Author: Jón Frímann

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All quiet in Iceland at the moment

Currently everything is quiet in Iceland, some earthquake activity has been taking place. It is not big or significant at the moment, if that is going to change I do not know yet. So currently there is nothing to report from Iceland at the moment, this quiet period allows me to take a little break from writing about earthquakes and attend to other things that interest me. I have also been fixing my server computer, it took longer time then expected and it did really strain me doing so. For that reason, I needed a little break for a few days.

If people want to check out my other hobbies, they can do so here on Flickr web site.

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Strong earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge

Last night a earthquake swarm started on the Reykjanes Ridge, this earthquake swarm started slowly with just few minor earthquakes. It however did pick up later today with stronger earthquakes and more activity. Strong earthquakes in this swarm so far have had the magnitude 4.5 and 4.7 according to USGS/EMSC. There have been over 10 magnitude 3+ earthquakes, there is also a chance of more earthquakes with the magnitude above 4.0+ in next few hours to days. According to Icelandic Meteorological Office, there have been over 310 earthquakes in this area today (my counter is still offline, more on that later in this blog post).

This earthquake swarm has been showing the pattern of stopping and then continue for few hours, and repeating this pattern. This sometimes happens in earthquake swarms on the Reykjanes Ridge, why that is I do not know. Last eruption in this area was sometimes on the 18th or 19th century I think. If this activity is connected to volcano activity it is too early to know at the moment, at the moment there is nothing that suggest that is the case. That might however change without a warning if that is the case. This volcano is located out in the ocean, so it is poorly monitored so current status of it is impossible to know for certain. Currently there are no harmonics being detected, just normal earthquake activity and nothing else.

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Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

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Trace showing how the evolution of the earthquake swarm has been for the past few hours.Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is difficult to know for sure what happens next in this earthquake swarm. It is clear for the moment that this earthquake swarm is in full force as is, so more earthquake activity is to be expected. This earthquake activity can be monitored here, on my webicorder web site. It is updated every 5 min.

Other

I am sorry for this late blog post, but I always use some time to see how earthquake swarm evolve and what happens in them before I write, unless there is a really big earthquake with magnitude 50 or larger.

I have also been busy today trying to get my server computer back up and running, it has been working somewhat but I had to start from scratch again due to technical issues with few things. I am running FreeBSD on my server computer now. Since I am moving away from Linux solutions and it has been more of a challenge then I expected. I hope to have everything worked out now, so I hope to have my server computer up and running properly tomorrow. Since I know what I did wrong first time around and I did avoid it this time around, so I am not expecting any problems in setting up FreeBSD properly this time around.

I also want to point out that donations help me running this blog, since my financial status is not as strong that I wanted it to be. Thanks for the help.

Blog post updated at 13:26 UTC on 11. May 2013.

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EasyJet transports one ton of volcano ash from Iceland to UK

The low fair airliner EasyJet has transported one ton of volcano ash from Eyjafjallajökll volcano to UK from Iceland. The propose for doing this is to test jet engines against the volcano ash and too see what type of damage they do, two jets from Airbus are going to be used.

This news was reported by Rúv and can be read here below. It was also reported by ITV in English and that can be found here below.

Tonn af ösku flutt til Bretlands (Rúv.is)
Fluttu tonn af ösku frá Íslandi (mbl.is)
Tonne of ash to be used in flight test (ITV News)

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Donations needed for May

As always I need donations, since its cost to run this web page and there is a lot of work put into writing on this blog. Monitoring earthquakes and checking data, science studies and so on. Since I run my web on advertisement (more on that below). I also a poor writer at the moment, when all the bills are paid this month then I have less then 53 euro to survive this month. This status is going to last for me the next 12 months at least, after that it is going to improve. Since I have to pay down debt with my bank in Iceland, my current plan says that I am going to be debt free with my Icelandic bank in the year 2017. That might change if my income increases. I am not sure when I am going to be completely debt free, but I hope that is going to be around the same time.

Advertisement

I get some income from Google Adsense. It is not much at the moment, around 30 euro during the month, or around 0.30 euro cent a day. I also have Amazon Advertisements, but I get paid for those when it is bought trough my Amazon advertisement. At the moment, I have little income from that. Nothing that pays at the moment. I am currently waiting for Google Adsense pin code, I do hope it has not been lost in the mail. I have been waiting for 4 weeks now for this pin code. If it has been lost in the mail, I have to order a new one and wait some more.

End of the email post list

I am going to close down my email post list at the end of this month. The reason for this is the cost. Currently this email post-list costs me around $4.95, with more users however this cost is going to increase with time. I am going to try and find new email list service that costs (just one payment for unlimited amount of users on my email list) less then my current email list provider. As it is going I am seeing that I cannot handle the cost for this email list in about 24 to 48 month periods. The email post-list is going to be active until the end of May, then I am going to close it down permanently. I am going to try and find new provider for this service, any suggestions are welcomed.

