Category: Gas

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Bárðarbunga volcano update for Friday 16-January-2015

Not much change has been reported in Holuhraun eruption since Wednesday (14-January-2015). The lava field continues to grow and is now ~84 km² in size. SO2 pollution continues to be a problem in Iceland, depending on wind direction. Output of magma currently is 50 – 70m³/sec according to latest measurements.

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Earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano for the past 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake activity remains strong in Bárðarbunga volcano, with strongest earthquakes having the magnitude of 4,6. It has been a while since a magnitude 5,0 or stronger earthquake happened. GPS data show continued deflation of Bárðarbunga volcano, it has slowed down since the eruption in started by the end of August, this slowed deflation of Bárðarbunga volcano shows that magma continues to flow out of the magma chambers inside the volcano. Earthquake activity in the dyke continues, all of the earthquakes so far are minor earthquakes, most having magnitude less then 2,5.

Far as I know there is nothing else to report from Bárðarbunga volcano at present time.

Change in update schedule: From next week I am going to change the update schedule for Bárðarbunga volcano. From next week I am just going to update two times a week. The updates are going to be on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The reason for this change is that most of the time now nothing major is happening in Bárðarbunga volcano. If anything major happens I am going to post update soon as I can about what is going on.

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Article updated at 22:18 UTC.

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Bárðarbunga volcano update for 14-January-2015

The eruption in Holuhraun continues at the same phase as it has been doing this week. Far as I know there has not been any reports about changes in the news or in the reports from Icelandic Met Office. SO2 continues to be a problem in Iceland depending on wind direction. Both to people and animals.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the past 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Strong earthquake activity continues in Bárðarbunga volcano. Strongest earthquake in the past 48 hours had the magnitude of 4,7. Many smaller earthquakes have been also taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano and there are no signs that earthquake activity is about to end. Even if it has dropped from it’s peak in September to November.

According to Channel 2 (Stöð 2) news, Bárðarbunga volcano has been preparing for an eruption since the year 1974 at least (this might have started years earlier without anyone knowing about it), possibly earlier. This means there is huge amount of magma inside the volcano and possibly in the deep root system (my view) that is ready to erupt. There is also high risk of eruption taking place under the glacier, that risk is going to increase once the eruption in Holuhraun stops. Since it is clear in my view that Holuhraun cannot erupt (at least there is a good chance of it) all the magma that is now in Bárðarbunga volcano. There is always the question if all that magma is going to erupt, the chance of that are good based on current factors. That might change without warning.

Icelandic news

Hætta gæti aukist á öflugu sprengigosi í Bárðarbungu (Vísir.is, Icelandic, images)

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Bárðarbunga volcano update for 12-January-2015

The eruption in Holuhraun continues at the same phase as it has been doing last week. Current flow of lava from the crater is around 60 – 80 m³/sec according to the news on Stöð 2 (Channel 2). The lava field is in many areas nothing but a shell, below it is the 1000C hot lava, when the pressure is high enough below this shell it breaks up trough the crust (see video in the news from Stöð 2). The main crater is around 500 meter long and is around 80 meters high, among the largest craters in Iceland at the moment. New pictures suggest that a new crater has opened up at north end of the main crater (I don’t have the location 100% confirmed), latest pictures that I have seen suggest that at the moment no lava flow is coming from it at the moment. That might change without warning. The whole crater is erupting, not just one spot within it. Currently the lava field is around ~84 km² in size. The eruption in Holuhraun has now been going on for 4,5 month.

The lava has now started to flow over 88 year old lava named Þorvaldshraun, that lava erupted from Askja volcano during the years 1926 – 1930 (I don’t have exact eruption period). A new lake is expected to form next to Holuhraun when the flow from nearby glacier rivers increases, since the lava flow has almost blocked the glacier rivers that flow there. Where once was a landscape of sand, now there is fresh landscape of lava, since lava has replaced a sand desert that once existed at this location. There are no signs that this eruption is about to end any time soon.

