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October 10, 2014October 10, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano daily update 9-October-2014

This is the daily Bárðarbunga volcano update. If you wonder why I write this every day even if there are no major changes there is a reason to it. There is an eruption taking place and there is always something going on. There are more notes about other things at the end of this article.

Current status in Bárðarbunga volcano on 9-October-2014

Largest earthquake today had the magnitude of 5,2, it took place at 21:22 UTC. Second largest earthquake today took place at 04:37 UTC and it had the magnitude of 5,0.
There is increased activity over the dyke origin area in Bárðarbunga volcano. Largest earthquake so far had the magnitude of 4,8 at 19:13 UTC today. I don’t think this is a good sign, since it appears to me that more magma is trying to get into the dyke. The dyke is however not wide enough to take in all this new magma that is trying to pressure its way into it. So it is now trying to expanding it at is starting point. If that expansion of the dyke fails the magma is going to start looking for new way out. What path the magma is going to go is not possible to predict. When the formation of new dyke starts, there is going to be a new earthquake swarm with thousands of earthquakes as happened from 16-August to 29-August when the eruption started.
Bárðarbunga volcano caldera continues to drop even if the magma pressure is increasing. I don’t know why that is. The caldera is not going to collapse until most or all of the magma leaves the magma chamber holding it up. Until then it is going to stay up. When the magma finds a path out of the magma chamber it is going to start a large eruption that is only going to last 60 – 75 hours (less than a week). Until then it is going to be more of the same. New dykes forming and sometimes erupting.
Bad weather has prevented me from seeing anything on the web cameras. I have also not heard anything about the lava field current status on the news today.
Today there was more earthquake activity along the dyke then yesterday. Suggesting increased pressure in it, as would be expected since I am seeing more pressure in the magma system (based on earthquake activity).
Nothing else to report far as I know.

The ring fault in Bárðarbunga volcano

The ring fault that has formed in Bárðarbunga volcano can clearly be seen on this image today from Icelandic Met Office.

The ring fault in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Bárðarbunga volcano is a Stratovolcano (Wikipedia information can be found here) on a rift zone setting. This means Bárðarbunga volcano is able to erupt normal explosive eruptions at times (rhyolitic type eruptions), since magma can be mixed inside the volcano over a long period of time. I don’t think that is going to happen now, since there doesn’t seems to be any such magma in Bárðarbunga now. Since current activity happened without warning and that has not allowed any magma to evolve inside Bárðarbunga volcano magma chambers. As for Bárðarbunga volcano caldera collapse, information about how and why that is happening is explained here in general terms. As I said above, for as long there is magma inside the magma system that holds the weak area up it is going to stay where it is.

If anything major happens in Bárðarbunga volcano. I am going to write a new article or update this article with the latest information.

Other things

please note that I am in the process of moving back to Iceland. The moving date has been set in December. Until then I am just slowly packing my stuff down into boxes and ordering the transport for my stuff to Iceland. I am also trying to save up some money for the transport cost so I don’t have to take a large loan with my parents for this move back to Iceland. This also means that my geophone in Denmark is going down tonight. The website for it won’t go away right away. The image is going to be replaced with a test card.

Donations: Please remember to support my work with donations or by shopping at Amazon. Don’t worry about it if you can’t donate. I am just happy when I get any donation. Regardless how big or large it is. Thanks for the support.

Crazy theories

If there is a theory or idea that sounds just too crazy to be true. It is just that. Nature has its own rules and laws that it follows, even if we don’t understand them all. That is still what the nature does, even when it comes to eruptions. The best idea when it comes to crazy ideas is to ignore them. It is also important to know that nature ignores all crazy ideas anyway and does what it pleases to do. Regardless of any human idea about how nature works. I write this since I have been hearing a lot of crazy theories and ideas about Bárðarbunga volcano. Almost none of them have basis in fact, others are just twisting the facts and creating something unrealistic in the process.

October 9, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano daily update for 8-October-2014

This is daily update for Bárðarbunga volcano for 8-October-2014. Please note that I am doing to do the updates a bit shorter when nothing special is happening.

