Iceapelago

by Peter Brennan

  ‘Is that a radio antenna just below the right side of the rim?’

  ‘What good eyesight!’

  ‘No need for a visit to the opticians!’

  ‘Ha Ha.’

  ‘But I need a more accurate description otherwise you are on duty tonight.’

  ‘Be reasonable sister. I can’t possibly see anything other than the broad outline of what appears to be a device with an aerial.’

  ‘Do you give up?’

  ‘What do you know that I don’t?’

  ‘What you are looking at is a remote sulphur dioxide detector with a transmitting aerial.’

  ‘You can’t possible see that far.’

  Then it dawned on her.

  ‘I don’t suppose that Simon told you about the location of one of his new devices?’

  ‘I can neither confirm nor deny. You are on duty.’

  ‘Hold on there. The quiz rules give me an opportunity to redeem myself. Let’s walk on while I find a feature so far away that you will be unable to identify it.’

  Maria set off. She was distracted as she knew Claudine could stop her at any time to pose the decider question. As a result, she was on high alert observing her surroundings. What an amazing panorama, she thought to herself.

  They walked past the Cráter del Duraznero, a deep lake of old lava. The track dipped and rose as it followed the contours of the mountains. After about thirty minutes they were passing to the right of the Hoyo Negro, the suitably named deep black hole devoid of vegetation when Claudine exclaimed.

  ‘Stop.’

  ‘Ah, she has at last found her quiz question,’ thought Maria. She expected the worst.

  ‘It is a two-part question. When did Hoyo Negro erupt and what’s the name of the eruption?’

  ‘That’s unfair. A two-part question is stretching the rules is it not?’

  ‘If you know the answers that’s all that matters, oh knowledgeable one.’

  ‘We’re in the midst of the remnants of the 1949 eruption.’

  ‘Correct. Go on.’

  ‘Three vents opened up along a two-kilometre fissure. I suspect we’re standing on the very line of the epicentre.’

  ‘Getting warm, figuratively and literally.’

  ‘The episode started at the Crater del Duraznero that we passed a while back. I think it was in the month of July. As can be seen from the surrounds, there was a violent explosion and it stopped activity at this site. Days later, a new eruptive vent opened on the western flank of Cumbre Vieja, in the area of Llano del Banco. As it is three kilometres north of here we can’t see it. Large volumes of lava flowed for over a fortnight and reached to three hundred metres short of the banana plantations at the coast.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘The third vent opened here at Hoyo Negro with strong explosions caused by the heating and expansion of underground water. That opened a large funnel in an old volcanic cone. At the time the mountain was covered in woodland, so forest fires added to the threat of gas explosions under great pressure.’

  ‘Answer the question.’

  ‘The answer to the second is San Juan as the eruptions started on the feast of the saint.’

  The sisters smiled at each other. They loved their quiz sessions as it kept them alert to their surroundings. Both knew there was a kicker to the San Juan eruption event. After the volcanic eruption strong earthquakes persisted for several weeks. They were on a ridge that had history. That was best left unsaid. They picked up their back packs and headed further north on the GR 131.

  They reached the serviced camp site at Refugio El Pilar an hour before sunset. They chatted nervously as daylight slowly disappeared. The visitors’ centre was deserted because through the late afternoon mild aftershocks had been felt and dozens of intrepid walkers had bussed back to their hotels along the coastal towns. The abandoned mountain was theirs to enjoy.

  It was strange to be in a very familiar location that was normally throbbing with activity but was now eerily empty.

  ‘Let’s have dinner,’ said Maria.

  The girls unpacked their drinks, bread and cheese and other eats and started what they hoped would be a leisurely early dinner. The plan was to set off to the ORM at first light, around 5 a.m.

  The view was of a well-tended recreational area set amid tall Canary pines and cedars. The sun was setting on a bright clear evening, the light reflected off the brilliantly coloured rocks showing up reds, yellows, green and blues; in fact, every colour of the rainbow filtered through the branches of the forest.

