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As you know, Ariat is the official Dirt Talk podcast sponsor and at this point we've talked plenty about their footwear, their workwear. But now it is winter and boy is it cold. It was 17 degrees this morning. I had to warm the truck up. But just because it's cold does not mean the work stops. So to get the job done, you need the best, warmest work wear possible. And Ariat has a long list of outerwear, amazing jackets, pants and other goods available now. You can shop at their website, ariat.com dirt talk that is ariat.com dirt talk hello everybody. Welcome back. Monday Episode Dirt Talk Podcast Today we're going to be covering a project we saw this summer in Iceland, a beautiful, beautiful country located in the northern Atlantic Ocean nearly at the Arctic Circle. They have been building these lava barriers now since last December for almost a year, and it is absolutely extraordinary what the heck is going on there. So I thought it's worth a podcast episode to talk briefly. This probably won't be a super long episode, but to talk about what the heck is going on and why. And before I get into it, if you want to see all of this unfold, we put together a YouTube video as well on this project. It's published at this time. You can search my name Aaron Aaron last name wit w I T T on YouTube to find it to watch because it is definitely, definitely worth the watch. So to get into it here, Iceland, ironically is one of the most volcanically active countries in the world, and volcanoes typically occur where the world's tectonic plates meet. And Iceland sits squarely atop the Mid Atlantic Ridge, where two plates pull apart at roughly 2 centimeters every year. Iceland is also atop a particular hotspot which is prone to volcanic activity, with really large eruptions happening on average every few years. The good news is that most eruptions aren't typically explosive, which makes up the imagery most everybody thinks when they hear volcano. Those are big pointy mountains spewing ash and lava at the top. But most of Iceland's eruptions, Iceland does have those and has had those. But most of Iceland's eruptions consist of basalt lava, which allows typically explosive gases to escape and run easily at around 1800 degrees Fahrenheit or about 1000 degrees Celsius. And yes, I did plenty of research on this and volcanoes before this episode. It was quite helpful actually, and I wish I would have done it before we gone there because it would have helped provide plenty of context. So after about 800 years of relative calm, a series of earthquakes caused by pressurized magma making its way to the surface as the Earth separated happened in October of 2023, so about a year ago on Iceland's Rennes Peninsula, about 45 minutes from the country's capital, Reykjavik. And the Icelandic folks have already made fun of my pronunciation of their towns and areas. And yes, I am a silly American. I don't know how to speak your language. In November, the earthquakes intensified with around 20,000 tremors recorded, the most significant of which was a magnitude of 5.3, which is a significant earthquake. In some places, the Earth settled over a meter or a few feet, and Icelandic authorities ordered the evacuation of the few thousand people who called the town of Grindavik home. Also in the region are two other developments, one being a large power plant. The plant pumps hot water, or plant pumps water into the hot earth, which transforms it to steam, which spins turbines, which produces about 75 megawatts of renewable power, which is pretty cool. A majority of Iceland's power is geothermal, produced in a similar manner. And then immediately next to the power plant lies one of Iceland's top tourist attractions, called the Blue Lagoon, named after the hot water pools, brilliantly colored blue by natural minerals, which is actually the water kicked off by the power plant as well. The Blue Lagoon is right next to the power plant. And if you Google Iceland, you'll probably see pictures of Blue Lagoon. It is like the tourist attraction to go to. It's quite cool, but we missed it because we had more important things to check out, which I will get to in a moment here. So that's some of the background now. Scientists closely monitored the situation, measuring ground deformation and gases from the area to estimate the potential eruption. While they estimated that most of the magma cooled as it hits the Earth cooler crust, they knew there was still a high likelihood of a significant eruption. So because the plates pull apart, it creates a little bit of a void. You have all of that magma from the center of the Earth under pressure. And as that void, as that gap is created, that magma is looking for a way out. It wants lower pressure away from that higher pressure. And as it moves up towards the Earth's surface, it starts to shake the Earth, which is just crazy, just crazy. So they were monitoring this. They knew it was going to happen. They evacuated the town, and the first eruption officially happened on December 18, 2023. A fissure of about 4 kilometers, which is about 2.3 miles, opened up, creating enormous lava flows. About 10 million cubic meters of lava emerged, covering an area of over 3 square kilometers, or 1 square mile. That is a lot of lava. While no damage to infrastructure occurred, Icelandic authorities monitored everything closely on the ground and from the