Future plans

I have found out that with my self that I need more people not less. For that reason I am going to move to Frankfurt, Germany in few years time. I am not sure when exactly when that happens, I am going to move when I have the income to do so. So that is going to take a while, at least until I have published some books and I hope that income from those books that I am planning. To start with however I am just going to move to Flensburg in Germany. That is going to be a short move, only about 8 km, I am going to do this since it takes me two years to close all loose ends in Denmark and I might not have the money to move to Frankfurt, even if I am going to have the money to live Flensburg, Germany. During this change, I am also going to stop my local recording of earthquakes. Since big towns and cities are not good to record earthquakes due to human noise (cars, people, trains, buses etc). This can already be seen on my Bov, Denmark geophone station. All the road and train traffic appears clearly on my geophone all hours of the day.

Stories

I did open up a new web page some while ago. That web page has the name stories and can be found here. I am going to post there short stories at various length. Stories that I am not going to publish as e-books. This is both for practice and I hope that it is going to increase my income since I really need it. I hope that my stories are going to get larger audience then my science blogs, that often get really little traffic at times when nothing is happening in Iceland and Europe. It takes time to write short stories, just as long stories. I hope to have something there soon, since I am often working on stories in my mind that are perfect for this type of publishing.

Pictures

I have started again to add pictures to my Flicker account. It can be found here, I am going to add pictures when I can. Since it is a free account however, I can only add so many pictures during the month. I plan on adding as many pictures that I am allowed, but I do take a lot of pictures on my long walks (that is why I have blisters on my foot and ruined shoes and I cannot afford to buy new ones at the moment).

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Earthquake in Hekla volcano

Today (04.05.2013) at 05:06 UTC a magnitude 1.5 earthquake took place in Hekla volcano. This earthquake had the depth of 7.8 km. No other earthquakes have so far taken place following this earthquake and no change has taken place in tremor plots around Hekla volcano. This earthquake follows a pattern of earthquakes that have been taking place in Hekla volcano for the past several weeks.

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The earthquake in Hekla volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

My Heklubyggð geophone is currently offline due to network problems in the area. I do not know when they are going to be resolved, it might take few days. Data is being recorded currently if the computer that handles this task is up and running.

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Earthquake swarm deep off the south coast of Iceland

Yesterday (02.05.2013) at 06:08 UTC there was a earthquake swarm deep off the south coast of Iceland. This earthquake swarm was around 300 km south of Iceland. I do not know if there are any volcanoes in this area, at least nothing is documented. Depth of the ocean in this area is around 3 to 4 km, or more. Icelandic Meteorological Office did register two earthquakes from this area. The location is a good estimate at best. Since the SIL network has problems locating earthquakes this far out in the ocean.

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The green star marks the location of this earthquake swarm. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I did record this earthquakes on my geophone network. This earthquake activity was clearly seen on Skeiðflöt geophone stations, but also in Heklubyggð geophone stations. The data from my geophone network suggests that this earthquake had stronger magnitude then ML3.0 as it is registered with Icelandic Meteorological Office. Estimating magnitude of earthquake this far away from the SIL network is difficult at best, so its magnitude is at best too low. I do not know by how much it is.

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The earthquake as it did appear on Skeiðflöt geophone station. This image is released under Creative Commons licence. Please see licence page for more details.

It is possible that more earthquakes did take place in this location. The SIL network did record one (and my geophones too) at 03:56 UTC, that earthquake was smaller but at the same location. So this was most likely a earthquake swarm taking place in this location. I do not know if there are any volcanoes in this area, it might well be. If that is the case, it is unknown and undocumented as is and is going to be that for a while now.

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Computer problems

I guess that being broke has finally cached up with me. I have a failed power supply in my main server computer that I run locally. It handles several important jobs. One of the being a counter for earthquake activity in Iceland and Canary Islands (El Hierro volcano). This allows me to see if anything is taking place, estimating number of earthquakes if anything happens. A earthquake swarm is a good sample of what this helps me with. So my server computer is close to being mission critical for me in what I am doing.

What is failing is the power supply as I did say before. The part that is failing in the power supply it self is the main fan. It is making noise and not spinning properly, suggesting it is almost dead. I also am seeing that my current motherboard suffers from the capacitor plague. It still works. But it is going to end its life span once the capacitors finally blow or just plain out die.

What do I need. A power supply that looks like this. Sadly I cannot afford it. I am going to check with my bank and see what they say, but I might be able to work something out. I do not know yet if I am going to get a deal with my bank. Buf I do it is going to increase my current money issues, since it is going to increase my payments back to the bank and therefor lower my already almost non-existent money once I have paid all my bills and debt. It is clear that my money issue are going to continue for a good while longer it seems.

The price is, EUR 41.19 or 307.10DKK, or something like this on lower price. This is the price if anyone wants to donate towards me so that I can buy this.

I cannot turn on the server computer at the moment. Since I am afraid the power supply might damage the already weakened motherboard (due to bad capacitor on it) . I am going to keep my server computer off until I can replace the power supply. Regardless if that is going to take a short or a long time. If I manage to buy a new power supply, it is going to take a few days until I can get it. The future plan for the sever computer is to get it compact and without any fans and such things if possible. Since it is not under heavy load and is only serving my internal network in several ways, including handing out local IP numbers and my IPv6 connection to the internet.

