Category: Dyke intrusions

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Possible minor eruption in Hamarinn volcano yesterday. Update on Katla volcano

There appears to be more in this new hydrothermal activity in Hamarinn volcano then at first sight. It seems that this actually might have a eruption in Hamarinn volcano (Bárðarbunga volcano). If this event is confirmed, this is the first eruption in Hamarinn volcano since the year 1910.

This also mean that there is a chance of more activity in this area in coming weeks or months. But when it might happen is impossible to know.


The new cauldrons are marked with a “X” on this map. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This eruption was really small and did just last for few hours. But it was able to melt a lot of ice and create rather large glacier flood from Vatnajökull glacier. If the activity resumes in this area this is going to repeat it self in terms of glacier flood.

Icelandic News about this event.

Innskot af kviku (Rúv.is, Icelandic)
Eldgos gæti hafa brotist upp við Hamarinn (Vísir.is, Icelandic, Pictures)
Fundu nýjan sigketil (mbl.is, Icelandic, Pictures)

Sigketill við Lokahrygg (Icelandic Met Office, Icelandic, Pictures)

Update on Katla volcano

Here is a short update on Katla volcano. There have been repeated short burst of harmonic tremors taking place inside the Katla volcano caldera. This harmonic tremor spikes have been small and they are hard to see on the harmonic tremor graph that Icelandic Met Office has on-line. Other then this it has been quiet so far in Katla volcano.

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Glacier flood confirmed from Vatnajökull glacier, flood is from Hamarinn volcano (Loki-Fögrufjöll area)

The harmonic tremor that started yesterday has been confirmed to be coming from Hamarinn volcano (Bárðarbunga volcano), but they are also known as Loki-Fögrufjöll in GVP database.

So far there is nothing that indicates an eruption is taking place at the moment in Hamarinn volcano. But that might change without warning. At the moment nobody is sure where the glacier flood is coming from. But this appears to be a new area of hydrothermal activity in Hamarinn volcano that is releasing water at the moment. This new hydrothermal area is most likely created by new dike intrusions into the bed rock in the affected area. There are no pictures of the affected area, as the area is impassible to air plains at the moment due to cloud cover or fog. Lack of earthquakes also makes it hard to locate the source of this glacier flood.

Currently the glacier flood has peaked and is getting lower. There not expected to be any damage from this glacier flood on human structures or roads. This area of Iceland is unpopulated. The water is going into large lakes in the area where the effects of this glacier flood are almost none. The glacier flood did flow into a dam lake that is collecting water from rivers that this glacier flood did go into. This did make the lake rise about 70 cm in several hours and fill it. No damage is expected from this glacier flood to the dam or other structures in this area connected to the dam. But it is estimated that 26 gigaliters did flow into the dam lake during the night from this glacier flood.


Harmonic tremor at 12:59 UTC, this is Skrokkalda SIL station. At this time it had been dropping down. But starting to rise again after that when this is written. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


This is the harmonic tremor at 12:59 UTC on Grímsfjall SIL station. It is bit hard to see it due high background noise on this SIL station. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

So far this is just a glacier flood and nothing else. But that might change if an eruption starts in this area. But that is no way certain that it is going to happen now. We just have to wait and see what happens in Hamarinn volcano.

Icelandic News about this.

Hágöngulón fylltist í hlaupinu (mbl.is, Icelandic)
Hlaup undan Köldukvíslarjökli (mbl.is, Icelandic)
Jökulhlaup undan Vatnajökli (Vísir.is, Icelandic)
Hlaupið í rénun (Vísir.is, Icelandic)
Órói við Vatnajökul (Rúv.is, Icelandic)
Flóð undan Vatnajökli (Rúv.is, Icelandic)

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New harmonic tremor detected. But it is not from Katla volcano

Some other and unknown volcano dedicated to join the spotlight in Iceland by starting making it’s own harmonic tremor. I do not yet know what volcano this is. But most likely it is the Hamarinn volcano. But that is part of Bárðarbunga volcano.


