Category: News

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New study shows that ash cloud in Eyjafjallajökull and Grímsfjall volcanoes eruptions larger then expected

It was reported on Rúv News today about a new study that came out few days ago. In this study according to Rúv News the ash cloud from Eyjafjallajökull (2010) and Grímsfjall (2011) volcanoes where larger then appeared on satellite images. Meaning the ash could was covering larger area then appeared on images from space. The grain size in this eruptions was also underestimated. The decision to close down the airspace as was done in both eruptions was correct.

More details can be found here.

Rúv News

Viðbrögðin voru hárrétt (Rúv.is, Icelandic, audio in Icelandic)

Donations: Please remember to support my work with donations. It is also possible to support my work by using Amazon. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Earthquake swarm on Reykjanes Ridge on 19th of May, increased volcano monitoring in Iceland and more

I am sorry for lack of blog posts for the past few days, the reasons for this lack of blog post is that it has been quiet in Iceland for past two weeks. Money issues have also been heavy on me for the past few months and it drains you slowly, but it does drain you in the long run. This has affected my writing in the short term, both here on this blog and what I am creating in my short stories and books, so this have become self feeding circle that is hard to break out of, I just hope to break out of it soon. I did get a large donation this month, it has helped me greatly in paying down some of my debt and in the progress lower my monthly payments down a little. I also got a help from people I know here locally (this was before I got the donation and was expecting to survive on €30 for the rest of this month).

Some of my loans are also going to be paid up soon, I for instance only have three payments left on my washing machine. With the last payment due to take place in August. This is going to make my life a bit more easy, since it lowers my payment threshold a bit. I still have some big debt to pay down and it is going to take some time to pay it down. Since my social welfare from Iceland is low and I do not expect it to improve any time soon. I am going to pay down my debt faster as my income increases, but it might take a while until that happens.

Getting into money issues have been a bit of a drag for me, not surprising since often I have had no money for food in the past several months (8 months as it now stands). Some months have been worse then others, this is not a budget issue as such. I am currently having stripped budget and not spending anything extra if I can avoid it. This is going to be a temporary measure for me, I am going to end it once my income has increased to such levels that I am no longer poor. When that is going to be I do not know, it depends on how my books and short stories are going to be doing in the book market, the book market is not a easy market to work with. Since there are many writers out there and a lot of publishing taking place every day of the year.

As for moving again, it is not going to happen for the next few years. Since I am going to stay here in Bov, Padborg for the next few years, I might in the end just stay here for the rest of my life. I am not sure what I am going to do in the long run. I often change my mind, since I sometimes have issues with figuring my self out. I am bit open about it, and that bother some people who do not like my sudden change of heart.

Earthquake swarm deep on Reykjanes Ridge on 19th of May

During late night on 19th of May a magnitude 4.2 earthquake too place deep on the Reykjanes Ridge, a total of three to four earthquakes where detected on my geophone network at the time. I do not have exact magnitude for those earthquakes, I am guessing there magnitude was around 2.9 to 3.5 at least, it is not confirmed as is and it might never be confirmed. EMSC has more information on the magnitude 4.2 earthquake here.

Increased volcano monitoring in Iceland

BBC News has interesting news article about increased volcano monitoring in Iceland, due to the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in the year 2010. There is a ongoing project in Iceland with BGS and IMO to increase the monitoring of Iceland volcanoes, I do not know what volcanoes they are going to increase the monitoring. It can be assumed it is going to be the most active ones, Katla, Hekla, Grímsfjall and so on. I do not know what they are going to do about less active volcanoes like Snæfellsjökull and other volcanoes in that area, currently Snæfellsjökull volcano is not being monitored at all, or other volcanoes on the Snæfells peninsula. This increased monitoring of volcanoes in Iceland is going help detect when volcanoes are ready to erupt, or just play a simple bluff on the monitoring system.

The BBC News can be found here below. I recommend watching the video that is with this news article.

Volcano project scours Iceland for early warning signals (BBC News)

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New media hype over Katla volcano

There apparently is a new media hype over Katla volcano in the British press. This time around it is from BBC News. The news in question claims that a eruption in Katla volcano is going to have a global impact. This is nothing but a exaggeration in my view. While a eruption in Katla volcano might be big, there effects are mostly localized to Iceland. This was clear during the Grímsfjall volcano eruption in May of 2011. Where the global effect was close to zero, there where some flight disruptions. But they where not something major like did happen during Eyjafjalljökull volcano eruption. So the media is overestimating the effects of eruption in Katla volcano. To what end I do not know. But it sure annoyed me, and the scientists that monitor volcanoes in Iceland.

It is also important fact that Katla volcano did have an eruption this year. It took place on 8 and 9th July, 2011. With a smaller eruption on the 10th of July, 2011. This eruption was however a small one and did only melt the glacier, as it was not strong enough to break trough the ice. My coverage of those events can be found here (the whole timeline of events can be viewed here).

