Geothermal power station in Iceland's volcanic landscape

Iceland GeoSurvey

Geoscience for a sustainable future

We research Iceland's geothermal systems, geology, and natural resources — and share that knowledge with government, energy companies, and the public.

Explore services

1385

Borehole measurements this year

1,212,071

Metres logged this year

236

Chemical samples this year

7534

Element analyses this year

Projects

Recent projects

Ongoing2022

GSEU – a geological service for Europe

EuroGeoSurveys

We aim to contribute to the European Green Deal, the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Horizon Europe objectives through the development of a Geological Service for Europe, which focuses on the planet itself: the earth beneath our feet.

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Ongoing2022

EPOS – geohazard exploitation platform

Veðurstofa Íslands

EPOS Iceland aims at building electronic infrastructure in Iceland in the form of robust data services, which are set up and operated at the Icelandic Met Office. The services are directly connected to the central data service of EPOS ERIC, which provides access to important multidisciplinary geoscientific data from Iceland and allows processing and joint interpretation with the international geoscientific data held there.

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Ongoing2022

COMPASS – casing & cementing of deep wells

ON Power

The project concerns the preparation for deep drilling and aims at solutions so that casings can withstand the strain that arises when high-temperature wells heat up. This is to be done, among other things, by examining cementing with "foam cement", a light and flexible cement that reduces the load on the casing. A method will be developed for releasing the pressure that builds up between casings (ÍSOR), corrosion protection by cladding will be specially examined, and corrosion tests will be carried out at the surface and down the well with a logging wire (ÍSOR). An integrated casing system designed to withstand supercritical conditions (including the use of expansion joints) will be tested in experiments at SINTEF in Norway, which also handles the simulation of boreholes.

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Ongoing2022

EMODnet – European marine observation & data network

EuroGeoSurveys

Using lessons learned from previous phases, the consortium will continue to compile fragmented marine data products, making them available through the EMODnet Central Portal following optimisation and testing in Call for tenders EASME/2020/OP/0006 – [Lot 2 – Geology] Consortium GTK – Technical offer EGDI, the European Geological Data Infrastructure, and in home systems of work-package (WP) leaders. The portal will also provide access to data and metadata held by each participating organisation, allowing end users to assess the quality of data products, and providing them with an opportunity to create their own maps or models. Data products will be compiled at a scale of 1:100,000 or finer using the standards developed during the previous EMODnet Geology projects. At the same time, the consortium will continue to improve 1:250,000 and 1:1,000,000 data products generated during earlier EMODnet phases, as they have specific value for supra-regional to pan-European end use and visualisation. The smaller-scale products, although very informative, are more fragmentary.

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Completed2021

Drone-based magnetometry

Jarðvísindastofnun HÍ

The equipment consists of a magnetometer and a drone. The magnetometer is a MagArrow from Geometrics and is specially made for measurements with a drone, but can also be used for measurements from a helicopter or aeroplane. The drone is a DJI Matrice 600 Pro. The equipment is intended to add to the capacity already available in geophysical exploration in Iceland, where the equipment for such measurements is mainly held by ÍSOR and the University of Iceland. There is cooperation on equipment build-up and this equipment is part of it.

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Ongoing2021

NASPMON – natural seismicity for geothermal exploration

Czech Academy of Sciences

NASPMON is a four-year collaborative project between Iceland and the Czech Republic; specifically ÍSOR and two institutes within the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS), as well as the Faculty of Science of Charles University in Prague. The NASPMON project builds on decades of informal cooperation between ÍSOR and CAS; the Academy has operated 15 seismometers on the Reykjanes Peninsula in collaboration with ÍSOR since 2013.

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Research areas

Expertise that reaches from the surface to the deep

From geothermal reservoirs and drilling to natural hazards and environmental studies.

Borehole logging

Testing and assessing well output calls for a range of measurements that yield information about the characteristics of boreholes and their capacity, as well as the characteristics and properties of each geothermal system. The same applies to well stimulation aimed at increasing the output of both new and older production wells. Well testing is a key element in the drilling of exploration and production wells, in well maintenance, and in recording information about each geothermal field.

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Geothermal resource assessment

ÍSOR has decades of experience in assessing the energy reserves of geothermal fields, in both low- and high-temperature systems in Iceland and abroad. Assessing the size of a geothermal system involves surveys and research to determine the physical properties and energy-production capacity of the system concerned. The assessment is based on the data available at any given time, and on the stage the system's utilisation has reached. The data drawn on may come from surface exploration and from research and production drilling, as well as from production data.

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Chemical analyses

Sampling and chemical analysis of water, gas and geological materials are the core of ÍSOR's geochemical services. We are committed to providing our clients with dependable, professional service and we work to international standards. ÍSOR employs a team of chemists, geochemists and geologists who have built up specialist expertise in sampling and chemical analysis, above all for the geothermal industry in Iceland.

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Geological mapping

ÍSOR specialises in producing geological maps of many kinds, covering both the land and the seabed. For decades ÍSOR's specialists and their predecessors have worked to map the geology of Iceland and to present that information on maps of various types.

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District-heating production monitoring

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Groundwater research

Water protection and the sustainable use of the water resource is a demand of our time, and ÍSOR holds specialist expertise in this field. ÍSOR has provided advice on groundwater and groundwater research for water utilities, aquaculture stations and companies that produce bottled water.

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