Langjökull volcano (north) – Iceland geology

June 9, 2016June 9, 2016

Earthquake swarm close to Hveravellir (Langjökull north)

I don’t know a lot about this earthquake swarm close to Hveravellir (Langjökull north), due the lack of information. What I do know is that an earthquake swarm is taking place there and the largest earthquakes so far have the magnitude around 2,1. Largest reviewed earthquake had the magnitude of 2,1 at 2,1 km depth. Other than this information I don’t know for sure what is going on in this area.

The few earthquakes that Iceland Met Office has been able to locate with some certainty in Hveravellir. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

This earthquake swarm is appearing clearly on nearby SIL station and only this one SIL station. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

The drumplot of that SIL station also shows this earthquake swarm clearly. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

I’m currently guessing that around 50 – 100 earthquakes have taken place so far, but without accurate data its difficult to know. The magnitude in this earthquake swarm is from 0,0 – ~2,1 so far. Larger earthquakes can’t be ruled out, but as the magnitude grows, so improves the SIL network ability to locate the earthquake magnitude and depth properly. For the smaller earthquakes, they are only going to appear on one to two SIL stations and that is not enough data to properly locate them or figure out exact magnitude.

I’m going to post updates to this earthquake swarm as it happens if needed.

May 12, 2016May 12, 2016

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga, Öræfajökull, Langjökull north volcanos

This is going to be a little compressed article. Since I’m currently in Iceland. I’ll be back in Denmark on 18-May. No GVP links now. I don’t think that my laptop can handle it (its slowly turning into non-functional computer).

Bárðarbunga volcano

The regular earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano continues, it follows the same pattern has it has been doing for the last 7 – 8 months.

The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

The largest earthquake had the magnitude of 3,2. Other earthquakes had smaller magnitude. This earthquake activity is like the earthquake activity before, there doesn’t seems to be a lot of difference between the earthquake swarms that are now taking place between weeks.

Öræfajökull volcano

There is a interesting earthquake activity taking place in Öræfajökull volcano. It suggest that some magma is entering the volcano at depth (5 – 10 km). At the moment there is nothing that suggests an eruption is getting close, however the eruption history of Öræfajökull volcano is not well known and no reliable data exists on what might happen in the case of eruption. At the moment, all of the earthquakes taking place are minor, suggesting the amount of magma entering Öræfajökull volcano is minor at the moment.

Langjökull (north)

Today (12-May-2016) an small earthquake swarm took place in north Langjökull volcano. This earthquake activity has been taking place in this area since the year 2000, it was started by the magnitude 6,5 earthquake in SISZ. The reason for this earthquake swarm are unclear. No change in the main volcano has been observed, both in terms of earthquake activity or other changes. One idea is that this are stress changes in faults at this area, suggesting they might be lateral faults, not connected to the volcano it self.

The earthquake activity in Langjökull north volcano (Hveravellir). Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

None of the earthquakes that took place had strong magnitude, largest earthquake had the magnitude of 2,0.

New – Analyzing articles

I plan on to start writing analyzing articles about volcanoes in Iceland in order to attempt to explain what is going on with the most active one and what might happen. Those articles will take few days to write, that means I won’t write many of them each week if needed. This is also going to cover history of the volcano if that is possible. I am going to try and expand this website a little in order to bring in more readers.

Hardware support needed

Since I have to go the dentist when I go back to Denmark (sight). I can’t afford the hardware upgrade and maintaining my desktop computer (I got a failing hard drive). I also need hardware for setting up a second geophone computer in Denmark and a new Power supply for my main earthquake computer, it now running a 350W power-supply from a different computer, making it a little under powered.

Here is the list of hardware needed if anyone can help me with this.

1 500W power supply for my main earthquake computer (It has to be Intel six CPU pin power compatible).
1 1TB hard drive for my main desktop computer. The current hard drive is failing, its making clicking sounds, suggesting that its read head is about to fail.
1 1TB hard drive for my main earthquake computer. This for my main backup of all my data (earthquake data and other important data, images and so on). The second backup is on the internet. I so far haven’t been able to setup my third backup plan.
1 500GB to 1TB hard drive for my second geophone computer in Denmark.

Extra

1 Used laptop that is faster than 2,3Ghz and with more than 2GB ram. It can be used, it just has to work and be younger then 2010 model of laptop. It doesn’t have to have Windows installed on it. It does have to have a working hard drive.

Thanks for the support. 🙂

October 4, 2015

Glacier flood from Skaftárkatlar cauldrons and other updates

This is going to be a short article since I don’t have a time to write a long one.

The glacier flood from Skaftárkatlar cauldrons is mostly over. There continues to be a lot of water in rivers that were flooded, with the flood peak being at 2200 m³/s (uncorrected). Some damage has taken place on roads and few bridges, with one major bridge almost collapsing from the river eating into the river banks. A graph showing this glacier flood in realation to older glacier flood from the eastern skaftárkatlar cauldron can be found here (Icelandic news). The glacier water that did flood into a lava field (that erupted from Laki) is still on its way and is going to reappear in few days as clean water, a lot of clean water that might create problem in nearby rivers and nearby roads if any exist. I don’t know the layout of roads and such in this part of Iceland so I don’t release what type of damage might happen. Image of the largest damaged bridge can be found here (Icelandic news), there is a video in this news.

Bárðarbunga volcano

There has been a slight increase in earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano this week. A magnitude 3,1 earthquake took place along with little increase in smaller earthquakes. There have also been clusters of small earthquakes been appearing in east and in south (both east and west) part of the volcano. This activity suggest that new magma is flowing into the magma chamber at depth and the pressure has increased. Maybe not to eruption levels at the moment, but that moment is getting closer as the time passes.