Current status in Bárðarbunga volcano

Largest earthquake today had the magnitude of 5,2. This earthquake took place NNE part of the caldera where majority of the large earthquakes have been happening for the past weeks. This activity might be because a dyke is drilling its way trough the crust in that one spot. This is just an idea (based on the clues that I get from the earthquake activity) and is so far not yet proven in any form.
No major changes have been reported in the eruption in Holuhraun. The lava field is now larger then 52 square kilometres in size. The eruption is about the same size as it was when it started five weeks ago.
Bad weather is preventing proper observation of the eruption at times.
The highest crater called Baugur is now some 100 meters tall. The crater called Suðri is around 40 to 50 meters tall. Other craters in the eruption are smaller. Icelandic news with picture with the name of craters can be found here.
There has been almost no earthquake activity detected today under the dyke today.
No other news to report today that I know of.

I am going to post update here if anything new happens. Volcanoes are unpredictable forces of nature so anything can happen without warning when they erupt.

October 8, 2014

Bárðarbunga daily update for 7-October-2014

This is the daily update for Bárðarbunga volcano on 6-October-2014.

I’m sorry for this late update. I’ve been more busy today then I planned. I did manage to solve one network problem that I was having. The other network problem that I am having is out of my reach it seems (It’s a problem with the ISP network connection to my end I think).

Status of Bárðarbunga volcano on 7-October-2014

The largest earthquake today had the magnitude of 5,5. It took place at 10:22 UTC. Other earthquakes that happened today where smaller. It seems that around 5 – 20 earthquakes that are larger then magnitude 3,0 happen every day now in Bárðarbunga volcano. This has been going on now for almost two months.
The eruption in Holuhraun continues far as I know. I am not sure on how large the lava field is today. Visibility has been poor to none today due to weather in this area at the moment.
Tourists are continuing to trying to kill them self by getting close to the eruption site. The newest case involves a millionaire (or billionaire?) from Kazakhstan that landed close the lava field. They where lucky that wind did not change direction while they where there. The amount of SO2 close to the eruption has been recorded going up to 130.000 μg/m³. That is good enough to kill instantly and melt people lungs (read up on that can be found here). News item on this stunt can be found here.
I suspect that activity in the south part of Bárðarbunga volcano system is about to start. When it is going to start full force is impossible to know for sure.
It is a question of Tungnafellsjökull volcano is getting unstable due the unrest in Bárðarbunga volcano. It appears to be in the same rift area, even if it is in a different volcano.
Skrokkalda volcano appears to be stable for now (No GVP profile). This is important since Tungafellsjökull volcano fissure swarm extents into it and it is next to Bárðarbunga volcano fissure swarm. This volcano has no information on-line about it, besides what I have written about it. It is an active volcano, but has been dormant for a long time. Some hydrothermal activity might happen in it on the surface.
I don’t know how the status is on Hamarinn volcano (Loki-Fögrufjöll). I am however assuming that volcano to be unstable. It last erupted in July-2011 with a minor eruption that lasted some 8 to 10 hours in total. Eruptions in Hamarinn volcano happens without warning and without any earthquake activity, at least not high amount of earthquake activity far as I can tell.

Activity today in Bárðarbunga volcano and the 45 km long dyke. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is how the earthquake did appear on my geophone in Heklubyggð. The website for my geophones can be found here. This image is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see CC Licence for more details.

If anything more happens I am going to add information about it here.

October 7, 2014October 7, 2014

Bárðarbunga daily update for 6-October-2014

This information is going to get outdated quickly.

Bad weather

Bad weather is expected in Iceland for the next few days. Storm can be expected to take place. I am not sure on the details. Check Icelandic Met Office weather information for more details.

