a full 9 times but we all jumped in and took a quick swim at least once or twice. Nobody took their phones past the locker room so I’ll provide this photo from online so you can get a good idea of where we were.

And of course, a picture of Fryir (:

Hi everyone, Ana here,

Yesterday was really busy! as our hardworking Bio team continued working on DNA extractions, the rest of us headed to the shore to gather more data. Sam and Andrew did an amazing job collecting water samples from the Fjord, and thanks to them our scientific research is going pretty smoothly!

Seth and I decided to fly drones above the fjord to capture some kayaking footage, but unfortunately that didn’t go too well. R.I.P Skydio 1 and now 2 (aka Big Bird and Hulk), we will certainly miss you.

Today has been slightly more relaxed. We walked over to the nearby archeological site and practiced flying the DJI Phantom III. Charlie, Andrew and I spent some time “engineering” and successfully attached a Map IR camera to it.

What makes this camera really unique, is that it is able to capture infrared wavelengths invisible to the human eye. This is especially important for our work as it allows us to detect the differences between the chemical composition of soil under plants. The Map IR proved equally important in helping Andrew discover his secret talent in Photography:

As for our surprise guests, we got to meet Olí ‘s dogs! Here are Fyrir and Brandur!

We’ll get to hang out with Fyrir a lot more as he will be staying in Skalanes for the next few days. Enjoy this wholesome picture of him and Charlie napping together 🙂

~ Ana

Jacob here!

Following a first successful day of drone flying, the team once again set out to cover more ground on the glacier. A team of two hiked up the glacier to set ground points which include the GPS coordinates, height, and more. The other team hiked a near mountain and flew the drones over the glacier to capture video of the ground points. Following this, we hiked back down and met at the lagoon created by glacial runoff. We once again sent out the drones to capture more data.

Following another successful day of flying, a large group traveled just down the road in Vik to hike out to a crashed DC3 airplane. The plane crashed landed in 1973 after running out of fuel. Only later was it discovered that the pilot made a mistake and switched to an empty fuel tank. The crash ended with zero casualties

Finally, we visited the black sand beach in Vik. The beach features columnar basalt. The rocks are formed from magma solidification and cooling. This has become a popular spot full of others. Its also hosts a family of puffins!

-Jacob

Hey everyone! This is Sam and I am going to be highlighting our day on the Sólheimajökull glacier today.

This morning was an early one for the group as we ate breakfast at 06:15 and packed up our belongings before leaving the hostel in Reykjavik. We hit the road to Sólheimajökull shortly after 07:00 and began to prepare for the long day on the glacier doing drone surveying. With the help of our awesome tour guides Oddur and Gumi, we were able to conduct our long anticipated plan of collecting thousands of drone images of the glacier snout in order to construct a 3D model that can be compared with less accurate satellite imaging to understand how the glacier is continuing to melt. We are the first group of researchers ever to have done this type of surveying on Sólheimajökull, and we hope that this method is sufficient in providing us enough data to continue in the coming years here in Iceland.

After a 6 hour survey session and 10 plus kilometers hiked on the glacier, the group departed and settled into the Puffin Hostel in Vik. We are all pretty wiped from the hike and expect to return to the glacier tomorrow bright and early to continue our drone surveying. Overall, 15/10 day for all!

-Sam