Author: Jón Frímann

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano (Week 13)

Before I start. I want to remind people on this article here that I wrote about my move to Denmark.

Today (3-April-2016) magnitude 3,4 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. It was followed by few minor aftershocks. Pre-earthquake with the magnitude of 3,0 also took place before the main event.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Green star shows the location of magnitude 3,4 earthquake. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

This earthquake took place not far from the dyke that created the eruption in Holuhraun. At the moment no other activity appears to be taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano.

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Moving to Denmark, also broke

I’m currently in the process of moving to Denmark. My plan is mostly going as I thought it would do. With one minor exception, I’m having less money then I expected due to the computer failure I had about 1 month ago. That did cost me around 50.000 ISK (355,69€, 405,68$, 2.649,15 DKK). That is a problem for me and continues to leave me bit broke. Any support is welcomed, or the rest of April is going to be rather difficult for me. This was not my original plan, since I had saved up for all the transport cost and some extra on top of that. But then the computer had to fail and since I can’t be without computer I had to buy a new one the cheapest way possible. I did that, but I still have a shortage of money when it comes to transport cost due to this.

This month, donations are needed if people can afford them. I know that not everyone that reads my website can afford supporting me with donations, but that is not a problem for me. [Added] If I don’t get a lot of donations I’m going to have a problem buying food all of April. Due to how things did go when it comes to the money problem that showed up (and I didn’t like it).

Advertisement changes

Few months ago Amazon allowed me to start in Amazon CPM advertisements. The difference from the normal Amazon advertisements is that I get paid per view of this website, rather than just sales as the old Amazon advertisements have had. For this reason I’ve moved most of my advertisements to Amazon CPM. This should bring more targeted advertisements to people that are looking for stuff to buy, even if that is not what people come on this website for. I won’t get any huge amount of payment from those advertisements at the moment. I also get payments if people buy something from those advertisement, under normal commission from Amazon U.S. Amazon CPM advertisements is not an option for the UK, DE, FR and Canada advertisements at the moment. I don’t know when they are going to start there. Until that happens. I’m also going to run normal advertisement that just pay when people buy something trough them.

The reason why I don’t have Google Adsense advertisement is simple. They have video advertisements with audio and video. They also have advertisements with audio only and that is just not acceptable in my view. For that reason I won’t have Google Adsense on my websites. There is also all the Google Adsense red tape that follows it. I am however going to have them on my YouTube channel, once I’ve set that up again.

Article schedule

I am going to have rather good internet connection or at least some internet connection until 14-April. Until that time I can post articles here. Once I’m in Denmark I won’t have internet connection until 29-April. I might be able to write some short articles in that time, since there is a library in the town that I’m moving to. But access to it might be limited (I’m not sure). If anything happens I’ll try and cover it, but I might not be able write about it right away, depending on the situation I’m at the time.

Please note that I won’t be on Twitter while I’m moving to Denmark. Just on Facebook.

Article updated on 02-April-2016 at 22:50 UTC. Fixed missing text.

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Minor earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano

Over the past few weeks there has been a slight increase in earthquakes in Öræfajökull volcano. Due to glacier quake activity I’m only using earthquakes that have confirmed depth of 1,5 km or deeper. This earthquake activity is minor and doesn’t suggest that an eruption is imminent, it however does suggest that something is going on.

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Öræfajökull volcano is to the south on this image (two red dots). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This activity has a long history, it started happening in 2012 at the earliest that I know of and has been going on slowly since then. Öræfajökull volcano did go from having no earthquakes and up to having two to five earthquakes a year. Sometimes more. There are clues in this activity that magma might be starting to push it self up into the volcano, but at the moment it doesn’t seems to be going far up into the volcano. Based on the current depth and low seismicity in Öræfajökull volcano. I don’t expect this to change any time soon. Since most of the time, at least for the moment there is little to no earthquake activity taking place in Öræfajökull volcano.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga and Grímsfjall volcanoes

Yesterday (17-March-2016) an earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is a weekly cycle at the moment in Bárðarbunga volcano so older readers are used to seeing and read about it already. This started in September 2015 (for the new readers) after the eruption in Holuhraun ended in February 2015. This activity suggest that magma has started to flow into the magma chamber in Bárðarbunga volcano again at faster speeds than before the eruption in Holuhraun. The exact rate is difficult to know, since the magma that started the eruption in Holhraun had been building up in Bárðarbunga volcano since 1970-ish and part of that time earthquake recording was poor or did not exist in Iceland or parts of it until 1995 when the SIL network was created by Veðurstofa Íslands.

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The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga and Grímsfjall volcanoes. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

The largest earthquake this week had the magnitude of 3,4 while other earthquakes that took place had smaller magnitude. The second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 2,8. Other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude. It is also interesting that part of the earthquake swarm aligned it self along north-south fault in the eastern part of the caldera. That is a new feature, either a weakness is forming at this location or something else is up. This area has around 300 – 500 meter thick glacier on top of it and an eruption at this location would be extremely bad. The glacier flood from eruption at this location would mostly go down Jökulsá á fjöllum glacier river. Other flood locations can’t be ruled out (I’m not an expert on glacier floods and I do have limited knowledge of the landscape under the glacier).

Grímsfjall volcano

It has been five years since Grímsfjall volcano erupted in a largest eruption in 140 years for Grímsfjall volcano. Over the past few weeks there has been a slight increase in earthquake in Grímsfjall volcano. At the moment this doesn’t mean an eruption is imminent, the thing however about eruptions in Grímsfjall volcano is that they happen suddenly and without warning. Normally eruption happens in Grímsfjall volcano every 3 – 5 years on average, sometimes its shorter and sometimes its longer between eruptions.