Status of Bárðarbunga volcano on 6-October-2014

The eruption in Holuhraun has picked up again from a minor slowdown on Saturday.
Strong earthquake activity continues in Bárðarbunga volcano. Strongest earthquake on 6-October-2014 was a magnitude 5,1 earthquake. Other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude.
Bad weather is preventing good observation of Bárðarbunga volcano, both in Holuhraun and over Vatnajökull glacier. Visibility can be extremely limited at times.
SO2 pollution was detected in Reykjavík during the evening of 6-October-2014. It did go over 700 μg/m³ for a short moment in Reykjavík and nearby area. More pollution from the eruption is expected tomorrow.
The lava field in Holuhraun eruption is now larger than 50 square kilometres in size. I don’t have the exact size for today.
Bárðarbunga volcano caldera continues to drop and has dropped more than 30 meters by now.
The activity in Holuhraun appears to be slowly getting smaller with time. This is normal, this also increases the risk of new eruption starting soon.
No further information for today that I am aware of at this moment.

The earthquake activity in the past 48 hours in Bárðarbunga volcano. Green stars are earthquakes with magnitude above 3,0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Short overview of the earthquake activity over the weekend

Earthquake activity picked up on Saturday compared to Friday and Sunday.
Eruption activity did drop in Holuhraun craters on Saturday, it did pick up again on Sunday far as I know.
Far as I know there is nothing else to report.

Other things related to Bárðarbunga volcano

I’ve seen a lot of strange discussions about Bárðarbunga volcano. I get even stranger emails at times (no, I don’t answer those). Far as I know there isn’t any Felsic magma (or Andesite) in Bárðarbunga volcano caldera. Reason for that is it appears to have been really long time since the caldera erupted. I am not sure on exact time scale, but it is from 400 to 700 years at the shortest. The forces at work in Bárðarbunga volcano are extremely complex and they are not properly understood today, the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano is going to add that knowledge with time. Since it is going to take many decades of study to analyse and figure out what the data collected today means. I dismiss all strange and odd ideas about what is going on in Bárðarbunga volcano, since they don’t fit the data that I am seeing (along with everyone else that is viewing that same data, interpretation of that data might differ)

It is also worth to mention that only north part of the Bárðarbunga volcano system has shown rifting in only one fault. There are many more in this area that have not yet moved. I expect them to move in next few months to years. Then there is the matter of all the activity that is going to take place in Bárðarbunga volcano south of it. That area has not moved so far, it is going to rift in the same manner as the area in the north of Bárðarbunga volcano. When is impossible to know, but I expect it to happen in next few months to years. This is far from over, in fact, this activity in Bárðarbunga volcano has barely started, even if it has been erupting now for almost one month and a half. There are going to be quiet period with no eruption activity in Bárðarbunga volcano during this process. Those quiet periods are going to be different in length, they are going to happen, it is just a matter of time. That is how rifting works in rifting zones (and rift valley) around the world.

Next update is tomorrow if nothing major happens in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Article updated at 01:09 UTC on 07-October-2014.

October 3, 2014October 4, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano daily update 02-October-2014

This information is going to get outdated quickly if anything happens in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Current status in Bárðarbunga volcano at 23:03 UTC

The eruption in Holuhraun continues at the same rate as before. There are no signs of it slowing down. I don’t know if new craters have opened up, it doesn’t look like it at the moment.
Bad weather has prevented visibility check from the ground. There currently is storm in the area with limited visibility at the moment. Please check the wind map for more details.
Largest earthquakes so far today where two magnitude 4,8 earthquakes that took place at 00:36 UTC and 13:27 UTC. Second largest earthquake took place at 06:39 UTC and had the magnitude of 4,6. Other earthquakes are smaller.
It seems that earthquake activity is increasing in Bárðarbunga volcano. I don’t think that is a good sign. So far there are no signs of an eruption under the glacier, at least not a large one at the moment.
Magma continues to flow into the dyke at the same rate as before. It also appears that the pressure inside the dyke is increasing since the eruption in Holuhraun is not keeping up with the material that is flowing into it.
Due to bad weather I don’t have any more information on the eruption in Holuhraun.
Bad weather is expected tomorrow in north Iceland and in the higher parts of Iceland at the same time. Snow is expected to fall in mountains and higher areas. This is going to mean poor or no visibility on Míla web cameras during this bad weather.

