Author: Jón Frímann

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Weekend long earthquake swarm in Reykjanes volcano (both of them)

This is the first article on the Iceland geology new domain and new hosting location. I’ve resolved most problems but few remains that I am working on resolving. Please report any problems in a comment here or send me an email to volcano [at] icelandgeology [dot] net. I have updated the email postlist for those who use it. Please check your spam folders and update your rules for the new addresses that are now being used.
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Over the weekend there has been a earthquake swarm in the Reykjanes volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw2,6 on Saturday 06-June-2020 at 01:01 UTC. Other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude. Around 220 earthquakes have been recorded at the writing of this article.


The earthquake activity in the volcano called Reykjanes and Svartsengi (Þorbjörn). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The reason for this earthquake swarm is inflation that has been increasing in recent days according to GPS data that is not yet corrected or verified. That GPS data can be found here. This inflation increases the risk of larger earthquake in next few days.

Donations

If people want to they can support my work with donations. The help me with running this website. I have now lowered my hosting cost considerably from what it used to be and June is now the last month I pay expensive dedicated hosting. Currently however I am really broke because of this and other factors. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Moving hosting providers

In June I am moving to a new hosting provider. This is going to save me a lot of money because the new hosting provider (1984.is) is a lot cheaper then my current host provider (Hostdime U.S). This is rather complicated move because I am moving completely new system. This can result in technical problems and downtime. I hope to minimize this but it might not be possible avoid this.

The new hosting provider is located in Iceland and I now only pay $9,91/month (sign-up offer, its $10,75/month from next year) for the hosting compared to $235/month that I have been paying.

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Earthquake swarm north-east of Grindavík town

Today (30-May-2020) at 01:07 UTC an earthquake swarm started north-east of Grindavík town in the volcano of Reykjanes (Svartsengi part). Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw2,7 and other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude. This earthquake swarm is currently ongoing and this information is going to get outdated quickly. Current activity doesn’t suggest that an eruption is about to happen.


The earthquake swarm north-east of Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This signals that the inflation in this part of the volcano has started again at earlier speed possibly but this requires a confirmation from GPS data and such confirmation takes a few days. This is information that I don’t have access to because its from satellites that NASA runs to monitor volcanoes. Only Icelandic Met Office and University of Iceland has access to this type of information.

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Magnitude Mw3,5 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano during the night (30-May-2020)

A single earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano at 01:20 UTC. This earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,5 and no other earthquakes took place following this earthquake. This type of earthquake has been followed by stronger earthquake activity later but this is not always the case. This earthquake activity is due to inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano after the eruption in Holuhraun in August 2014 to February 2015. This earthquake was in its normal place in north-east part of Bárðarbunga volcano.


The green star shows the Mw3,5 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This activity is normal and does not signal any eruption risk because after the eruption of 2014 and 2015 it is going to be a while until next eruption happens in Bárðarbunga volcano, probably.

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Inflation resumes at Þorbjörn mountain on Reykjanes peninsula

According to Icelandic Met Office and news at Rúv.is the inflation at Þorbjörn mountain seems to have started again after few weeks of no inflation being detected. The inflation now seems to be small but that might change without warning. There might not be a lot of earthquake activity connected to this time of inflation because the area already is inflated and there was a lot of earthquake activity earlier in the year when this started. Earthquake activity might be more common on the edges and at those location the risk of magnitude Mw6,0 earthquake is highest, but is impossible to be certain about this due to how many faults there are on the Reykjanes peninsula, both from volcanoes and rift faults due to the rift valley that is there (its just full of lava).


There was a earthquake swarm yesterday (28-May-2020) north of Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

How this is going to change and evolve over the next few weeks is not something that can be predicted with any certainty for now. Since there have not been any eruption in this area for close to 800 years it is not known how this volcano systems behave in a eruption and inflation phase.

GPS data can be found here.

Icelandic News

Land virðist farið að rísa við Þorbjörn á ný (Rúv.is)
Vísbendingar um að landris sé hafið að nýju við Þorbjörn (Vísir.is)

Donations

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

I am going to start working I hope next week in order to increase my income and making things easier for me when it comes to money from July to September. This means slightly less time to update this website if anything happens during the work day.

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Earthquake swarm activity increases in Reykjanes ridge volcano

Since early this morning (18-May-2020) earthquake activity has been increasing in Reykjanes volcano. For the last several weeks there has been a deflation taking place in the volcanoes from Krýsuvík (possibly) and to Reykjanes volcano. Such event is to be expected with a rift volcanoes (see Krafla volcano 1980 – 1984 eruptions).


Current earthquake activity in the Reykjanes volcano and Þorbjörn mountain. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Other than this minor activity it has been quiet in Iceland for the last month. This happens regularly in Iceland. This quiet time might last a while longer.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Support is still needed when things are quiet in Iceland. Please see the pinned article for more details. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Donations needed for May

The month of May is going to be really difficult for me financially. The reason is the same one as in April. I have to pay the extra tax in Denmark for the year 2019 (two months). The good news is that I have one month left of this payments. The last payment is going to be in June and after that I should be clear of any more tax payments in Denmark. I might have to pay next year (2021) for the 1,5 months I lived in Denmark of the year 2020 but by that time I won’t have this huge amount of payments as I do now so it might be a less of a problem for me to pay it by then.