Notice on Böðvarshólar geophone station

For the longest time now I’ve been having 3G connection issues with Böðvarshólar geophone station. The problems include poor signal, little bandwidth. The poor signal leaks into my recording of earthquakes, making them bad and extremely noisy and that makes them less usable for me. I am going to attempt to improve this situation but if that fails I will have to turn the station down. Since the cost of getting a good antenna for this location is too high and the solution takes too long to implement anyway. I will post a notice if I take down the Böðvarshólar geophone station. If it happens, it is going to happen before I move to Denmark.

Article updated on 18-March-2016 at 13:31 UTC. Minor spelling error fixes.

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Earthquakes north of Kolbeinsey Island

Today (16-March-2016) there was an earthquake swarm around 110 km north of Kolbeinsey Island. At this location there are no registered or known volcanoes, there however might be one, but it is difficult to confirm. This earthquake activity however appears to be related to an rift valley that is at this location, rather then any volcano activity.

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The earthquake activity around 110 km north of Kolbeinsey Island. Green star shows the location of the largest earthquake. One magnitude 3,0 earthquake was deep on the Reykjanes Ridge (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 3,1. That magnitude is possibly an underestimate of magnitude due to distance from the SIL network. Other earthquakes have been smaller, but one earthquake had the magnitude of 2,9. That earthquake might have had a magnitude above 3,0 in reality. I suspect more earthquake activity has taken place without being detected by the SIL network.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Thanks for the support.

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Deep earthquakes in Askja volcano (15-March-2016)

Yesterday (15-March-2016) an earthquake swarm took place in Askja volcano. This was an deep earthquake swarm, with deepest earthquake having the depth of 18,7 km and the shallowest earthquake with the depth of 14,9 km. The earthquake swarm took place inside the volcano and there are clues that suggest it has it’s origin. This has been happening regularly since 2010 and after the Bárðarbunga volcano dyke getting close to the main magma chamber in Askja volcano the activity has slowly been increasing. This activity is not above background levels and nothing suggests that an eruption is about to happen any time soon.

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Askja volcano is located to the north-east of Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

For the moment the progress and the change in Askja volcano is slow, but that might change if the magma inside the system finds a pathway to the surface. If an eruption does happen I’m not expecting anything big, just a lava eruption that is going to go on for few days to weeks. Unless the magma gets into contact with water, creating a short term explosions. This is only a speculation, but Askja volcano is an active system and as such anything should be expected from it.

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Weather warning for South to North Iceland

Tomorrow (Sunday 13-March-2016) extremely bad weather is expected on south to north Iceland. The weather is also not going to be good in other parts of Iceland, but it is going to be far worse in south Iceland, western Iceland and north-western Iceland. With wind reaching 32m/s (115km/h) and with far stronger wind gusts. Today the weather has also not been good, but tomorrow it is going to be worse. Roads are going to get closed, as did happen today (12-March-2016). If you are in Iceland follow the closures since in this type of weather a rescue mission might not be possible due the the weather. The rescue crews might not even attempt reaching stuck people if it comes down to it. Since this strong wind is going to be followed by a warm weather and heavy snow melt at the same time, there is a risk of local floods in the next 24 hours.

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Its going to be bad weather tomorrow. Follow the advice given in this weather. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

This is only the weather forecast today. Tomorrow might get a lot worse if the weather forecast is off, that often happens in Iceland due to random factors of nature.

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Still mostly quiet in Iceland

Today (10-March-2016) an magnitude 3,2 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. The location of the earthquake swarm was in the caldera, with the location of the 3,2 magnitude earthquake being in the North-east part of the caldera.

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The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano today. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

The depth of this earthquake swarm was shallowest at 0,1 km, but most depth was 8,6 km. No other change has been observed in Bárðarbunga volcano so far. Other than this minor activity today in Bárðarbunga volcano activity remains low in Iceland. Currently there are storms passing over Iceland, that reduces the sensitivity of the SIL network.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. I’m getting rather broke at this moment. This will get better with time. That I’m sure of. But that moment I’m in minor problems and any help is welcomed. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Quiet in Iceland at the moment

For the past few days it has been quiet in Iceland when it comes to earthquakes and volcano activity. Quiet period happens, they are usually followed by a spike in activity somewhere in Iceland.

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All quiet in Iceland at the moment. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

For those wanting to pass the time while it is quiet. I suggest a message in a bottle website that Rúv put on, as part of a science show for kids they had on the schedule this winter. It’s updated several times a day when the bottles send a message to a passing satellite.

Message in a bottle (Rúv.is)

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Possible confirmation of minor eruption in Hamarinn volcano in July 2011

In July-2011 a minor eruption took place in Hamarinn volcano (part of Bárðarbunga volcano system). For a long time I’ve thought that those events in Hamarinn volcano where an eruption, rather than anything else. Due to how the glacier flood appeared and how sudden this all thing did happen.

Today (05-March-2016) Stöð 2 (Channel 2) ran a small news segment about this and the possible confirmation of this minor eruption in Hamarinn volcano in July-2011. I have the same view on the minor eruption in Katla volcano that same month. Its the view of Magnús Tumi, professor in geology that the events in Katla volcano where due to hydrothermal activity, not a minor eruption. I disagree with his assessment on what did happen in Katla volcano that summer. The top flood from Hamarinn volcano in July-2011 was 2.200m³/sec.

The articles I wrote about the events in Hamarinn volcano can be found here.
New harmonic tremor detected. But it is not from Katla volcano
Glacier flood confirmed from Vatnajökull glacier, flood is from Hamarinn volcano (Loki-Fögrufjöll area)

Vísir.is / Stöð 2 news in Icelandic

Lítið leynigos líklega í Vatnajökli árið 2011 (Vísir.is, Icelandic, images, video)