We continued counterclockwise around the lake to the pseudocraters at Skútustaðagígar.  The day was perfect.  Brian gave a brief talk about the possible discovery of pseudocraters on Mars, explaining that the many similarities between Icelandic and Martian volcanism were the reason he came on the trip.  Lauren and I hiked together taking in all of the trails.  True to form, the midges were everywhere.  Fortunately, I had repellent but I still ate a few of them.  Mývatn means midges’ lake. 

Lauren bought me a cup of coffee and we all hung out in the sun, at the café across from the pseudocraters. Next, we drove a few kilometers down the road to Kalfaströnd, a Siggi stop.  Kalfaströnd appears to be a collapsed lava tube that fed the pseudocraters.  One crater is by the road. It appears that several pulses of lava occurred in the tube, each leaving its own layer. Some of the students posed on the different levels. 

Siggi is already one of the group. He is a great guy who has traveled these roads many times. One of the things I really like about traveling with American geology groups is that they always bring the driver into the fold and treat him as one of the group. Europeans and South Americans maintain a respect for the driver make it clear that the driver is their employee. 

We drove a few kilometers farther to Dimmuborgir and ate lunch in the parking lot.  Then, everyone walked through the lava flows.  We walked past the slickensides where I took the "slick chicks" photo in 1996. A bunch of people crawled through a lava tube.  Annelia, Lauren, and Nic were especially intrepid.  We noted the vertical slickensides.  We followed the trail to Hverfjäll, a palagonite tuff cone that erupted more than 100 years ago. 

The 160 m climb is steepest from the side that we approached but everyone made it up fairly quickly.  The view was spectacular.  We could see Krafla, the rift, Mývatn, pseudocraters, table mountains.  Most people walked counter clockwise around the rim.  I did that last time so Elise and I walked clockwise this time.  A little more than half the people had a contest to see who could keep their feet in the Grjotgja for the longest.  Garrett won with 4 seconds.  Cheryl and Brian found a warm spring down in a fissure and went swimming.  John later investigated the situation as well. 

It was nice to get back to camp and have everything already set up.  I took a shower while the cooks prepared scallops, potatoes, and soup.  I stayed in the tent after dinner until 11:30 writing in my journal.  Alex kept us entertained with her overdose of Bengay. 
 

                       Ecology     Environmental Studies    Mathematics