air. They announced the residents of Grindavik would not be allowed to return to their homes. Just crazy. Just crazy. And here's where we get to the earthworks. That's why we're covering this. We're not just here to talk about volcanoes, volcanic activity. It is very cool. But this is not volcano talk. This is not lava talk. This is dirt talk. So here's where we get to the earthworks. Volcanic activity is nothing new in Iceland. So authorities had plans for barriers well before this specific activity began. And following the October earthquakes, the Prime Minister approved barrier works to begin in November, focused on the power plant and the Blue Lagoon. Crews knew eruption was imminent. So they worked nonstop through November and into December before the first eruption began. The initial planned barriers were nearly completed at the time of the first eruption. So they. Because they knew that was going to happen, because they were monitoring this, they were able to begin building these lava barriers before any lava started flowing, which is pretty remarkable. And the barriers themselves are quite simple in the grand scheme of things. They're quite similar to levees, which are giant earthen walls that are wide at the bottom and taper up towards the top, in theory being taller than whatever water flows they'll defend against. So we use levees to stave off floodwaters, typically. But these lava barriers are different in one critical regard. Compaction isn't as vital because lava flows are far more viscous than water. So water penetrating levees typically leads to failure. But lava can't really flow through the earth in a similar fashion. So the barriers are actually extremely effective. You would think, well, how would normal cooled dirt rock defend against lava? But it's just a flowing liquid that's really hot. But if it runs into itself cooled rock, it stops in theory. And it can't penetrate it like water can because it's a lot more viscous. So the material used for the barriers came from temporary quarry sites in the surrounding area and overall borrow areas, which are all old lava fields. So all of the material in Iceland is from volcanic activity at one point or another. So they've used all old lava to defend against the new lava. Using science and projected lava flows, work began on protective barriers for Grindavik as well. So they initially built the barriers around the power plant, and then they started building the barriers around Grindavik because they knew more volcanic activity was going to happen. The initial plans called for roughly 2 kilometers or 1.2 miles of barrier strategically around the town to deflect lava flows. The initial barriers were designed at a height of 4 meters, which is about 13ft and varied based on the highest risk areas. So this was done, all this was all engineered, there was a lot of science done, there was a lot of modeling done to project where the next lava flows might be and that determined where they built these lava barriers. Again, this is stuff I have never thought through in my life, but it's quite spectacular because they are no strangers to volcanic activity, as I have previously mentioned. So on January 14, 2024 this year, a second eruption occurred with new fissures opening close to the town. And while initial barriers were effective, lava flows reached three houses on the fringe of the town, burning them to the ground, as you can imagine. And these images circulated the world. So you probably have seen these images or this footage. It was what I saw all over the place. Lava burning houses to the ground. It's pretty spectacular in a terrible fashion. But that was, that was all over online when that happened. And these flows also nearly burned equipment parked up after working on the initial barrier work. But crews rushed to drive the machines out of harm way. And I posted a video of a 349 or 352,50 ton machine tracking next to lava flows. Probably one of the crazier equipment videos I've ever seen. But those crews, they got in the machines, they tracked them out, they were good to go. No dramas. And then since the initial eruption last December, six total eruptions have occurred with no end in sight. The most recent eruption was in August, and the biggest was in the middle of the summer, just after, just before we got there. And while the barriers have been effective in protecting most of the infrastructure, lava flows have covered large portions of the roadway surrounding the power plant and leading into the town. And as the eruptions continue, the lava barrier crews continue to extend the barriers higher and add new barriers within the existing barriers. So because they're like, hey, this could just keep going on and on and on, we're going to have to keep developing these barriers. And when we were there, road crews were also working on building temporary roads over the new cooled lava flows. The images are also quite amazing. Seeing the lava flow just covering up roads, so the road just ends. And they've had to build a lot of temporary roadways with crushed rock around all these areas so that people can still access things like the Blue Lagoon, for example, and the town. The largest barrier, which we checked out in the video that I referenced earlier, is now roughly 25 meters high, or about 80ft, which is a lot of material. And during the large mid summer eruption flows nearly exceeded the barrier. But crews used airport