Thor Thordarson obtained his PhD at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is now at the Faculty of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland having worked previously at the University of Edinburgh, the University of Hawaii at Manoa, CSIRO in Western Australia, the IGNS Volcanology Group in New Zealand, and the Nordic Volcanological Institute, Reykjavik. Armann Hoeskuldsson gained his PhD at l'Universite Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand. He is now with the Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Iceland and was previously the Director of the South Iceland Institute of Natural History in Vestmannaeyjar.