Skrokkalda SIL stations 07:49 UTC this morning. The first harmonic tremor spike seen on that SIL station. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Skrokkalda SIL station 19:09 UTC. The third harmonic tremor spike in progress when this graph was saved. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I do not know what volcano is making this noise since there are no earthquakes. But I now find this most likely to be an dike intrusion somewhere close to Skrokkalda SIL stations. Other volcanoes that might be creating this harmonic tremor is the volcano Tungnafellsjökull volcano or the volcano that Skrokkalda SIL station actually is on top of.

But both of those volcanoes have been dormant for an long time now. So I find that to be unlikely, but not impossible. Until a earthquakes happens or something else that actually shows the area of activity in question. This is all just a guess work out in the blue.

Update 1: There is more going on there now then when this first did start. I did record an earthquake from this harmonic tremor around 00:30 UTC. This earthquake was extremely low period as can be seen on this picture.


This earthquake took place around 00:30 UTC on 13. July 2011. It is filtered at 1Hz and is extremely long period earthquake. This suggests that magma did create this earthquake. This picture is released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. See the Creative Commons Licence web page for more information.

Blog post updated at 01:02 UTC on 13. July 2011.

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New harmonic tremor detected in Katla volcano

Earlier today there was an minor harmonic tremor in Katla volcano. It’s source was inside the Katla volcano caldera as before, it is impossible to know the exact location of the source this harmonic tremor spike. But earthquakes around that same time might give a clue about it’s origin.


Harmonic tremor can be found close the end of this tremor chart. It is peaks from the background noise that is currently taking place in Katla volcano on this SIL station. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Harmonic tremor can be found close the end of this tremor chart. It is peaks from the background noise, it small but it can be found. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Current earthquake activity in Katla volcano caldera. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This harmonic tremor spike was small compared to the one on 8 – 9. July 2011. But this means that this area continues to be highly active and dangerous in my opinion. While there currently is an little pause ongoing in this area. I do not think that current events are over. When they end and how I don’t have any idea. But I am guessing that this is going to end in an full eruption of Katla volcano. When that might happen is something I don’t have any idea about.

For the moment. The only thing that can be done is to wait and see what happens in Katla volcano.

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Harmonic tremor drop down. New earthquake happen in Katla volcano caldera

It seems that on many SIL station around Katla volcano that the harmonic tremor has gone mostly down to background levels, on other stations it continues to drop. This are mostly SIL stations that are at the most distance to the source of the area that this minor eruption took place during the night. But at the moment this seems to be over. The main source of the activity appears to be where the eruption took place in the year 1918, or so scientists think at the moment.

According to the news there was an flood wave around 04:00 UTC during the night. When the water meters did show an rise of 5 meters suddenly. Soon after that the bridge over Múlakvísl river was lost in the glacier flood. This did close the main road 1 in this area, that area of the main road is going to remain closed for the next few weeks while they fix the damage done in the flood (build an new bridge).

Even if the harmonic tremor seems to be dropping. This does not seem to be over, as an earthquake activity did resume from around 13:00 UTC in the Katla. Since then the earthquake activity seems to have been building at slow rate.


Tremor plot at 18:23 UTC. The tremor is dropping. It also shows that earthquakes are taking place (spikes the tremor chart). Copyright of this picture belongs to the Icelandic Met Office.


Tremor chart from Goðabunga at 18:24 UTC. Copyright of this picture belongs to the Icelandic Met Office.


Dropping harmonic tremor on Lágu Hvolar. Earthquakes appear as spikes here. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Dropping tremor and earthquakes as before. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Earthquakes as they are tonight. The southern part of the caldera is having earthquake swarm, even if it is just an small one. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I am waiting too see how this develops. Something larger might happen. But nothing else might happen for an while in Katla volcano. The only thing that can be done is too wait and see what happens in Katla volcano.

Icelandic News about the road damage.