Information from GPS data

GPS data shows that the dyke that feeds the eruption in Holuhraun eruption is being well fed. There are no signs of any contraction taking place and it is clearly not cooling down. Earthquakes happen in the dyke when it expands since the eruption is not big enough. I don’t know why eruption has not yet broken up in a new place yet. As the times goes on the rock around the dyke gets soft from the heat, it turns into rubber type of mush that no longer breaks. This also applies to the crust above it. The depth down to the dyke is no more than 2 km, but it is expected that it is around 1 km or shallower in some areas.

The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano today and for the last 48 hours. This is just the earthquakes that have been recorded today trough the bad weather that has been taking place. So I am expecting more earthquake to have taken place than are showing up here. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

When the earthquake data is connected to GPS data it tells the story of an dyke that is being well fed and is trying to expand into nearby crust. Creating minor earthquake activity in the process. It is erupting so it can only expand by the volume that the eruption is not erupting. I don’t know how much that is, the dyke it self is around 3 – 4 meters wide and around 10 – 15 km deep (best estimate).

The dyke size and feeding appears clearly here. I don’t know why it is moving west now, rather than east. This might suggest that something else is going on that does not appear on the surface yet (it might never appear on the surface). Copyright of this image belongs to University of Iceland.

It is almost the same story on this GPS station. With the exception it is not moving to the west. It is stable where it is. This GPS station is almost on top of the dyke. So any change is going to appear quickly on it. Copyright of this image belongs to University of Iceland.

More GPS stations and information can be found here on University of Iceland website.

Break from Friday

I am going to go on a little break during this weekend from Friday. This means the following.

Comments are going to stay a little longer in moderation queue if you are commenting for the first time, or posting many links. If your comment vanishes it means the spam filter ate it, so it is going to take me a little time to recover it. So just wait a little for it.
If anything happens I might not be able to update this website with newest information right away. I will try to do soon as possible if I can.
Update for the Friday (03-October-2014) might be short and come in late (or not at all). When I don’t know yet.

This has been a busy one and half month for me. I’ve been watching Bárðarbunga volcano for almost all hours of the day regardless where I am and what I am doing. After a while it starts to tire you. That is why Icelandic Met Office and University of Iceland have people on rotation during this eruption. I don’t have that option so I just have to take a short breaks and hope nothing big happens while I am resting my self for a short while.

I did learn during the Eyjafjallajökull eruption in 2010 that if I spend too much time in this I burn out and the recovery from that is long process. That is why I now have plan to prevent that during a long eruption, that covers eruptions that are longer than one month. Like is now the case in Bárðarbunga volcano.

I advice this for anyone how is going to watch this eruption for a long period of time (since it is going to last a long period of time). Spending too much time on an eruption is not good. Even a one day break is a good thing for anyone watching this eruption.

In the case there is no new article tomorrow. I wish everyone a good weekend.

Article updated at 23:42 UTC
Article updated at 23:43 UTC

September 26, 2014September 28, 2014

Friday update on Bárðarbunga volcano 26-September-2014

This is the Friday 26-September-2014 update on Bárðarbunga volcano. This information is going to get outdated quickly.

Current status in Bárðarbunga volcano at 20:31 UTC

Largest earthquake today had the magnitude 5,2, it happened at 16:49 UTC. Second largest earthquake today took place at 18:54 UTC and had the magnitude of 4,3. There have so far been fewer larger earthquakes today than in last days.
The caldera dropped 30cm in the magnitude 5,2 earthquake. The caldera continues to drop around 50cm/day according to GPS measurements. Total caldera drop is now around 29 meters.
Smaller earthquakes have been taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This means the drop is continuing during those earthquakes.
Magma continues to flow into Bárðarbunga volcano around the same rate as before. This can be seen on GPS data on nearby GPS monitoring stations. For GPS information please check University of Iceland GPS information page here.
Bad sandstorm was in Holuhraun today. It was so bad that it was only possible to see 50 – 100 meters in front of people according to Rúv news earlier today.
The eruption in Holuhraun continues in the same manner today as yesterday. The lava field is now larger than 40 square kilometres. What the exact size is I don’t know since it is not known today due to weather.
Earthquake activity continues under the dyke and that suggests the pressure is increasing in it.
Currently there is no eruption under the glacier. If it was it would be visible on SIL stations around Vatnajökull glacier.
Nothing more has happened in Bárðarbunga volcano today far as I know. That might change without warning.
Storms are expected to take place in Iceland all weekend. There is going to be around three or four storms taking place this weekend with strong winds up to 20m/s and it can go up to 40m/s in wind gusts. This is going to effect SIL stations and my geophones as the storms pass over parts of Iceland.