Current situation is that I am completely broke and have been for several days now. That situation is just bad. I am currently tracking the activity on Reykjanes and Reykjanes peninsula as it develops and changes with time. Along with the usual activity that I monitor in Iceland.

Thanks for the support. 🙂

Update 15th May 2020

Thanks to a donation that I got was able to buy food for several days (I just placed in the small freezer I have) and to take it slightly easier for few days where I live in Iceland. I have resolved the current problem from June in such a way that I hope June, July and August won’t be too bad months for me. I had to delay finishing paying the Danish tax because I was unable to afford finishing paying it in June as I had hoped. That is just how this is for now for me. I hope that by start of next year (2021) I am going to be free of this problem with money. At least for a little while.

Update 27th May 2020

Turns out that June is not going to be better for me because now I also have to pay Icelandic taxes on top of Danish taxes. I don’t know the total taxes I have to pay in Iceland for the year 2019 since that information is not released until 28th of May. I am hoping that July is going to be better but that depends on when I pay the Icelandic tax. I might delaying paying it until 1st of July because I can’t afford this month and one extra day of not paying is not that bad but it gets delay interests on top of the amount that I need to pay. Delaying payment until 1st of July also means that I have to pay double that month. I’ll see how to deal with this problem. Because this is a problem for me.

The good news in all of this financial mess is that I am slowly reconstructing my financial system in such a way that instead of being debt based, they are going to based on what I can afford to pay without getting me self into debt. It is going to take some work to keep and run but it is going to be worth it in my own view.

Update 28th of May 2020

I am now looking into lowering my website hosting costs. This would mean moving my website to a different type of hosting. I am currently checking to see if I can use WordPress.com hosting platform for this since hosting there only costs $25/month or $300/year. Compared to $235/month ($2820/year) that I am currently paying. The hosting costs is a part of my financial problem and as part of my reconstruction that costs needs to go down from what currently is. I don’t know if I would be able to provide any updates for my webicorders since that setting would not allow for it since that requires a ftp setup and a folder for the html website. I would need to host such website my self at later time.

I am going to move to a VPS hosting (55GBP/month) that is cheaper and add cloudflare account (free or $20/month) to my domain to handle all the traffic spikes I get when a volcano erupts in Iceland.

Turns out that VPS is too small for my websites. What I am going to do is to switch to a cheaper dedicated server located in the UK by July or August. I am also going to start working again because current situation is ridiculous and I cannot maintain this. I didn’t plan on working this summer but this is what I need to do and this is what I am going to do.

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Strong earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano during the night

During the night of 20-April 2020 a magnitude Mw4,8 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This activity is normal and this is the strongest earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano since January 2020 when a magnitude Mw4,8 earthquake took place. Article on that earthquake can be found here.


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

This is how the earthquake was recorded on my geophones.


The earthquake on my first Hvammstangi geophone station.


The earthquake on my second Hvammstangi geophone station.

The traces show that there was a lot of ground displacement in this earthquake. This is due to the inflation taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano and the fact Bárðarbunga volcano collapsed during the 2014 – 2015 eruption in Holuhraun.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. It helps me to keep this website running and just to do everyday normal thing and not to go too broke. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Earthquake warning for Reykjanes/Reykjavík

Today (11-April 2020) an earthquake swarm took place north of Grindavík town. Largest earthquake in today’s swarm had a magnitude of Mw3,2. Other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.


The earthquake activity on the Reykjanes peninsula today. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Icelandic Met Office has issued a earthquake warning for Reykjanes and Reykjavík area. The warning is that magnitude Mw6,3 earthquake might hit this area soon but it is not possible to give any better time frame than this. The reason for this warning is that the magma injection is now changing the stress levels in the crust and is pressuring nearby faults that might break without much warning.

Icelandic News about the earthquake warning

Fólk þarf að búa sig undir skjálfta nærri sex að stærð (Rúv.is)

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. It helps me in the daily life and to keep this website updated. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Donations needed for April 2020

This is not a long story. But I had a extra tax bill to pay with Denmark and few other bills and that did result in this and there are still three weeks (almost four) weeks left of April. Donations do help me a lot in keeping this website running. Like many other website and YouTube creators I’ve only been able to keep this website running because of the support I’ve been getting with donations. I had to add advertisement back because I can get some extra income from those even if this are just advertisement from Amazon.

Please remember to support my work if you can. It helps me to eat this month and just doing the normal stuff (there isn’t a lot to do in a small town, but anything helps).

Thanks for the support.

Update 17th April 2020

Since I am getting really few donations in the rest of April is going to get really difficult for me. I don’t know yet how I am going to deal with this problem but I just have to hope that something shows up.

Update 28th April 2020

It is still few days left of April and I’m still broke. I got donations and they helped me to buy food for a day or two. I think that recession following covid-19 is hitting my donations like everyone else that depends on this type of income. I am hoping that May is going to be slightly better for me but its too early to know for sure when this is written. I am hoping to have some type of balance back by June when I finish paying the Danish tax I have to pay for the year 2019. I don’t know if this is the last payment of tax for Denmark, if not then I don’t have to pay anything until the year 2021 as it now is (when the year 2020 tax report is due). After that I won’t pay any more taxes to Denmark because I don’t plan on moving back to Denmark.