Category: Fagradalsfjall

Posted on

Update on the Fagradalsfjall mountain eruption on 12-September-2021

This is a late and short update on the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain on 12-September-2021. Fagradalsfjall mountain is part of Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system.

Yesterday (11-September-2021) at around 05:00 the harmonic tremor on SIL stations around Fagradalsfjall mountain started to show an increase in harmonic tremor after a break of 8 days. It took few hours for the magma to reach the crater and lava was visible in the crater around 12:00 UTC.

Harmonic tremor chart in purple (lowest frequency), green (mid range frequency) and blue (highest frequency) that shows in the increasing harmonic tremor by rising at the end of the link up to 6000 units (not defined) at 00:38 Icelandic time.
Increasing harmonic tremor at 00:38 UTC on Fagradalsfjall mountain SIL station. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There have been possible new vents been opening up yesterday and today in the lava field. Icelandic Met Office says that this is a lava flow under the old colder lava and is now breaking up and looking like new vents. I don’t know yet if this is accurate, but it is my early assessment that this are new vents and are going to build new crater, at least there is a possibly of crater building if the new vents stay active long enough.

If this are new craters as I suspect, then they are going to change the lava flow quickly and increase the output of the lava flow from what it was. It might soon start to flow down into Nátthagi and other locations that are nearby.

It is a big question if the cycle eruption with no activity for hours has stopped for now. If this has turned back into an eruption that goes in 24 hours a day, that is going to allow the lava field to reach a lot more distance then before.

Posted on

Unconfirmed activity in the area of Keilir in Fagradalsfjall mountain eruption

This is unconfirmed so there might be number of other reasons why this is being observed. This also might be wrong reporting but based on web cameras that might not be the case. There has been some visual view of this on web cameras. Here are two pictures that I was able to screen grab from two of those cameras.

Thermal black and white image showing a bright spot on the centre of the image suggesting a strong heat source.
There is a heat source in this image. Where it is located is currently unclear. Copyright of this image belongs to Míla and Securitas.
Black image showing two light dots. With the dot on the left being a car or some human made noise. While the dot on the right might be a small eruption that is unconfirmed.
The light on the right of this image might be the an unconfirmed eruption. Copyright of this image belongs to Míla.

It is unclear what is going on and this might all be wrong. But I am also seeing this new light source on the web camera from mbl.is on YouTube as it peaks a little from behind the large crater in Fagradalsfjall mountain. That crater is not active at the moment.

I don’t know when confirmation is going to appear. If this is an eruption. If this is not an eruption, then there is going to be a confirmation of that too. I’ll post update here is I learn anything more in the next few hours.

Update 03:07 UTC 7-September-2021

The light on the second picture (on the right) is a human made light. I think it is the lighthouse. What is appearing on the thermal camera has not been identified.

Update 13:36 UTC 7-September-2021

This is wrong reporting that happened here. Nothing happened and what was seen on the thermal camera is most likely the heat from the crater. This type of wrong information happens every once in a while. Currently the main crater remains inactive and sulphur colours have started to appear on him from the sulphur outgassing that is now happening.

Article updated at 03:08 UTC on 7-September-2021

Article update at 13:39 UTC on 7-September-2021

Posted on

Update on the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain on 19-August-2021

This is a short update on the five month eruption day in the Fagradalsfjall mountain that is part of Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system.

  • The eruption continues its strange cycle of not erupting for few hours and erupting for few hours.
  • The consequence of this type of eruption is that the lava doesn’t flow that far from the crater. It just piles up next to the crater making the structure ever higher. I am currently estimating (this is a guess and might be wrong) the crater at 200 meters high (-+ 50 meters).
  • The eruption has now been going on for five months. Holuhraun eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano in 2014 to 2015 lasted for six months.
  • At the writing of this article there are no new craters open but it doesn’t rule out that new crater might have opened but are hidden under the amount of lava that is around the main crater. As there are some extreme large caves in this lava field. Allowing for a lot of space for new crater to form and start erupting unnoticed.

There are no more updates of the eruption at the writing of this article. That might change without warning but I don’t know if that is going to happen.

Posted on

Update on the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain on 16-August-2021

This is a short update on the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain that is part of Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system.