Meiri skemmdir en talið var (Rúv.is, Picture, Icelandic)

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Harmonic tremor still high in Katla volcano

Currently harmonic tremor remains high in Katla volcano. But at the moment the harmonic tremor is dropping. Earthquakes have also stopped for the moment. But currently the harmonic tremor is well above the background level for this area. It is still not clear if this was an eruption or just hydrothermal areas clearing it self of extra water. But in the news at Rúv noon they did report that the ice cauldrons that are normally there had deepened over the past few weeks in Mýrdalsjökull glacier.

Update 1: Earthquake activity has stopped for the moment. But I am expecting it to resume soon. As I do not think that this event is over, even if it has just paused for the moment.

Three cauldron have formed in Mýrdalsjökull glacier and large cracks have formed around them. All traffic has been banned on Mýrdalsjökull glacier and the glacier that comes from it.

Here are the current tremor charts from Icelandic Met Office web page.


Harmonic tremor is dropping as can clearly be seen on this picture. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Harmonic tremor is dropping as can clearly be seen on this picture. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Harmonic tremor is dropping as can clearly be seen on this picture. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I am going to post update on Katla volcano later today and earlier if anything major happens.

News with picture of the Mýrdalsjökull glacier. It is covered with dark ash from Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption last year and volcano ash from the eruption in Grímsfjall volcano 2011.

Miklar sprungur í sigkötlunum (mbl.is, Picture, Icelandic)
Svona lítur jökullinn út (Rúv.is, Icelandic, Picture)
Þrír greinilegir sigkatlar (Vísir.is, Icelandic, Picture)
Brúin rofnaði af í heilu lagi (Vísir.is, Icelandic, Picture)
Óvissa um hlaup eða lítið eldgos (Rúv.is, Icelandic, Pictures)

Blog post updated at 13:13 UTC 9. July 2011.

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Glacier flood from Múlakvísl has been confirmed

According to the Icelandic news an glacier flood started around midnight in Múlakvísl (link should work, let me know if it doesn’t) glacier river that runs from Mýrdalsjökull glacier. Last time this type of event did happen was in the year 1955, when an minor eruption is believed to have taken place under the Mýrdalsjökull glacier. I do not know if that is the case now. As this might just be hydrothermal water being released due to increased activity in hydrothermal areas that are in Mýrdalsjökull glacier.

Following the flood there is an strong smell of sulphur and there might be dangerous gases in it. At current time the flood appears to be growing and according to the news (written at 01:54 UTC) the bridge was still safe. But there was just 1 meter from the river and up to the floor of the bridge.

Some minor earthquakes have been taking place in the past few hours, they do not appear on the automatic earthquake list on Icelandic Met Office web page. Some of them appear on my Hekla webicorder.

Currently the harmonic tremor is dropping. But that might not mean anything in the long run. So far everything suggests that an eruption has not yet started in Katla volcano. But given the current status that might not last long as it is. The best thing that can be done is to wait and see what happens. But no fear scaremongering please!

Added: When I just finished writing this blog post an new earthquake just started to appear on my geophone at Hekla volcano. IT is from Katla volcano for sure. It was in the ML1.5 to ML2.5 size range it seems. It was an long period earthquake as they have been so far. I think it is from the main caldera, not Goðabunga area.

Icelandic News about the glacier flood.

Hlaup hafið í Múlakvísl (mbl.is, Icelandic)

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Harmonic tremor continue to increase in Katla volcano

When this is written around 00:36 UTC on 9. July 2011 the harmonic tremor levels on SIL stations around Katla volcano have continued to increase. The latest spike in harmonic tremor levels happened after an ML1.5 (automatic size) earthquake that took place at 22:13 UTC. There has been an small earthquake swarm in Katla volcano caldera yesterday. But the largest earthquake in that earthquake swarm had the size ML2.4.

The harmonic levels are getting so strong that they have started to appear on stations around Hekla and on my own geophone, even if it is located almost 60 km away from the source of the harmonic tremor. Currently there is little to suggests that this is slowing down at the moment. But that might yet happen. But it is impossible to know for sure at the moment.

