Category: Earthquakes

Posted on

Strong earthquake swarm on Reykjanes Ridge yesterday (02.03.2017)

Yesterday (02.March.2017) there was an strong earthquake swarm on Reykjanes Ridge. This earthquake swarm took place around 540 km away from the coast of Iceland. The largest earthquake had the magnitude of 4,9 (EMSC information here), the second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 4,4 (EMSC information here). It is unclear what started this earthquake activity, nothing suggests that an eruption started and at this distance nobody would notice. The depth in this area is such that a ship might not get any surface clues about what is happening deep in the ocean.


The magnitude 4,4 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.


The magnitude 4,4 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Heklubyggð. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.


The magnitude 4,9 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.


The magnitude 4,9 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Heklubyggð. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.

More earthquakes might appear on SIL network or my geophone if they are strong enough. It is difficult to know for sure due to distance from monitoring networks.

Donations

I pad all the bills this month and I’m broke. If people like my work they can support it by sending me donations.

I have started to stack up the bills for April (due how the system works here in Denmark, I have found it to be good idea to this if I’m unsure about anything) and from the looks of it appears that April is not going to be easy billing month due to a cable bill I have [3.733,73 DKK], stupid decision to get it, since most channels just show reruns and more reruns, but I was just after two news channels that I have now figured out to get with a 40 cm satellite dish indoors (yay, knowing inverse square law of radio waves).

I have cancelled my cable subscription now with an email. Like with the internet bill in February, they are charging me for a six month period. I also think that next three month internet bill is in April (around 900 DKK for next three months according to my estimate). The only good news is that I have been saving up a little for this cable bill since I already knew it was going to be a big one, the sad part is that March bills upset that plan a little bit, thanks to a donation I can increase my saving up a little for that bill, making it slightly easier to pay the cable bill in April. It might however upset my plan for an upgrading a IPTV box (this upgrade has to happen, the old system closes down at the end of April) I have for Icelandic channels (in case of an eruption I have it, not because of good programming). I have to send it to the company I bought it from to upgrade it and that costs in total around 600 DKK in the mail both ways.

This, along with my heavy debt payment plans make keeping all this afloat a bit of challenge at the moment. The money situation is going to be little easier from June when the debt payments I have get lowered down a bit. Until that I guess I’ll have to ask for more donation and support. It might appear that my money problems have been going on forever, they have been going on since 2012 and I fully expect them to end in 2018. Adjustment takes a little time and I’m working hard on solving this issues I’m dealing with.

Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Three minor earthquakes in Hekla volcano

Before I start I want to make that clear that nothing of interest besides this earthquake activity is happening in Hekla volcano.

Yesterday (02.03.2017) three earthquakes took place in Hekla volcano. Largest earthquake had the magnitude of 0,9 and other earthquakes that happened where smaller in magnitude.


The earthquake activity in Hekla volcano (to the right on this image). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Currently nothing suggests that an eruption is imminent in Hekla volcano. The reason for this surface earthquake activity is unclear. It is my view that Hekla has moved to earlier pattern of eruption, this pattern means an eruption once to twice a century, that means next eruption might happen sometimes between 2030 – 2100.

Donations

I pad all the bills this month and I’m broke. If people like my work they can support it by sending me donations. Donations are not a requirement, just if people want to. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Update to this section

I have started to stack up the bills for April (due how the system works here in Denmark, I have found it to be good idea to this if I’m unsure about anything) and from the looks of it appears that April is not going to be easy billing month due to a cable bill I have [3.733,73 DKK], stupid decision to get it, since most channels just show reruns and more reruns, but I was just after two news channels that I have now figured out to get with a 40 cm satellite dish indoors (yay, knowing inverse square law of radio waves).

I have cancelled my cable subscription now with an email [if that doesn’t work. I will call them and cancel it that way]. Like with the internet bill in February, they are charging me for a six month period. I also think that next three month internet bill is in April (around 900 DKK for next three months according to my estimate). The only good news is that I have been saving up a little for this cable bill since I already knew it was going to be a big one, the sad part is that March bills upset that plan a little bit, thanks to a donation I can increase my saving up a little for that bill, making it slightly easier to pay the cable bill in April. It might however upset my plan up upgrading a IPTV box I have for Icelandic channels (in case of an eruption I have it, not because of “good” programming). As I have to send it to the company I bought it from to upgrade it and that costs in total around 600 DKK in the mail both ways.

