VEMO Study site
The Eyjafjallajökull glacier is located in the south of Iceland. On 20 March 2010, Eyjafjallajökull erupted and continued into a second phase of eruption on 14 April 2010. The ash cloud emitted during this eruption shut down European air traffic.
The eruption produced new lava fields, offering the outstanding opportunity to investigate the colonization and development of microbial and higher life on volcanic terrains and to address a number of other scientific questions about the establishment of life in extreme volcanic environments.
The VEMO project was initiated with funding from NERC, the UK’s environmental research council, in May 2010 and is projected to continue for several years as a long-term field investigation.
Location of the study site.
Our field site (shown above - photo from IMO web site) is focused on Eyjafjallajökull, but our work extends into other volcanic terrains in Iceland and elsewhere allowing us to develop comparative microbial investigations.