Current status Saturday 27-September-2014 at 20:30 UTC

No major change has taken place today in the eruption in Holuhraun. There is also no sign that is ending. Most of the eruption takes place in one crater at the moment. New fissures might open up without warning in the area where the dyke is located.
Bárðarbunga caldera continues to drop around 50cm/day.
Largest earthquake today so far is a magnitude 5,2 that took place at 19:31 UTC. Second largest earthquake today was at 02:00 and had the magnitude of 5,0.
Due to snowstorm there is almost no visibility to the eruption area in Holuhraun. For the people in the field the visibility today was reported to be 50 to 100 meters.
There has been a lot of smaller earthquakes taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Some of those earthquakes are taking place due to caldera subsiding. Some of those earthquakes are taking place because the magma inside Bárðarbunga volcano is looking for a new pathway up the surface. It either has not found it or does not have the pressure yet to go up the crust yet.
There is less activity today in the dyke. There is however worrying earthquake activity in the dyke at the start of Dyngjujökull glacier. It might mean that magma is trying to get up to the surface. There already have been eruptions under the glacier in this area without any earthquake activity before they started. All of those eruptions lasted for a short period of time.
Nothing else is to report so far today (27-September-2014).

Update Sunday 28-September-2014 at 17:17 UTC

Largest earthquake today took place at 12:34 UTC. Other earthquakes have been smaller today.
Bárðarbunga caldera has dropped 7,4 meter since 12-September-2014 according to GPS measurements in the centre of the caldera. That GPS data can be found here.
The lava field is now 44,5 square kilometres wide. It is now larger than Mývatn (around 40 square kilometres wide) for comparison.
Harmonic tremor suggest that pressure is increasing in the Bárðarbungu volcano magma chamber. It drops once the magma finds way out, then it starts building up again.
No other information have been released today. Other activity is the same as for the past few days.

Storm notice!

Three bad storms are expected in Iceland in next few days. In parts of Iceland wind is expected to go up to 50m/s in wind gusts. This is going to effect all earthquake recording and monitoring of Bárðarbunga volcano.

Next update

Next update is going to be on Monday 28-September-2014. I wish everyone a good weekend.

Article updated at 20:31 UTC on 27-September-2014
Article updated at 17:17 UTC on 28-September-2014

August 30, 2014August 30, 2014

Update on Askja and Bárðarbunga volcanoes at 17:49 UTC

This information is going to get outdated quickly.

This is the weekend edition of my regular updates on activity in Bárðarbunga and Askja volcano. They are shorter and might not contain all the information on what is going on.

Current status on Askja volcano

Askja continues to be on Yellow alert.
Dyke does not seems to have any progress moving into Askja volcano system. Reason why that is are unknown.
Earthquake activity appears to have dropped in Askja for the past 24 hour period.

Current status on Bárðarbunga volcano

Largest earthquake for the past 24 hours is a magnitude 5,4 earthquake that took place at 07:03 UTC. It took place in south-west part of Bárðarbunga volcano. It did appear clearly on my geophones and they can be viewed here.
Eruption has been confirmed to have taken place on 23-August-2014. That eruption did not manage to break the trough the glacier since it is 400 to 600 meters thick were the eruption took place.
Most earthquake activity is taking place on 15 km long line in the Dyke, starting at the location were the eruption took place and goes some 15 km south from that location. Dyke does not seems to be moving north at the moment.
Eruption is now considered more likely in Bárðarbunga volcano it self than before.
Last large eruption that took place in Bárðarbunga volcano was in 1717. According to Global Volcanism Program that eruption was an VEI 3 eruption.
Eruption can happen in slopes of Bárðarbunga volcano, also in its caldera. The glacier in the caldera is up to 800 meters thick (+- 100 meters).
Earthquake activity is stable, with over 1000 to 2000 earthquakes recorded daily so far.