This, along with my heavy debt payment plans make keeping all this afloat a bit of challenge at the moment. The money situation is going to be little easier from June when the debt payments I have get lowered down a bit. Until that I guess I’ll have to ask for more donation and support. It’s a big mess and I’m not happy about it, but this is where I’m at the moment.

Thanks for the support. 🙂

Article updated at 03:28 UTC/04:28 CET on 03.03.2017.
Article updated at 03:34 UTC/04:34 CET on 03.03.2017.

Posted on

Strong earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano this morning

This morning (01.03.2017) there was an strong earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano. Strongest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 4,1 and other earthquakes where smaller. Total of 5 earthquake happened with magnitude above 3,0.


The earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano. Green stars are the earthquakes with magnitude above 3,0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is how the largest earthquake with the magnitude of 4,1 appeared on my geophones.


The magnitude 4,1 earthquake at Heklubyggð geophone. Shows strong surface wave activity. Filtered at 1Hz. This image is under Creative Commons Licence. See CC Licence site for more details.


The magnitude 4,1 earthquake at Böðvarshólar geophone. Filtered at 4Hz. This image is under Creative Commons Licence. See CC Licence site for more details.

This earthquake activity happens due to magma influx into Bárðarbunga volcano, resulting in a inflation. The last month (February 2017) has been the most quiet since end of the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano in February 2015.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. This month I can pay all the bills without any major issues, the problem is that once I’m done paying all the bills I’m going to be rather broke for the rest of the month. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano (best estimate)

Yesterday (25.02.2017) an earthquake happened in Bárðarbunga volcano. For some unknown reason, Icelandic Met Office has not located this earthquake or given it exact magnitude. I estimate based on what I see on my geophones that the magnitude is in the range of 3,2 – 3,8. Location is somewhere in Bárðarbunga volcano, since I just two geophones running in Iceland at the moment, I cannot give exact location. In order to get exact location I need more than three geophones.


The earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC Licence for more details.


The earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Heklubyggð. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC Licence for more details.

I’ll update this article once I get the exact location and magnitude from Icelandic Met Office website.

Update

The weekly earthquake list has this earthquake at magnitude 2,58Mw and ML3,03.

227 20170225 143125.453 64.64607 -17.35535 0.065 2.58 3.03

Article updated at 20:56 UTC on 27.02.2017.

Posted on

Ongoing earthquake activity in Katla volcano

For the past few days there has been a earthquake activity in Katla volcano. This is in two forms, as earthquake swarm that are taking place and earthquakes that spread around the caldera and the volcano.


The earthquake activity in Katla volcano over the past 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

All clues suggest that an eruption is going to happen soon in Katla volcano, as it currently stands. The problem is that Katla volcano might cool down and not erupt at all, what makes this period different is the fact this earthquake activity has been ongoing since end of August-2016. At the moment the earthquake activity is just a minor activity, with most earthquakes have less magnitude of 3,0. There are no signs that suggest that this activity is slowing or stopping.

Technical problems (Iceland geology)

Yesterday I was having technical problems with Iceland geology. Turns out the source of this issue is that my server is getting too small. I started using the current dedicated server in 2015 and then it was enough (page view count for 1 day ~1100, today that is ~2100 for 1 day). Today, Iceland Geology has traffic that is too much for my current server. This means that I need to do an upgrade when I can afford it. That won’t be this month as it currently stands, moving to a new server costs $219/month, at the moment I’m paying $140/month for dedicated hosting. The new server is going to be 3,60Ghz with 16GB ram. Current server has 4GB ram and just 1,66Ghz CPU. Making this upgrade a urgent one due to the increase in traffic that Iceland geology is currently seeing.

At the moment I’m hoping that I’ll be able to move to a new server in May or June at the latest. I just hope that Katla doesn’t erupt before that, since it would result in a server issues due to lack of capability to handle all the traffic.

Posted on

Earthquake swarm not far from Skjaldbreið (Presthnjúkur area)

Yesterday (22.02.2017) there was an earthquake swarm in the Presthnjúkur area, in a area not far from Skjaldbreið volcano.


