In December 2023, Iceland made world news as the Svartsengi region cracked open, unleashing a torrent of lava frighteningly close to the town of Grindavik and the Svartsengi Geothermal Power Plant.
With 3,000 people calling Grindavik home and the geothermal plant heating over 20,000 Icelandic homes, authorities ordered evacuations and quickly began planning a counter-offensive against Mother Nature herself.
Enter the Dirt World… The proposed solution was many kilometers of lava barrier surrounding the power plant and town to redirect the lava flows and prevent disaster.
Almost immediately, heavy equipment arrived to begin work. Pictures and videos circulated widely of machines pushing the earth into piles with lava, often only feet away. What box on the JHA would I check for lava? Hot work?
Since the first lava began to flow, the area has erupted five times, spewing over 45 million cubic meters of lava across an area of over 9 square kilometers.
I landed in Reykjavik for the first time this Thursday at about 9 AM. By 11 AM, I was standing in the ÍSTAK job trailer looking at the plans, which featured the latest lava flow maps, like the one I've attached courtesy of the Icelandic Met Office.
After installing a blinky light on our rental car, we drove down the dirt road to the project site.
The last movement was only last week, with the lava nearly breaching the outer barrier. The fire department used water cannons to slow its assault.
As we visited, ÍSTAK crews added more height to the outer berm, now standing over 25 meters high.
To make it happen, they used two large dozers (one D11 and one Liebherr 776) to rip old lava flows and pile the material. Once the material was loosened up, two 80-ton excavators loaded the earth into articulated trucks.
Finally, the trucks hauled the earth to the top of the wall, where a Komatsu D375 placed and leveled it, advancing across the berm—Lava still hot on the left and a steep slope on the right.
After placing millions of meters of earth, I asked when they would stop. Our guide responded, "Whenever the eruptions stop." And with reports of more lava filling the chamber many kilometers beneath the site, it looks like she still has plenty of fight in her. An untraditional schedule, to say the least.
I've been to many unique projects, but this one may take the cake!
Thank you to ÍSTAK for having us and to all the hardworking people who have kept the people of Iceland safe!
Ben Warren is the President and Founder of Warren Land Solutions, a land clearing and demolition contractor working in the southern US. As a young business owner, hearing his perspective on life and the Dirt World is always fun.
Power is critical to any society—the more diverse a country's power grid, the stronger its people.
This brings us to the Attarat Power Company south of Amman, the capital city of Jordan.
Fed by a large deposit of oil shale (sedimentary rock with hydrocarbons trapped within), APCO built a two-235 MW turbine power plant to supply 15% of Jordan's power.
We visited the mining operation, specifically with Near East Equipment Company, Jordan's Komatsu dealer. We checked the stripping and oil shale mining operations, which featured the usual cast of enormous machines.
I had NO idea such an operation existed before we visited, which made for a fantastic day!