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

North Langjökull volcano (Hveravellir)

Earlier this week an earthquake swarm took place close to Hveravellir (volcano). This earthquake swarm was not large and the largest earthquake only had the magnitude of 2,5 (or around that number. I was working when this happened and I did not have chance to check or save the data). Earthquake activity in this area has been increasing slowly for the past 10 years. It is unclear why that is happening.

The earthquake activity in Hveravellir volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Western Fracture Zone

There has been for the past few days earthquake activity in WFZ. This earthquake activity appears to be taking place in a extinct volcano in this area. I don’t think that this volcano is named and I don’t know the name of the mountains at the location were the earthquake activity is taking place.

The earthquake activity in WFZ today (04-October-2015). Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

I do expect the earthquake activity to continue in this area for next few days. Due to how rare earthquakes are in this area there is a risk of sharp and strong activity. It might also last for a long period of time, up to weeks or months at the longest.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. At the moment I’m trying to collect as much money as I can before I move back to Denmark. I am also trying to save up for a cheap new laptop so that I can write when I am traveling, in the case anything happens in Iceland. It is going to cost me 40.000,00 ISK (~280€/315USD). Currently I’m doing full workday until the end of October (when not in school). To clarify, the work is hard and they only pay legal minimal wages and overtime pay (1 – 3 hours each day).

Thanks for the support.

January 6, 2014

Earthquake swarm in Hveravellir

During the night of 6-January-2014 an earthquake swarm started in Langjökull volcano, the northern one. The nearby area is known as Hveravellir geothermal area. So far this has just been a minor earthquake swarm. With largest earthquakes not exceeding magnitude 2,0 at the moment.

The earthquake swarm in Hveravellir geothermal area. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The tremor plot of nearby SIL station shows that more earthquake activity is taking place then appears on Icelandic Meteorological Office website. This are then earthquake that are too small to be detected by other nearby SIL stations.

The earthquake activity at Hveravellir SIL station. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I do expect this earthquake activity to continue for some time now. It is impossible to know for sure if this activity is going to increase or not.

July 23, 2013

Melting of glaciers in Iceland might mean more volcano activity

In the evening news on Rúv tonight (23-July-2013) a interesting report about possible future volcano activity was being reported. A unpublished paper (according to Rúv News) reports that with more glacier melt in Iceland, more eruptions should be expected to take place. This is mostly true about areas like Vatnajökull glacier, as it holds several volcanoes that are under heavy pressure from the glacier ice. This applies mostly to volcanoes like Grímsfjall volcano, Bárðarbunga volcano and Kverkfjöll volcano, but those three volcano are the largest ones in Vatnajökull glacier.

This might also apply to areas like Mýrdalsjökull glacier. If this study is true, there might be more eruptions in Iceland in next few decades as the glacier melts away. This like so many other things, is however something that is just wait and see seranio.

At the moment, everything is quiet in Iceland when it comes to activity in volcanoes and on fault zones in Iceland.

Rúv News about this

Auknar líkur á eldvirkni með bráðnun jökla (Rúv.is, Icelandic, video)

August 9, 2011

Earthquake swarm north of Langjökull glacier and volcano, new hole found in Selfoss town

This is a short update.

Langjökull glacier: Yesterday there was a minor earthquake swarm north of Langjökull glacier and volcano. This area did last time was last year when a good sized earthquake swarm did happen in this area, but last year it did start around this time of year and lasted until November. It remains to be seen if that happens now. So far all the data suggests that this earthquake swarm is just tectonic in nature. It also appears that earthquake swarms in this area start slowly with long breaks between them. So I am expecting more earthquakes there. Unless this has just been a single event with no repeats.

SISZ: On Selfoss town they have just found a new strange hole in the road. The opening of the hole is about 1.5 meter in size. But the depth is about 6 meters (guess?) and area that is hollow under the hole is few hundred meters (guess?) according to the news. It is believed that this did happen because of the SISZ Mb6.3 earthquake that did happen in this area in the year 2008.

Here are news about, with pictures of the hole.

Jarðskjálftahola á Selfossi (Rúv.is, Icelandic, Picture)
Hola myndaðist í jörðinni á Selfossi (Vísir.is, Icelandic, Pictures)

Katla volcano: I think that something might be about to start in Katla volcano. But that is just a speculation that I am doing now. I am far from sure about it. But it should be clear in few hours if something is happening in Katla volcano or not. I base my assessment on rather odd changes in the tremor plot. They are hard to spot, but still there and appears to be growing it seems. But I am going to check and see what happens in few hours time. This might be nothing. But only time is going to tell us that for sure.

October 28, 2010

More intraplate earthquakes north of Langjökull / Hofsjökull volcanoes

Earlier this night (around 19:19 UTC 28th of October) more intraplate earthquake did start happening north of Langjökull / Hofsjökull volcanoes. The earthquakes are in the same place as before. But please see my earlier post for information about the earlier earthquake swarm at the same location.

Currently it seems that the earthquake swarm is growing in size and frequency of earthquakes. But the earthquakes appears clearly on my Hvammstangi station. The web page for my geophones can be viewed here. The distance of this earthquakes from my Hvammstangi station is about 40 to 80 km. But no more then that I think.

So far all the earthquakes have been less then ML3.0 in size. But if the swarm gets stronger that might change with out any warning. This area of Iceland is unpopulated so it is unlikely that anyone is going to feel those earthquakes at current size levels.

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