Stykkishólmur Eldfjallasafn

Between picking up my prescriptions on Tursday afternoon and getting the bus yesterday evening I had some time to spend in Stykkishólmur. The first thing I did was visit the town's volcano museum. 

The museum is housed in the old cinema building and contains the personal collections (both scientific and artistic) of Haraldur Sigurðsson, Iceland's top volcanologist. There was a TV in a gallery above the main exhibition, where visitors could watch documentaries on Haraldur's work on volcanoes in Iceland and around the world. I was directed to start there by the guide, so I headed upstairs. I selected the chapter focussing on his and his colleagues' efforts to predict, document and deal safely with the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 2010.

I returned to the lower floor, intending to start looking at the exhibition. I don't know if the guide recognised me as a fellow nerd or he just didn't get many visitors, but I was summoned over to his computer to look at vedur.is (the Icelandic Met Office website). The guide very excitedly showed me maps of different regions of Iceland, marked with the location of every earth tremor from the past 48 hours. Of particular interest was the map of the Vatnajökull region, showing the frequent tremors indicating there might be an eruption relatively soon. They had been centred under the glacier, but have been moving slowly northward, away from the glacier. This means the eruption is less likely to occur under ice, making it less likely that a large ash cloud will be produced. 

After this I was taken around the museum, being shown geological maps, seismographs and lava samples; each accompanied by an in depth explanation which made the exhibition much more interesting than it had first appeared. The guide did not show the same enthusiasm for the many pieces of artwork depicting volcanoes (which I have to say I was glad about) although the he did briefly draw my attention to an original Andy Warhol. 

At the end of my whirlwind tour of geology, seismology and volcanology in Iceland, the guide me Haraldur's card 'in case you have any hard questions'. I now feel compelled to think of some. Maybe I should ask why he thinks Eyjafjallajökull's 'sister volcano' Katla has not yet erupted. Katla usually erupts every 50 years or so, and usually shortly after Eyjafjallajökull. Its last eruption was in 1918, so one is long overdue.