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Latest earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano for the past 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake activity has been increasing in the past 24 hours. I’m not sure why that is happening, but several magnitude 4,0 and stronger earthquakes have been taking place since midnight. That also seems to be the general earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano at the moment. Earthquake activity along the dyke is also increasing, I am not sure what that means at the moment.

Air quality

SO2 pollution is a big problem in Iceland due to the eruption. Yesterday the SO2 pollution in a valley called Jökuldal, with pollution values going up to 7800 μg/m³. This pollution goes where the wind is blowing at any given time. Still weathers are the worst since that allows for SO2 to build up in the atmosphere and in location that are low in the landscape.

Icelandic News

Einn fegursti gígur Íslands er að myndast í eldgosinu (Vísir.is, Icelandic, video)
Dimmt af mengun á Jökuldal (Rúv.is, Icelandic)

Article updated at 23:08 UTC.
Article updated at 23:42 UTC.
Article updated at 20:16 UTC on 13-January-2015.
Article updated at 20:19 UTC on 13-January-2015.

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Bárðarbunga volcano update for 9-January-2015

This is a short update about the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Not much has changed since the update on Wednesday 7-Januar-2015. If there was an drop in the eruption, it was temporary and the eruption in Holuhraun has not resumed at earlier levels. At least no change has been observed from Míla web cameras today.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the past 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquake in past 24 hours had the magnitude of 5,1. That earthquake took place in North-east part of the caldera in Bárðarbunga volcano. Smaller earthquakes have been taking place in that same area and have been doing so for the past four months. Small swarm of earthquakes have been taking place in the dyke close to the edge of the glacier. I don’t know for sure what that means at the moment, but I do not think it is a good sign. Since there is a high risk of eruption along the dyke, even if there is eruption taking place at just one location at the moment. The dyke is ~46 km long and most of it is under Vatnajökull glacier.

This time of the year glaciers in Iceland area adding weight to them due to snowfall. The chances are this is having effects on Bárðarbunga volcano. Since snowfall on Vatnajökull glacier is around 10 to 20 meters during the winter (this depends on the year). Pressure from the glacier is currently increasing on Bárðarbunga volcano, I don’t know for sure what effects that is having, but it is my best guess that it is slowing down what is happening in Bárðarbunga volcano. Glaciers start to get lighter in June to September each year when the summer melt starts again.

Article updated at 22:25 UTC.

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Bárðarbunga volcano update 7-January-2015

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This is going to be a short update for Bárðarbunga volcano.

There are changes taking place in harmonic tremor on the SIL stations closest to the eruption in Holuhraun. I don’t know what this means exactly, the best idea at the moment is that the eruption is either ending or getting less in power. It is hard to know for sure at this moment due to the bad weather in Iceland. This might also just be part of normal fluctuation of the eruption.

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Harmonic tremor from the eruption in Holuhraun. Changes can be seen at the end of the trace. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano is the same now as it has been for the past few days.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Currently there are only 11 earthquakes larger then magnitude 3,0 in Bárðarbunga volcano for the past 48 hours. That is among the lowest number of earthquakes since this activity started in August-2014. Total of 117 earthquakes are on this map, that is now considered as “few” earthquakes compared to what was happening from August-2014. Holuhraun lava field is now 1,15 km³ in size, it also covers ~83,11 km². It is about the same size as Þingvallavatn lake. It is only going to take few more days until it is larger then largest lake in Iceland.

Storm warning

Please note that there is going to be bad weather in Iceland until Friday to Sunday. I am not sure when there is going to be break in the bad weather. Observations of what is happening in Bárðarbunga volcano are going to be difficult at best during this stormy days.

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Bárðarbunga volcano update 27-December-2014

Bárðarbunga volcano continues to erupt in Holuhraun as before. The eruption is around the same phase as before. There was some change detected at the eruption vent in Holuhraun, it is remains unclear at the moment what change is.

