Grímsvötn 1919-2019: The legacy of Erik Ygberg and Hakon Wadell

Abstract

The first recorded visit to Grímsvötn occurred on the 31st of August 1919. Two Swedish geology students, Hakon Wadell and Erik Ygberg, stood on the edge of a hitherto unknown large caldera. This discovery was the most significant finding in the first west-to-east transect across Vatnajökull, starting at Síðujökull on the 27th of August. This was an expedition into the unknown, but a principal aim was nevertheless to find the source of the large jökulhlaups on Skeiðarársandur. They named the ice-filled caldera “Svíagígur”. Studies of written sources in the 1930s revealed that this place was indeed Grímsvötn, well known in the 17th and 18th centuries but the name and location had been forgotten in the 19th century. From Svíagígur they continued eastwards, descending down the crevassed Heinabergsjökull, reaching civilization in the morning the 6th. They announced the news that a huge volcano existed under Vatnajökull and this was the source of the jökulhlaups emerging from Skeiðarárjökull. Upon their return to Stockholm, they received a hero’s welcome, but soon it all changed into no one believing them, as prominent figures in Sweden at this time insisted that a volcano can’t be active beneath a glacier! After they finished their studies, both left Sweden very disappointed. Hakon Wadell had a successful geological career in America presenting a doctoral thesis in 1932 from the University of Chicago. Erik Ygberg worked as an international prospector a few years before his bad health, a result of the hardships experienced at the end of the Vatnajökull expedition, forced him back to Sweden, where he had a career at the Swedish Geological Survey. The name Svíagígur has not been used but the two nunataks marking the highest points on Grímsfjall are named in the honour of the two Swedes, Svíahúkur eystri and Svíahnúkur vestri.