  This was an idyllic setting where they had camped on many occasions, enjoying the isolation and crystal-clear night sky.

  The bang was loud, but not close. The earthquake was worse than before.

  Not a kilometre away, to the left of Pico Bejenado, several surges of bright red lava flew high into the sky cascading its deadly rocks around. As hot rocks hit the ground, they set off a fizzing sound as they torched the undergrowth on impact. Red dots with varying intensity dotted a large area.

  The first gush soon petered out and the lava flow almost stopped within minutes. The deep red of the lava bombs dimmed as they cooled. The fizzing sound also stopped. The ensuing silence was, in a way, more disturbing than the bang.

  ‘Wow, that was a close call.’

  ‘Too close for my liking.’

  Their mobile rang. It was Simon.

  ‘Maria, tell me that you were a safe distance away.’

  ‘We were, but we got no warning. What happened?’

  ‘We’ll have to investigate the site and take samples to find out. I’m assuming that the magma found a weak spot and gravity did the business. How far are you from the ORM?’

  ‘About a five hour walk along the Cumbre Nueva ridge route.’

  ‘It’s too dangerous to walk along the ridge, ’said Simon in a firm tone. ‘I know it will be dark soon,’ but could you and Claudine try and make it down the path to the car park at the Reventon gap. You could be there in under an hour. I’ll meet you there with the Mountain Rescue Unit of the Guardia Civil and drive you to the ORM. You know the mountain trails better than any of the locals and I, eh we, would feel much better having you with us. There is a near full moon so visibility should not be too bad.’

  In the distance a muffled bang could be heard and to the right of the earlier blast bursts of deep red and black molten lava shot high into the night air. Any indecision about staying put or not was quickly put aside.

  ‘We’re on our way. Could you please phone my aunt and tell her we’re safe and well.’

  It was a steep climb down the Cumbre Nueva trail to the Reventon car park. This part of the GR 131 ran along an old Camino path that levelled out at 1,400 metres for most of its length. In normal circumstances, the views from the thin ridge of the Caldera de Taburiente were breath-taking. Scenery wasn’t a priority. As it got dark, the sisters focused on their next foothold as the light dimmed. The light of moon at this elevation provided them with enough ambient light to continue, but they got increasingly unsettled and had a few missteps.

  Within sight of the car park, just twenty minutes away, the earth shook, this time with a renewed ferocity. They were immediately thrown to the ground as the effects of the tremor made its way towards them. With frightened eyes, they observed that the ground was rising as it moved towards them splitting and gouging the surface in all directions. The rolling motion was moving too fast for them to take evasive action. They were propelled into the air when the earth hit them. Before they were knocked unconscious as they hit the ground their last memory was the strong pervasive smell of sulphur, with its characteristic smell of rotten eggs.

  Sites ZX

  ‘OK, we’re almost ready to go,’ said Lars. ‘Sean and Benny have been briefed about what we’ve decided as part of our deployment plan over the past weeks. First, let’s d
iscuss the proposed locations. Alice, as you are the project lead in relation to the selection of the priority sites, please clarify who goes where.’

  Alice displayed a map of the eastern and central side of the Greenland glacier on the TV screen.

  ‘We took full advantage of the recent availability of a low orbit GEO-6 geostationary satellite that carries a space-based infrared system. Our friends in NASA gave us enough time to examine in detail ten potential sites where we knew significant surface melting was taking place. Not only can this eye in the sky measure heat differences, it generates visible images that penetrate to the bedrock surface some three thousand metres beneath us. Based on this data and our visual observations and knowledge of the sites over the past years, we shortlisted five locations with high potential.’

  She used the cursor to point at the map.

  ‘We’ve picked five sites where the ice melt rate at the surface has increased sharply over the past two years. More importantly, we’ve tried to pick crevasses that may feed into the bedrock canyons that have been revealed using 3D landscape imagery that has just become available. It’s like viewing Greenland with the ice sheet taken off. We know there are hills, valleys and channels as deep and as wide as the Grand Canyon under the ice sheet. The liquid subterranean ice water flows around bends hundreds of metres deep.’

