‘Alright then. But let’s see if we can persuade Aron to drive for us again,’ said Bjarkey. ‘I don’t think we should go by ourselves.’
Aron wasn’t as keen as the rest of them to venture back to a quickly evolving volcanic eruption, but once Bjarkey had explained the value of the data they could get by moving one seismometer, he relented. Before they went, they planned exactly what route they were going to take and where they wouldsite the equipment. They’d collect the seismometer they’d placed at the north of the town, then travel west to the new fissure.
They gathered what they needed from the office, then went down into the basement, where there was an underground garage and equipment storage. Aron kitted them all out with high-vis trousers, jackets, and emergency kits that had a torch, first aid kit, flares and other useful things, but it brought home to Iris how dangerous it could be to venture out there now. Even though they were in the best position, with the data at their fingertips, these things were always unpredictable. Everything was packed into the same vehicle they’d been out in the day before, and they headed out.
The weather was overcast but dry. They were all quiet on the journey towards Hraunvik. The regularity with which cars were travelling towards Reykjavik was a sign that people were still leaving the area, because usually Iris had seen only a handful of vehicles on this road the other times that she’d been.
They picked up the seismometer without incident from the north of the town. They’d shown their credentials to the civil defence, who were manning the roadblock that they needed to cross, and he was happy to let them through on the condition they spent no more than an hour in the cordoned off area. That was more than enough time for them to site the seismometer, since they’d planned it carefully before they’d left Reykjavik.
Once they began travelling west, they could see evidence of the fissure that they’d viewed on the drone footage. There was a wall of steam rising from the fissure, and the magma was visible in places, even from twenty metres away.
‘Wow, this is incredible,’ said Kári, his face pressed to the window as they drove past.
Aron took a road that forked to the left, diverting them away from the fissure.
‘Why are we moving away from it?’ Kári asked. ‘Isn’t this where we want to site the seismometer?’
‘We already know what’s happening here,’ Iris explained. ‘We want to see if we can predict what direction the fissure is going to take. If it converges with the fissure that we’re monitoring in the town, it might draw magma away from that area.’
‘So we’re going to monitor further south of here?’
‘Exactly.’
Aron pulled off the main road and drove across the rugged terrain until he was as close as he could get them to where they’d planned. They all piled out of the vehicle and dressed in their high-vis outfits before they set off for the exact spot they wanted to monitor, carrying the equipment between them. As they walked, they could feel the odd tremor beneath their feet. They’d probably been too small to feel while they were driving, but they would be across this entire area now.
‘Here,’ said Bjarkey, who was holding a portable GPS device that showed the location they’d pinned back at the office.
Surveying the area, they could see the steam rising from the fissure they’d driven past and they could see the town in the distance, to the east.
Iris set up the seismometer, recalibrating it to make sure the data it was going to provide was as accurate as possible. She opened her laptop to check that it was collecting data and reporting it.
‘It’s already showing activity,’ she said.
‘How will it tell you what’s going to happen?’ Kári asked, looking over her shoulder.
‘If we overlay the data with what the IMO is already monitoring, and look at the other two seismometers that are collecting data, this will show us whether the activity is increasing over here compared to what we are monitoring intown. By the time we get back to the office, we’ll have a solid couple of hours of data to work through and we might even be able to predict where the main fissure is going to present.’
‘Isn’t what we saw the main fissure?’ Kári asked.
Iris shook her head. ‘That’s nothing compared to what we’re going to see.’
‘I think if you took the job here, you’d have a ready-made assistant,’ Bjarkey said to Iris on the way back to the vehicle, once Aron and Kári were ahead of them and out of earshot.
Iris laughed. ‘I love how interested he is.’
‘We need to capitalise on that. Let him get involved in this monitoring project now he’s seen it in the field.’
Iris thought how different that approach was from the way her own career had progressed. How her initial enthusiasm had been tempered by believing there being no prospect of seeing anything out in the field. It wasn’t until she’d developed her seismometer through her love for volcanology and her tenacity, wanting recognition for the work she’d been doing, that she had finally overridden Jay’s attempts to stifle her. The progress she’d made over the past two years had led to this, and it felt amazing to see all of that come to fruition.
‘He can help me look at the data when we get back,’ said Iris.
‘Have you thought any more about Emil’s offer?’
‘I’m seriously tempted,’ Iris admitted. ‘You know that guy who took me to Hraunvik the first time I went, and to Fagradalsfjall?’
Bjarkey nodded.
‘The thing is, I’ve been seeing him. And we’re getting on really well. Obviously I’m not basing my decision on that at all, it’s too soon, but when I told him about the job he freaked out and now, I don’t know whether it’d be a bad idea to stay.’