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

Earthquake activity has dropped for the past few days, with few earthquakes that have been reaching magnitude 3,0 and above. Largest earthquake in the past few days has had the magnitude of 5,0. It is unclear why this is happening at the moment, earthquake activity might pick up again, it also might increase again. There is also a change that end of the eruption in Holuhraun is getting close, at least the phase that is connected to earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Continued earthquake activity in Tungafellsjökull volcano

Earthquake activity continues in Tungafellsjökull volcano. So far the earthquakes that are happening are smaller ones, with rare magnitude 3,0 or larger earthquake taking place every once in a while. At the moment the earthquake activity in Tungafellsjökull volcano is increasing and it is bit unclear why that is. The risk of eruption in Tungafellsjökull volcano appears to remains, even if that would just be a minor eruption. If an eruption takes place in Tungafellsjökull volcano, it would be the first documented eruption in the past 12,000 years to take place (at least).

New years update schedule

Next article about Bárðarbunga volcano eruption are going to be on the following days.

29-December-2014
2-January-2015

After that I am going to return to normal schedule on reporting on Bárðarbunga volcano eruption.

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Bárðarbunga volcano update 22-December-2014

This is a short update of Bárðarbunga volcano eruption.

  • The eruption has now lasted almost four months. Making this the longest eruption in Iceland for many, many years. This might be the longest eruption in Iceland since 19th century.
  • The lava field in Holuhraun is now larger then 80 km² in size. The lava now flows underground in lava tubes inside the lava field. It breaks out on the edges at times and sometimes up on the surface.
  • Earthquake activity remains the same in Bárðarbunga volcano. Bad weather has decreased the sensitivity on the nearby SIL sensors. Some remain offline due the weather and heavy snow in the area.
  • Subsidence has slowed, the amount of larger earthquakes has also dropped at the same time. It has not stopped, just slowed down for the moment.
  • There are no signs about the eruption ending any time soon. The eruption could go on for years, at least many months in it’s current phase.

Other news about Bárðarbunga volcano eruption

  • Scientists are getting bored of the meetings about the Bárðarbunga volcano. So far around 80 or so meetings have taken place since the eruption started.
  • Scientists are going to continue monitoring and keeping going to meetings, even if they are a bit bored on them.
  • Police is keep watch in Drekagil location. At the moment there are just two police people at that location now. Since no scientists have been able to go to Holuhraun in the past two or three weeks due to bad weather.

Tungafellsjökull volcano update

  • Latest news report suggest that dyke intrusion is taking place in Tungafellsjökull volcano.
  • If an eruption takes place in Tungafellsjökull volcano it is guessed that is not going to be any larger than the eruption in Fimmvörðuháls in Eyjafjallajökull volcano during it’s eruption phase in 2010.
  • Earthquake activity is expected to continue in Tungafellsjökull volcano while Bárðarbunga volcano is active.

Earthquake map for the last 48 hours

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and Tungafellsjökull volcano for the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Other than this there is nothing else to report at the moment.

Icelandic News about Bárðarbunga volcano

Lögreglumenn eru einir í Drekagili (Rúv.is, Icelandic, video)
Vísindamenn þreyttir á fundum vegna Bárðarbungu (Vísir.is, Icelandic)
Nornahraun nær yfir 80 ferkílómetra lands (Vísir.is, Icelandic)

Christmas update schedule

Next updates about current phase of the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano are going to be on 27-December-2014 and 29-December-2014.

Other

I have made the decision on moving my Paypal to Iceland. Since I won’t be moving back to Denmark and there is no point in keeping my Paypal account in that country. I am going to move the PayPal account tomorrow (23-December-2014) once everything has clear from it. This means that there won’t be any donation button for the next few days while I move it to Iceland. Since it takes few days to get validated by PayPal. It is going to be possible to donate directly to my Danish bank account until I close it down late 2015 or early 2016. More details are going to be posted on that later.

As always, thanks for the support. 🙂

Article updated on 11:51 UTC on 23-December-2014.