  ‘How can satellites do this?’ Sean was like the keen student at the back of the class who never allows his teacher to finish a sentence.

  Alice smiled.

  ‘Sean, ice is entirely transparent to radar. Let me show you.’

  Alice switched to a map that for all intents and purposes was a traditional Google Earth view of a large land mass.

  ‘This is what Greenland looks like stripped of its ice. Let me show you one of the 3D map’s enhanced features.’

  She brought up an animation that showed the projected movement of the glacier aquifers flowing into the waters all around the island of Greenland. The mass of bright red lines, with moving arrows to indicate direction, suggested where the ice-melt was flowing.

  ‘What we can’t find out is how and where these aquifers are interconnected through the mass of the glacier nor do we know the speed of the subterranean rivers.’

  She flicked to another channel.

  ‘Here is a video of the raging Qooqqup Kuua River that’s 350 kilometres to the south-east of us here. See how it crashes with a hundred white fists of detritus into the Qooroq Ice Fjord? I’ve no doubt that as the ice we’re standing on melts it ends up feeding into this river. All we need to do is to find the evidence.’

  They all observed that the roaring river was carrying enormous amounts of sand and silt, turning the dark green sea at the edge of the fjord a thick brownish-grey colour.

  ‘Pause there a minute,’ interjected Lars.

  ‘This is the key for our research. The weight of the surface meltwater is creating large cracks, or crevasses, and is forcing them deeper and deeper. How far, we don’t know as remote sensing technology does not provide a solution. If we can find the main passages that these aquifers are taking, we can then begin to calculate the volume of fresh meltwater that flows into the waters around Greenland. The golf balls are as useful as the advanced satellite technology. I hope they will unlock the mysteries that lie within the Greenland Ice Sheet.’

  The lesson over, Alice continued, ‘Given the unstable nature of the surface in the immediate vicinity, I propose we deploy the golf balls by drone into a deep chasm at a location quite remote from the Summit Station. The first site – we refer to it as ZX1 – is ninety kilometres west-south-west of the Summit Station. We’ve had a small tent observation post nearby for the past three summers so we estimate it will take at least twelve hours to get on site using one of the Humvees.

  ‘I would like to lead the group to site ZX1,’ chipped in Phil Teahon.

  ‘That’s ok by me,’ confirmed Lars.

  Phil, having achieved his ambition, relaxed and observed the reactions of the other members of the group as the order of battle was set out for the generals of the ice sheet.

  ‘The second site is almost in the opposite direction at a distance of over a hundred kilometres from the Summit Station. Site ZX2 was picked because satellite images showed a huge lake, that wasn’t there a year ago, has formed on the top of the glacier. This area hasn’t been explored recently. I’m assuming it will take a day to get on site as the surface conditions appear to be slushy in parts. The other Humvee will go to this site.’

  Alice was in her element. Telling people what to do came naturally. She would make a good project leader, mused Lars. Like me, she is a stickler for detail and uncompromising preparation. Not just an excellent scientist, he thought. She went up in his estimation even further.

  ‘Last week, we got detailed satellite images of two potential sites beside the Knud Rasmussen and Helheim glaciers and took photographs of the proposed landing area for the team that will be transported there by the Twin Otter. Everything seemed normal. My team of five, including the second drone pilot, will fly to this site, coded ZX3, which is some 250 kilometres almost directly north-north-east of our current position. The largest sinkhole we’ve identified is adjacent to the landing strip. A second potential site is about half an hour on foot to the east. When we get there, we’ll decide to deploy at one or both sites. I don’t intend to stay on site for any longer than is necessary. Once we re-fuel – and there are adequate back-up supplies in the storage cabin – we’ll head back to the safety and comfort of the Summit Station.’

  ‘Is it really safe to land a plane there?’ asked Benny, who was somewhat troubled that site selection seemed to have been a bit rushed. ‘What are the risks?’