GPS data

Icelandic Met Office has released GPS data and it can be viewed here.

Storm warning

There is going to be a storm in Iceland on Sunday. This means fewer earthquakes are going to be detected due the wind noise.

News bits in English

Eruption at Bardarbunga now more likely (Rúv.is)
Fresh ice cracks in Bárðarbunga? (mbl.is)

Updates during the weekend

I am going to post updates during the weekends. I do however need to take a little break since I’ve been working and writing about Bárðarbunga for the past two weeks. So updates on weekends are going to be shorter and less detailed than on working days (Monday – Fridays). If eruption happens I am going to post information about that eruption soon as I become aware of it and details soon as possible.

Article updated at 17:52 UTC.
Article updated at 18:10 UTC.
Article updated at 19:01 UTC. I corrected information about the dyke earthquake location.

November 13, 2013November 13, 2013

Windy in Iceland (storm), quiet period and donations

It is quiet and windy in Iceland, so here are few things that I have been thinking for the past few days.

Donations – Support

I have received a lot of donations over the years and for that I am truly thankful. For without them this site would not exist in it’s current form. I love writing and I love earthquakes and volcanoes, so it’s a good mix for me, for my fiction you can go here or buy it as e-book once it’s ready. The people who took my offer long time ago about free e-book if they supported me are going to get an e-book once I have something ready. I have not forgotten you. This is also something that I love to do. But that sadly does not pay the bills for me, for that reason I depend on donations since during quiet times in Iceland I do not have a lot of traffic when it is quiet in Iceland and that means less advertisement income. I have extremely little income from Amazon Advertisement at the moment, since it is 5 – 10% of the price of an item when people buy something from Amazon. Clicks do not count or extremely little with Amazon.

I’ve been into volcanoes and earthquakes since I was 10 years old. So I know a lot about them, since I have not been afraid to collect information and read about the volcano activity in Iceland. So my knowledge of this subject is the one of an expert, even if I am not educated by official school in Iceland in this field. So I can’t have a job in it, since hiring non-educated people in certain fields almost never happens in Iceland. It is just part of the quality standards that are in place in the world. I see nothing wrong with this, since I can and do attend to this subject in my own way.

My main income comes from social welfare in Iceland. That income is however low based on current exchange rate of ISK to DKK (~22,00 ISK = 1 DKK) so I remain poor here in Denmark. I would also remain poor in Iceland (due to higher prices on everything) if I had the slightest interest in living there (I don’t, just to be clear on that). So supporting me helps me to do my work here and keep monitoring the volcanoes and earthquakes in Iceland.

Storms – Windy

Winter storm period has started in Iceland this year. It was later this year than last year, but the strength of the storms is around the same. For this week they are predicting at least one storm tomorrow and maybe a second after that. This leads to lower detection threshold on the Icelandic Meteorological Office SIL network and my geophone network in Iceland. This also means that sometimes many of my geophone stations look like this.

sktz.svd.13-November-2013 — Wind on Skeiðflöt geophone station. *This image is under Creative Common Licence. See CC Licence page for more details (above)*.

The bad weather does not rule out that something might be taking place. It might however rule out technical ability to detect it on the SIL network or my geophone network. Since strong wind noise is followed by strong ocean wave noise on the SIL network and my geophone network (mostly in south Iceland). All that can be done is to wait for better weather to see what is going on in the crust.

Quiet period in Iceland

Currently there appears to be quiet period taking place in Iceland. It has already lasted for around 3 weeks now. Based on the data it is impossible to know when it ends. Bad weather is also making it difficult to know if anything interesting is taking place. Since minor earthquakes get drowned out by the wind and ocean noise on the SIL stations. Since I write mostly about current activity in Iceland this type of quiet period do not leave me with a lot to write about. But if it gets prolonged I am going to try and find something to write about in Icelandic geology.

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