  • New crater has been confirmed in the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain. This crater started to form few days ago. It follows the activity in the largest crater and remains inactive during the time period when there is no activity in the large crater.
  • This new crater is going to change lava flows in the eruption and restart lava flows in the south-Meradalir and Geldingadalir.
  • Current the new crater is building up. It is on the larger crater rim and might be unstable and collapse are likely to happen.
  • Formation of new craters following the formation of this crater is likely. When and where new craters form is impossible to know in advance.
  • It is a question if this is a new phase of the eruption. I currently don’t have an answer.
  • The new crater is visible on all the web cameras.

Fog has been blocking the view of the eruption today and I expect that is going to be the case tomorrow (17-August-2021) and maybe next few days. This fog makes it difficult to see what is going in the eruption.

Posted on

Update on the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain on 10-August-2021

This is a short update on what is going on the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain that is part of Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system.

  • The eruption continues as before with few hours of eruption and few hours of no activity. (This is my personal view of the situation) Each event is an active eruption as it would happen with any other volcano. The time between eruptions now is just shorter than in any volcano in Iceland. Its hours, not decades between eruption. I don’t know why this is happening like this.
  • Cracks have appeared in the viewing area hill closest to the erupting crater. Why this is happening is unclear. There are two explanations for this. The first one is that this are tension cracks because of the eruption and lava flows nearby to this hill . The second explanation is that this is deformation cracks because magma is about to start erupting in this part of the hill. Formation of new cracks was observed early on in the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain few days before an eruption started in that area.
  • There is now slightly less lava flowing from the crater. Current flow is up to 9m3/sec according to latest reports about the lava flow. This studies are done by Earth Science of University of Iceland and Icelandic Metrology Office.

This eruption remains small. Currently it is even smaller than Hekla volcano 2000 eruption that was the smallest eruption in Hekla in recorded history (according to the news). While the eruption remains this small the lava is not going to flow far or is going to do so slowly. Most of the lava is just going to build up next to the crater and next nearby area.

People continue to walk out in the lava and that is extremely dangerous. The lava field, where it is deep enough has large caves full of 1100C hot lava and if the roof breaks and people fall into it there is no saving anyone from this. Just break in the lava field crust allows for lava flows to break out with same deadly consequences.

Posted on

Short update on the eruption in Fagradalsfjall on 7-August-2021

This is a short update on the eruption in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system on 7-August-2021.

Over the last few weeks there has not been a lot to report about the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain. That changed tonight. The eruption seems to have entered a new stable phase. With constant eruption, rather than erupting every few hours and nothing happening for several hours after that. I don’t know if that is going to continue for long, but that is the situation at the writing of this article.

Red glow from the crater lights up the nearby lava field that has three gas funnels rising up from it. Lava is flowing from the crater down into nearby Meradalir and some of the lava is flowing underground
The eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain. Copyright of this image belongs to Rúv ohf.

Most of the lava flow is going into Meradalir at the writing of this article. Some of the lava flow is happening underground and that lava flow is going into south-Meradalir that is just above Nátthagi valley. That can be seen as gas is now coming from that lava field and increase in gas emission shows that fresh lava is flowing under the crust of the lava. Surface lava paths can change without warning at any time.

Tourist continue to place them self in great danger by walking out in the lava field. If there is an accident there won’t be any recurse because it is going to be already too late anyway.

Update on 7-August-2021 at 13:48 UTC

Today (7-August-2021) at 08:00 UTC the eruption stopped. The harmonic tremor dropped quickly as the stop in the eruption was quick after going on for two and half day. Why this happens remains unclear. At the writing of this update at 13:49 UTC the eruption remains inactive.

Donation

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

Posted on

Deep earthquakes in Fagradalsfjall mountain

Today (21-July-2021) few deep earthquakes took place in Fagradalsfjall mountain that is part of Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system.

This earthquake activity was not big and the largest magnitude recorded was a magnitude of Mw0,8. Most depth that appeared had a depth of 13,4km.

Earthquake activity in Fagradalsfjalli mountain shown by a red dot, orange dots and few blue dots on Reykjanes peninsula.
The earthquake activity in Fagradalsfjall mountain on Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is difficult to know what this means. What is possibly happening is that more magma is pushing up in the magma feeding that now exist where the eruption has been happening. If that is happening, it can result in new craters or fissure opening up and start erupting. At the writing of this article this earthquake activity seems to be ongoing, but at slow rate and small earthquakes only so far.