  ‘Ok, we didn’t have time to do a physical inspection,’ replied Alice. For a change she was at the receiving end of the questions. ‘Summit researchers were last here over two years ago and ground conditions were fine. I spoke to the leader of the group who told me that there was good firm snow underfoot. Provided we’ve high cloud cover, and the forecast over the next forty-eight hours is good, it should not be a problem to land as a snow runway is marked out about five hundred metres right of the crevasse. We’ve had a small Portakabin facility beside this landing strip for several years and our pilots have used it many times before. Just in case, we’ll be bringing emergency rations and basic provisions for two weeks.’

  ‘Ok then,’ said Benny, but Phil and Lars noticed he was clearly not fully convinced.

  Alice continued. ‘Site ZX4 is just four kilometres to our east at what we’ve called ‘the Big Crevasse’. We can get there quite easily on the ski-cat. The final site, ZX5, is five kilometres due south. I’m under pressure to agree that we use the huskies to get us there. This should be no more than a two-hour round trip.’

  ‘Using the husky team is fine by me as they need a run out. If nothing else, we’ll have a few hours peace from the barking.’ Lars took over as he assumed that Alice had completed her part of the briefing. He paused and she began to bring the briefing to a close.

  ‘The Summit Station will serve as the communications hub. All the systems have been stress-tested. We’ve set radio links to the Humvees and the ski-cat. The Twin Otter’s comms will be used for the site ZX3 team. We’re fortunate that the two drones have state-of-the-art communications capability, so they’ll be our eyes and ears in the sky. As each project leader, including the driver of the dog sledge, have an Inmarsat Mini-M satellite telephone everyone will be in constant contact with each other and with the base here. And if we need extra support, NASA will lend us their eyes in the event of an emergency.’

  ‘I drew the short straw and will oversee our communication,’ said Lars.

  Alice continued. She was in full flow and was eager to finish her presentation.

  ‘We’ve programmed our computers at the Summit Station to provide live feed from all the golf balls deplo
yed at the five locations. We’ve also developed software that by overlaying NASA images we’ll be able to generate 3D images in real time. The data will be shared with NASA and the Norwegian Government, as will images from the camera golf balls.’

  Lars stood up. ‘Alice, many thanks for all the hard work you and your team has invested in this over the past weeks. I guess we’re now ready to go.’

  Sean interjected before Lars could continue. ‘Lars, I’ve a proposition to make.’

  ‘Go ahead.’

  ‘I suggest we deploy six golf balls at the nearest site to the Summit Station to test the tracking software. In that way we can all benefit from the feedback before the larger deployment. I also suggest we hold back on using the camera golf balls until we’re happy that my technology works. To have maximum impact, we should deploy across all sites more or less at the same time, say at midday two days hence.’

  ‘That makes a lot of sense,’ said Lars.

  ‘Good. Here are the golf balls that we might test.’

  ‘Perhaps the drone pilots who are responsible for dropping the golf balls at sites ZX1 and ZX3 might each be given the opportunity of testing their skills,’ said Benny.

  ‘No problem,’ said Sean. He put his hand in his pocket and handed over three golf balls to each drone pilot. The two drone pilots, along with Alice and Lars and most of the remaining researchers, went outside to observe proceedings. It was windy, but no more than usual. The high cloud ceiling was a help as the pilots got their machines ready.

  The on-site initial operational procedures were completed: the props were tightened, the carbon fibre propellers were checked, full battery strength confirmed, the lens cleaned, the GPS navigation autopilot was turned on, the radio and video controls were powered up, and a communications link-up established to the Summit Station base control desk. The on-craft remote control transmitter power switch was also checked.

  The hand-held ‘OpenPilot’ flight controller comprised a standard configuration of four channels to control the rudder, ailerons, elevator and throttle. The drone pilots had learned their basic skills when flying remote controlled model airplanes as teenagers. It was easy to adapt to much larger and more sophisticated hardware.