Thanks for the help.

Update 1: There is little help to get from my bank. Because I am really, really broke. This is going to be pain for me.

Blog post updated at 11:29 UTC on 30.04.2013.

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Earthquake activity in Hekla, Katla, Krísuvík and Bárðarbunga volcanoes

Before I start. I want to remind people that donations help me to keep this blog up and running. I only have social welfare from Iceland and that is barely enough to make end meets. Just 10€ go a long way for me. Thanks!

Hekla and Katla volcanoes

I am going to write about both this volcanoes here. Since I am going to be using the same image anyway for both volcanoes.

Yesterday (26.04.2013) there was a magnitude 1.1 earthquake in Hekla voclano. This earthquake was in the same area that triggered uncertainty level to be declared just before Easters in March. It was later cancelled when nothing more happened.

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Earthquake in Hekla volcano. Also on this picture earthquake activity in Katla volcano (read more below). Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Katla volcano has been having some earthquake activity in past days. So far it has just been minor earthquakes and nothing more. But it has been taking place where a minor eruption took place in Katla volcano during the summer of 2011. That minor eruption created a minor glacier flood. But it did destroy a bridge and closed down the ring road (road 1) in this part of Iceland.

While this activity is currently nothing to worry about. It is worth keeping a eye on it. Just in case it increases, or if some other changes start to take place in Katla volcano.

Krísuvík volcano

A minor earthquake swarm took place in Krísuvík volcano today (27.04.2013). The largest earthquake had the magnitude of 1.9. The depth of this earthquakes was around 8.6 km. Activity in this area is normal and there does not seem anything strange about it. But Krísuvík volcano has been having periods of inflation and deflation for the past three years. Earthquake activity increases when Krísuvík volcano is in period of inflation. If that is the case now I do not know.

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Earthquake activity in Krísuvík volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Bárðarbunga volcano

A minor earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano today. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 1.3. Depth range was from 18.8 km and up to 11.1 km. This earthquake swarm is important. Since it appears that this is a dike intrusion in Bárðarbunga volcano. But a minor dike intrusion also took place in this area few weeks ago. That also resulted in a minor earthquake swarm in this same area.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Most likely due to minor dike intrusion into the volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

A minor dike intrusions into a volcano does not mean a eruption is going to take place. In many Icelandic volcanoes (and around the world also) dike intrusions into the volcanoes are common event and in most cases do not result in any eruptions. But it is worth keep a watch out for this type of eruptions. Since it might signal a more active period ahead in Bárðarbunga volcano. But it might also just equally don’t mean anything. There is no way to know for sure.

Other then this activity. It has been rather quiet in Iceland at the moment. No larger earthquakes have been taking place in the past two weeks since activity slowed down in Tjörnes Fracture Zone.

Blog post updated at 22:32 UTC on 27.04.2013.
Blog post updated at 22:53 UTC on 27.04.2013.

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Earthquake activity in Hekla, Askja volcanoes and TFZ

Before I start. I want to remind people that donations are import to me. Since they help me keeping this blog and my earthquake web page up and running.

Hekla volcano earthquake activity

A minor earthquake activity took place in Hekla volcano yesterday. None of the earthquake was larger then ML1.2. The depth of this earthquake activity was around 8.4 km. This earthquake activity took place outside the main volcano. But was in the connected fissure swarms that extends from Hekla volcano.

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Earthquake activity in Hekla volcano system. The earthquakes are the orange dots just south-west of Hekla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquakes have been taking place in this area for few years now. I do not know what they mean. This might just be a earthquake activity and nothing else. Uncertainty level has been canceled for few weeks now due to lack of any more activity in the main Hekla volcano.

Askja volcano

There has been minor earthquake activity in Askja volcano this past weeks. All of the earthquakes have been smaller then magnitude 1.5. Depth of this earthquakes is around 18 to 22 km. Suggesting that current earthquake activity has its source in magma movements rather then tectonic earthquakes.

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Earthquakes in Askja volcano. Askja volcano is the volcano north-east of Vatnajökull glacier. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone has slowed down since 2. April when a large earthquake swarm started in it. But earthquake activity remains as is. Even if the earthquakes are smaller and fewer. This means the earthquake activity has been continuous for the past three weeks.

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Earthquake activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. It remains in two areas as of now. New activity has also been taking place. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is difficult to know for sure what happens next in TFZ. But tension in it remains as before and so does the risk for larger earthquake in this area. For the moment however, it remains rather quiet. When that might change is impossible to know for sure.

Blog post updated at 18:16 UTC on 24.04.2013.

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I have left Facebook

Please note that I have left Facebook for good. I can be contacted by email, Google+ or Twitter. The reason why I left Facebook can be found here and here.

I do not expect to be returning to Facebook anytime soon. Or return at all for that matter. Since I find the negative effects of it too high when I started to think about it.