Fog continues to block view to the crater and Fagradalsfjall mountain. But harmonic tremor data shows that the Fagradalsfjall mountain eruption is currently not erupting.

Posted on

Update on the eruption in Fagradalsfjall on Saturday 17-July-2021

This is going to be shortest update to the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain that is part of Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system.

  • Since 9th July the eruption has been unstable. Between 10th July and 15th of July the eruption continued as before with pulsing activity.
  • On 15th of July at 05:00 the eruption stopped and it didn’t start again until around 10:00 on 16th of July.
  • At the writing of this article it seems that the eruption has stopped again based on the harmonic tremor.
  • The lava flows is down in Meradalir when the lava flow happens. At current rate it is going to take 1 to 4 weeks until Merdalir overflows with lava into next valley.
  • The east side of the crater has collapsed and that allows the lava flow direct flow down into Meradalir.

It is unclear why the eruption stops and starts again. One of my ideas is that the deep feeder system of the eruption is now empty and needs time to refill. The eruption stops when the feeder system is empty. The more empty it is the longer the eruption stops since it takes more time for the magma to fill up the magma chamber that seems to be there at 20km depth or more. How long this is going to go on I don’t know but I don’t think this can go on for many months or years. Current crater is at one point going to seal it self and the eruption is going to stop because of that.

Posted on

Update on Fagradalsfjall mountain eruption on 9-July-2021

This is a short update on the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain that is part of Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system (currently, this might change in the future).

  • Since 23:00 UTC on 5-July-2021 the eruption has been on the low side and no lava has been seen leaving the crater when the fog is less dense in the eruption area. This is the longest break in the eruption activity since it started in 19-March-2021.
  • Small amounts of lava has been seen in the crater and it is speculated that it might be flowing from the crater in tubes in the lava field. This remains unconfirmed at the writing of this article.
  • Currently the eruption is not over. It is ongoing as is.

The following is a speculation on my part.

This lack of activity and amount of lava in the crater suggests that the deep system that has been feeding the eruption is for now close to being empty or is completely empty. That system of magma chambers needs time to fill up. This lack of activity is also common for this type of volcano and magma system. Since eruptions go trough a cycles of high and low activity. This might result in the eruption starting in a new fissure in next few weeks to months along with continuing in the current crater. There is also a equal chance of the eruption just continuing in the current crater once the eruption starts at full energy again. But that might be weeks until that happens.

End of speculations

Summer is fog season in Iceland when there is no strong wind and this has been a problem for monitoring the eruption on Reykjanes peninsula in recent days. This is going to continue until September or October depending on the weather pattern.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. It helps me to keep my self running and to do normal day to day stuff with minor income from this work here. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Possible end of the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain (2-July-2021)

At the writing of this article the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain has possibly ended (please note that Icelandic Met Office has not officially called the end of this eruption). This is part of Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system.

Around 03:43 UTC on 2-July-2021 the crater started erupting a cloud of volcano ash. What was unclear until earlier today was that the eruption had ended in the crater. The reason for the ash cloud was the the crater was collapsing in on it self and sealing up.

Cloud of volcano ash from the crater at around 03:43 UTC.
The volcano ash cloud as it appeared on Rúv web camera during the night. Copyright of this image belongs to Rúv ohf.

The harmonic tremor has also dropped at the same time as there is no lava flowing from the crater.

Harmonic tremor on SIL station Fagradalsfjall. The lines are showing up and down pattern and in last few hours the lines drop down to background noise. Few spikes have appeared in the last few hours but unclear what they mean.
The harmonic tremor noise on SIL station Fagradalsfjall mountain. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

What happens next is unclear. It is unlikely that eruption is going to start in the crater that stopped erupting. Normally they almost never erupt again. Magma is going to find it self a new path to erupt once a pressure has build up again in the deep crust. Once the pressure is enough it is highly possible that new earthquake swarm is going to start before an new eruption happens on the Reykjanes peninsula. How long this is going to take is impossible to know for sure.

This is the last article about Fagradalsfjall until an earthquake or a new eruption starts in Fagradalsfjalli mountain.