Iceland Field Trip 2014

Posted on 13 August 2014

Environment undergraduates experience amazing backdrop of Iceland on fieldwork

Iceland 2014

In July, the Environment Department’s annual field-trip to Iceland took place. Fieldwork in this amazing country is part of a twenty-credit third year module entitled: ‘Glaciology and Volcanism in Iceland’. Now in its second year, this eight-day trip sees a group of students spend a memorable eight days in multiple locations in the southern portion of the country. This year, we were lucky enough to have some very warm and sunny weather (punctuated by the predictable occasional rainy day!) in which to enjoy all that the country has to offer. We visited multiple waterfalls, glaciers and glacial lagoons, the volcano Hekla, amazing black-sand beaches, beautiful mountains, hot springs, and all the time on our travel between various sites, we were surrounds by spectacular evidence of the earth in action.

Overall the trip was excellent. It allowed for huge amounts of work to get done in a way that was exciting and different from traditional modules. The most enjoyable aspect for me was probably the scenery on every day. Working in a landscape so alien from what you are used to is something that adds real value to the experience and to the enjoyment of it. I would absolutely recommend the trip to students in future years. I think one of the brilliant things about this trip is that every moment is uniquely memorable so that I'd be hard-pressed to pick a favourite or a moment that is greater than the others in the week.
Robin, Environmental Science

This amazing landscape serves as our laboratory for the fieldwork component of this module. In the time we are in the country, we study lava-flows, evidence of huge catastrophic rockfalls, glacier melt-rates, evidence in the landscape for changing glaciers and other topics related to the dynamism of the country. Each evening, students work on group-presentations related to the work they do in the day. This is a tremendous opportunity to get lots of presentation experience in a warm, friendly environment – something that our students very much appreciate.

Iceland bus