fire trucks to cool the lava before it could spill over. And that happened a week before we got there. So the lava you could see it was at the very top of the barrier and they were extending the barrier on top of that lava flow. So far Icelandic authorities have allocated over $50 million through a temporary tax for lava barrier construction. So that is no joke, that's not a cheap project. We specifically have already referenced this, but we specifically visited between the fifth and sixth eruptions in July and the operation was as spectacular as I'd imagined. First a D11 and a Liebherr 776 dozer ripped and pushed an old lava field into large piles. So this is cooled lava that they had single shanks ripping up. It was just brutal. I would not want to be those dozer hands, that's a long day being tossed around ripping rock. But it ripped up pretty good with the force of these dozers dragging those shanks. And then they pushed it into big piles using their blades. Then a, an 80 ton Doosan excavator and a Cat 374 and Cat 352 loaded all of that material that was piled up in stockpiles into articulated trucks. Then finally the articulated trucks hauled the earth to the top of the barrier where a Komatsu 375 waited to place the material in what must have been at least a 3 meter or 10 foot lift. So in, in, in levee construction you can't really exceed more than, I don't know, 30 centimeters or a foot at a time as you, as you go up the wall because you have to compact every single lift. Compaction is so, so important in levy construction. But because compaction is not as important, they can make these massive lifts at one time and they have to because they only have so much time before the next eruption. So after doing this for over six months, the operators knew exactly what they were doing. And this operation was a well oiled machine. It was on almost autopilot at this point. Just extend the barrier all the way out, extend the barriers more, extend the barriers more, build it up as much as possible before that next eruption. We also checked out the road works like I said, where trucks were hauling in from a temporary quarry, crushed rock and a blade. Dozer was placing that material, compacting that material so that trucks, light vehicles can still navigate the area where the roads should be. But are no longer, because the elevation of the land has risen due to the lava flows, which is quite a unique. A unique problem to have. So today, as I record this, the work continues. And when I asked when they would finish, they basically said, well, whenever Mother Nature is done, and it does not seem like that's happening anytime soon, there are estimates that this eruption could in theory last forever because it's where the earth again is separating. So the earth is not coming together and going to close this gap. The gap's only getting bigger and bigger and bigger. So we'll see what happens. But obviously the Icelandic authorities, Istack, the contractor, the other contractors involved, everybody involved in this project is well versed in this kind of work. It's just quite spectacular because nowadays you can take pictures of everything, you can take videos of everything. And these images were incredible because as well, a lot of the volcanic activity in Iceland is far away from any kind of development. Most of the development is Reykjavik. There's not a whole lot going on in the rest of Iceland. But because this was so close to power plant, to the Blue lagoon, to the town of Grindavik, it was quite, quite spectacular. And like I said, if you want to learn more about this project, we have a whole video on it. So check out our YouTube check, check out our YouTube channel and we'll have all kinds of other Europe content on there. We're publishing Australia content, the last of it. As we speak. There is nonstop stuff going up every single week, new stuff. So that is a summary of the lava barrier work. When I started traveling the dirt world and doing what I do, I did not think I would be saying, oh, yeah, I'm going to go to Iceland to check out lava barrier work. But that's what's so spectacular about the dirt world is, yes, it is earth moving for residential subdivisions, and yes, it's digging trenches for water lines in the city, and yes, it's even building dams in Colorado. But it's also lava barrier work. And what happens when a volcano erupts and it threatens development? Oh, the dirt world's there to save the day, to build giant earthen barriers to stop it. It's something you wouldn't necessarily think about, but makes perfect sense. And that's why I love this industry. It's full of people that are there to answer the call whenever necessary, day or night, weekends, holidays, if they're needed, they're there making it happen. And I'm very, very, very appreciative of not just the people working on this project, but any project around the world to support the needs of society when it comes to critical infrastructure and natural resources. So if you want to if you want me to cover anything else, please, please write in. I'm always looking for topics to cover. You can message us@dirt talkillwit.com we would love, love, love to hear from you. Any ideas are welcome. In general, positive feedback, negative feedback. If you want to tell me to fuck off, you're more than welcome to. I would love to hear from you if that's the case, and we'll see you on the next one. Stay dirty, everybody.