Earthquake activity yesterday close to Skjaldbreið. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This was a minor earthquake swarm, with the largest earthquake only having a magnitude of 2,2. Depth was from 18,3 km and up to 1,1 km. This earthquake swarm appears to be over.

Article updated at 12:08 UTC on 24.02.2017. Title error fixed.

Posted on

Continued and strong earthquake activity north of Kolbeinsey Island

For the past few weeks something has been going on in the deep ocean far north of Kolbeinsey Island. The area north of Kolbeinsey Island has been having strong earthquake swarms for several weeks now, what is creating them is less clear.


The earthquake activity north of Kolbeinsey Island (blue dots). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

All magnitudes are under-estimated at this location. I managed to record the last earthquake swarm (largest earthquakes) and it was clear by this activity that something was going on. Five earthquakes that where at least magnitude 3,2 (estimate) took place in the space of 4 – 8 minutes. This where only the earthquakes that I was able to record, distance from my geophone to this area is ~230 km at shortest distance. Making it difficult for me to record earthquakes on my simple geophone. Icelandic Met Office SIL network is not having much better luck recording earthquakes at this location, due to distance the SIL network underestimates the magnitude and location of the earthquakes has higher than normal error margins (up to several dozen of km at most).

There is a possibility that an eruption is taking place at this location now. There was a possible eruption or dyke injection at this location in October of the year 1999, the Global Volcanism Program report on that activity can be found here.

Posted on

Earthquake activity increasing in Katla volcano again

For the last 24 hours (15 and 16.02.2017) earthquake activity has been increasing in Katla volcano. If it follows earlier pattern, a swarm of earthquakes with magnitude 3,0 or stronger might happen in Katla volcano in next few days or next week at the latests. Please note that there is no good way to say when this might happen and time estimates are just guesses (based on current best data).


Earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Current earthquake activity was not strong, the largest earthquake that happened had a magnitude of 2,0. All other earthquakes had smaller magnitude (at the moment). Earlier pattern have been that small earthquake swarm starts, a break happens for several hours for up to several days and then a swarm of activity happens with one or more earthquake with magnitude above 3,0. I’m expecting this pattern to repeat it self now, but what actually happens remains to be seen.

Posted on

Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge

Yesterday (12.02.2017) and today (13.02.2017) there has been a earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge. For this area of the Reykjanes ridge, this earthquake swarm is normal. It doesn’t appear that it was due to magma movement and only tectonic in nature. The area in question is a fault valley according to ship survives (I think).


The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquakes in this swarm had the magnitude of 3,1 and 3,2. Depth in this earthquakes swarm was from 17 km and up to 2,4 km (there is some error margin). It appears that this earthquake swarm is over for now. It might restart again with double or triple amount of earthquakes happening, there is also a equal good chance of that not happening. All that can be done is to wait and see.

Posted on

Deep earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano

I haven’t written many articles about Öræfajökull volcano, since most of the time nothing happens in it. Öræfajökull volcano is located outside the main activity area in Iceland, like Esjufjöll and Snæfell (east Iceland). This three volcanoes form a volcano “arch” in south to east Iceland. Research suggests that old continental crust is possibly melting under Öræfajökull volcano and maybe Esjufjöll volcano (unclear). Research into that can be found here. This research shows a possible volcano directly east of Esjufjöll, I don’t have it on my maps so I don’t have a name for it (it might be unconfirmed volcano in that area, some maps show it, other don’t. I don’t know why).


Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. Öræfajökull volcano is in the right-south corner. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The magnitude of the earthquakes in question is only 1,1 and up to 1,8. What makes them interesting and might be a signal about something is about to happen in Öræfajökull volcano is the depth of earthquakes in question. The earthquake (magnitude 1,1) with the most depth has the depth of 21,2 km. The rest of the earthquakes has the depth of 19,0 to 20,7 km. View on the tremor plot suggest that this earthquake activity is magma related, rather than being driven by tectonic forces.

This activity started in the year 2011 with few earthquakes, no earthquakes happened in 2012 according to my data. Since then few earthquakes have been happening each year. How long the process is from just minor earthquake activity until an eruption starts in Öræfajökull volcano is something I don’t know and far as I know historical documents about the known eruptions are limited at best. Last known eruptions took place in the years 1362 June 5th until 1362 October 15 +-45 days, the other known eruption was in the year 1727 on August 3 and it lasted until May 1st 1728 +-30 days.