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Bárðarbunga volcano update 19-December-2014

Bárðarbunga volcano earthquake activity continues as before. No earthquake has reached the magnitude of 5,0 or greater since Monday 15-December-2014. Earthquake activity in the range of magnitude 3,0 and above remains high at the moment. There has been drop in earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the past few weeks, this has been followed by slower rate of subsidence according to latest measurements.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The lava field in Holuhraun continues to getting larger, it is now at the edge of being 80 km² in size. I don’t know the volume at the moment, since weather has prevented observation of it for the past few weeks and the lava field has considerable thickness in it (of few dozen meters at the most). The eruption continues at the same rate as before, there has been some reduction according to latest information, I don’t know how much reduction there has been at the moment. Lava is now flowing in lava tubes trough the lava field and breaking out at the edges and sometimes the surface.

Other things – pictures

If people remember this image that Icelandic Met Office posted few days ago.

Post by Veðurstofa Íslands.

I was there, I also got a bite of the cakes (they where good). I had made a surprise visit to the Icelandic Met Office that day. Since I just had the time to go there.

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This was my angle. This image is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see CC licence for more details.

I do have many more pictures, but the internet is slow and it takes a while for them to upload them and I am just not going do that while the internet connection is this bad.

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Bárðarbunga volcano update 1-December-2014

This is going to be a short update on activity in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Observation of the eruption in Holuhraun has been difficult to impossible in the past days due to bad weather in Iceland. The lava field is now larger than 75 km². I don’t know the volume at the moment. The amount of SO2 is I think about the same as before, as for cycles of pulses I don’t know if that is currently ongoing or has stopped. The output of lava is around the same, around 50 – 130 m³/sec far as I know.

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

Largest earthquake today (01-December-2014) had the magnitude of 5,2 according to Icelandic Met Office. Fewer earthquakes where detected on Sunday due to the bad weather in Iceland. It looks like there has not been any change in earthquake activity for the past 48 hours, it just looks like it on the Icelandic Met Office maps due to the bad weather.

Donations: Please remember to donate or buy stuff from Amazon to support my work here. Thanks.

Comments: Please remember that everyone has a right there own view. I however ask people with some of there less proven ideas to keep them out of this website. If you see flaming or bad behaviour in the comments. Please let me know with a email and I will deal with it. I also remind people to be nice to each other here.

Moving to Iceland: Tomorrow I am going to turn off my earthquake computer and other computers that I now have running. This means that I’m going to switch the backup settings. The geophone computers are going to upload the images to the internet while my main earthquake computer is off-line. I don’t know for how long that is going to be, at least until August when I plan on start back in school. Since I am going to be moving there won’t be any update on Wednesday 3-December-2014 or on 5-December-2014. I am going to try and post short update on 6-December or 7-December-2014 (using the laptop that is falling apart). I will try to approve any comment soon as possible if your comment ends up in the comment moderation for some reason.

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Bárðarbunga volcano update 28-November-2014

This is going to be a short update.

There has been a lack of reports in the news today of the eruption in Holuhraun today. Web cameras show no major change in the eruption far as I can tell. The lava field is now getting thicker as is clear by this images (text is in Icelandic) where the lava is overflowing from older lava (1 – 3 month old). Far as I know the pulse behaviour continues, I don’t know to what extent it has been, or if it has changed from original observations of it.

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

Largest earthquake for the past 24 hours had the magnitude of 5,1 and happened in north-east part of the caldera. Where the most of the large earthquakes happen in recent weeks. I am not sure why that is. According to measurements that where taken yesterday the total caldera subsidence is now around 50 meters, there doesn’t seems to be any change taking place in rate of subsidence. At least that has not been covered in the news or reported far as I know. The reason why GPS signal is now longer being received is that the GPS station is now so low that it is out of line of sight for the relay station it uses to forward the signal. This also means IMO is not getting any signal from the seismometer located in the same area as the GPS station. This is according to latest report on activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Far as I know there is nothing else to report.

Donations: Please remember to support my work with donations or by using Amazon to buy stuff for Christmas. Thanks for the support.

Moving back to Iceland: Next week I move to Iceland. This means that the last update before I move is going to be on Monday 1-December-2014. I don’t think that I have time to write update on Wednesday 3-December-2014. After that the update schedule is a bit of a mystery. Once I have my things from Denmark I am going to start regular updates as I am doing now. I don’t know for sure when I get my stuff, I hope it won’t be no later than 22-December-2014.