The lack of earthquakes tells me that the magma has not yet reached the surface. When or if that might happen is an good question that I do not have the answer to. But this might take several more hours until something happens in terms of earthquakes or other activity in Katla volcano.


Harmonic tremor can clearly be seen on this SIL station at the end of the tremor chart. This is saved around 00:36 UTC 9. July 2011. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Harmonic tremor can clearly be seen on this SIL station at the end of the tremor chart. This is saved around 00:36 UTC 9. July 2011. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

As sad before the harmonic tremor can now be seen on SIL stations far away from Katla volcano. But the maximum range so far is around 65 km or so at the moment.

This is the last update for tonight. I am going post an update tomorrow on what has happened during the night. Even just to say people that things have slowed down or gone back to normal. Whatever happens. I am going to post information about it tomorrow when I awake up.

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Harmonic tremor in Katla volcano

At the moment there is an ongoing harmonic tremor going on in Katla volcano. It is just an small one, just above the background level noise floor. This is most likely an small dike intrusion. But nothing in the data from Icelandic Met Office suggests that an eruption has started in Katla volcano at this stage. But that might change without an warning, since this is an volcano after all. This change in harmonic tremor does not seems to be created by an glacier flood of some type. What is interesting is that this harmonic tremor pulse looks like an harmonic tremor pulse detected in the year 1999, just before an small eruption took place in Katla volcano southern caldera rim.

This harmonic tremor is in the high frequency range at the moment. But no change has been seen in the low frequency range at the moment. This is the same thing that did happen in the year 1999. At the moment however it is too early to know what is going to happen in Katla volcano for sure. All that can be done is to watch and wait. This might quiet down, or it might not. Only time is going to tell us what happens next. At the moment the harmonic is falling at fast rate, so this might be over.

Before the harmonic tremor pulse there was an earthquake swarm in Katla volcano caldera. The largest earthquake was ML2.1 and that was an long period event, but that tells me that magma was the source of this earthquakes in Katla volcano caldera. There where two earthquake swarms in the caldera today, but that makes total of three earthquake swarms in the Katla volcano caldera since the beginning of June.


The two earthquake swarms that took place in Katla volcano caldera today. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


The only earthquake that I did record out of this earthquake swarm. This earthquake was ML2.40 with the depth of ~400 meters. This plot is filtered at 1Hz . This picture is released under Creative Common licence. See Licence web page for more detail.


Spectrogram of the ML2.4 earthquake in Katla volcano from this morning. This is filtered from 1Hz. This picture is released under Creative Common licence. See Licence web page for more detail.


Harmonic tremor can clearly be seen at the end of this tremor chart from the Icelandic Met Office. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Harmonic tremor can be seen at the end of this tremor chart from the Icelandic Met Office, but it is not clear at this SIL station. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Harmonic tremor can clearly be seen at the end of this tremor chart from the Icelandic Met Office. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Harmonic tremor can clearly be seen at the end of this tremor chart from the Icelandic Met Office. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Harmonic tremor can be seen (not clearly) at the end of this tremor chart from the Icelandic Met Office. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Harmonic tremor can clearly be seen at the end of this tremor chart from the Icelandic Met Office. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The harmonic tremor is strong enough on many SIL station to go above the background noise level on the SIL stations (wind, ocean waves etc..). But this is not an strong harmonic tremor. They can be stronger.

This does NOT mean an eruption is imminent in Katla volcano. What this does mean that is an magma is on the move inside the Katla volcano. What happens at later time is something that nobody can guess at current time. But it is now time to watch Katla volcano even closer.

It is also important to notice that nobody really knows how Katla volcano behaves before an eruption. We only get those answers after an eruption in Katla volcano. For the moment we can only wait and see what happens in Katla volcano.

I am going to post more updates if anything interesting happens. Also, there seems to have been an Long period earthquake at 22:14 UTC, most likely in Katla volcano. It appeared on my geophone close to Hekla volcano. I am guessing the size of this earthquake is ML2.0+.

Blog post updated at 22:39 UTC. Spectrogram picture added.

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Last update on Hekla volcano (for now). Correction on mobile emergency SMS. Earthquake swarm at Reykjanes Ridge. The media hype. Help needed!

Here is an short update on few things.

Hekla volcano: Everything is quiet at Hekla volcano. Movements of magma deep down in the crust have not changed that fact. Nobody knows when it is going to stop begin quiet. Until it does. There is no need to worry about it. Update 2: The movement on the GPS instruments was most likely an deep dike intrusion in Hekla volcano. It was not followed by any earthquakes for some reason.

Correction: I did say that in my earlier post that if there was an emergency in regards to Hekla volcano due to an eruption. The Public Emergency Authority in Iceland would send out an SMS to everyone in the local area. This is half wrong and half correct. They are going to send an SMS, but apparently only to registered locals in the area. Few years ago there was talk of setting up an system to send SMS to everyone around Hekla volcano if an eruption would start. But that system appears not to have gone past the idea stage. I do not watch the changes in this field, so I did miss that. For that I am sorry.

Earthquake swarm at Reykjanes Ridge: Few days ago there was an minor earthquake swarm at Geirfulgasker on the Reykjanes Ridge. This was normal tectonic activity for this area. But it has been having earthquake swarm every few months now for an long time. This earthquake swarm was an small one compared to many other earthquake swarms that have been taking place there.

The media hype: To Daily Mail in the UK. I am not an volcano expert. I also don’t claim to be one. You can’t find that claim on this blog. Because I am not an volcano expert. You also got an wrong volcano in your news and you spelled the name wrong on Hekla volcano. You should correct your news if you want to call your self an newspaper. Also, nobody sad anything about possible size of an ash cloud from Hekla volcano. You just made that up. The media should also relax, drink less coffee. There is nothing going on at the moment. You can hype all you want when something interesting is going on. If the media doesn’t get what I am saying, this here (Youtube, Newswipe) should help you get the clue. I at least remain hopeful, or something.

Help needed!: I need help. I am broke again (demit!). I might be having an low paying job. But my pay goes mostly up to my debts and July was an bit harder then I expected (I try to leave something for food, but this time around it did not work out as I planned it). But that was due to the last VISA payment that I am ever going to make. I am going to get paid on the 1 of next month at least. I am now only left with 2500 ISK (€15) and €24 (182 DKK) to buy food (total 39€) for the rest of the month or until I get paid from my job. My social welfare (that I working toward getting off one day) is always paid on the 1st of every month. My rule about asking for donations is that it is the only option that I have left. Besides not eating anything. But I don’t really regard that as an good option. My status is that the worst is most likely over now, since no more surprise VISA bills (I closed it and I am glad!) and now it is just steady payments of the overdraft until it is finished. But that going to take about 6 to 11 months to finish. Depending on the work income that I have until the end of October this year. If anyone wants proof of how broke I am, I can provide it.

So I once more ask again for donations so I can eat something this month. I am living cheap, but at the moment it did not work out as I planned. Thanks for the help in advance! 🙂

Other: I cancelled going to school this autumn. I am going to work more to pay down my debts faster. Then I plan moving to Denmark in the year 2012, when I have the money to move again. But from end of October I am going to provide regular and good updates in regards to volcanoes and earthquakes, since I won’t be working from that time in companies. But I am going to be working on a book that I am going to publish early 2012 (I hope).

Update 1: For everyone how donates there is going to be an e-book (pdf format only from me) about Icelandic volcano eruption for anyone how wants a copy. But I plan on writing book about volcano eruptions in Iceland soon after they happened. I finally made up my mind on how to write that type of book. It won’t take me an long time write those books, since it is just facts and details about the eruption. I am also going to sell those books on Amazon Kindle and web page named Smashwords. I hope to release the book about Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption 2010 in December 2010 or January 2011.

Blog post updated at 00:27 UTC on 8. July 2011.
Blog post updated at 07:19 UTC on 8. July 2011.