In terms of effects of a large eruption in Katla volcano. One thing is clear. It is mostly going to local to Iceland, it might disrupt flights in Europe of the wind systems are unfavorable. Both over mainland Europe or for transatlantic flights. But transatlantic flight can in most case route around the ash clod if it they need to. But the claim for global effects are just exaggeration and nothing else.

The BBC News hype.

New Icelandic volcano eruption could have global impact

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Website news for December 2011

Here are the website news for December 2011.

Name change for the blog in the beginning of January 2012

Since I now cover Spain and Canary Islands. A name change is needed for this blog. That name change is going to take place in the beginning of January 2012. The new name is going to reflect the area that I cover daily in this blog. This change is because I plan to move to Canary Islands (hopefully) in about 10 years time or so.

Changes in advertisement setup

I am going to change the display of the Amazon ads that I have here. Since I try to have ads from most of the language areas in Europe (that Amazon supports) there are many ads and they take a lot of space following it. So instead of using large banners. I am going to replace them with smaller banners or just ads boxes. Google Adsense are going to remain in the same size however as they have been on this blog.

Donations

This blog is free, so are all the information that I put forward here (all that is from me is under CC Licence). For that reason I depend on donations to do my work properly. There is also cost of hosting, living, computer hardware that I have to pay. I am not only living on this blog. But I do have social benefits as I am born with Asperger’s syndrome. Before people start to make a stereotype out of me, I must say that this is really mild version of Asperger’s syndrome that I have. But it has its challenges on times in the people department. But as social welfare goes, it is small amount and when I start to rent apartment again and all that. It is not going to last that long over the month.

My plan also to move back to Denmark have created the situation that I am now saving as much money that I can in order to pay for the moving cost to Denmark (more details later on in this blog post). For that reason I am broke so to speak. Thanks to some great donations last month have eased that pressure somewhat. But I am also trying to save the donations up for the move to Denmark. However, it has proven to be difficult trying to save up money with all the hardware failures that I have been having during the past two months. But that should be more or less over now. I at least hope so. I have only delayed one hardware upgrade until I move to Denmark. That is on my server computer. It needs a hard drive replacement. The hard drive is dying in that computer. But because it is going to be turned off after two weeks and is going to remain offline for the next few months until I move back to Denmark. I figured that it should be in good order (at least I hope so).

During the past two months I have had to replace old hardware that was on its last hours. This has both cut into my savings and told the sad story on how I have been avoiding proper hardware maintenance due to lack of money. To this day I have already lost data (nothing that was not able to get again, for most part) due to lack of replacing old hardware. This all comes down to the reason that I have been really broke for a long time, due to lack of proper income for what I want to do. This blog and my other writer work is a way for me to get out of that cycle of problems. But I am going to work hard on that goal to get off social welfare forever. Since I have grown tired of being poor and not to live my life as I want.

I also want to let people know that with growing geophone network the cost of running such network is going to increase. For the long time now I have been able to have that cost close to zero. But I am not sure for how long I can run it close to cost free. For at least one new geophone station that I am planning and hoping to get up and running in the new year I am going to have to buy a mobile modem (GSM/3G) and subscription (around €10 an month) so I can get data from it. As there is no good other connections in the area. There are going to be at least two geohone network stations like that I plan in coming months.

Geophone network

In December I plan to setup and start two new geophone stations. This geophone stations are going to be located in Eyrarbakki (a small village close to SISZ). The second one is going to be located on a farm named Skeiðflöt, it is located south of Mýrdasljökull but is inside the Katla volcano system that extends a little bit to the south in that area. I am not sure when the geophone stations go up. But it is going to be sometimes after 13 December, 2011. At least I hope so. But this is the plan now and I hope that it holds.

The new geophone stations are going to increase the sensitivity from ML1.9 at Hengill volcano (from Hekla volcano geophone) down to ML0.0 (or about that). For Katla volcano. I am going to be able to record earthquakes down to ML0.0, along with tremor spikes and other stuff like that. For the moment I can barely see earthquakes down to ML1.8 in Katla volcano. Overall, this is going to give me a lot better picture on what is going on in Katla volcano, in real time also.

For the year 2012 I am planning a geophone station at my mom and dad farm. Since now there is a mobile signal that I can use. The cost layout of that would be geophone + computer (I have already bought the computer) + GSM/3G modem and the subscription with that. I am going to post more details on that when the time comes.

Volcanoforum.eu is up and running

The volcanoforum.eu is now up and running. I am still setting up and looking for bugs. But it is ready for people to start registering on it and take part in the discussions. A volcano and earthquake related sections on the forum are going to appear soon. I am not yet done fine tuning the forum. So be patient on that front. But for the most part, it should be working now without any issue at all. At least I hope so.

Moving back to Denmark

In the year 2012 I am going to move back to Denmark. For the moment I am collecting all my money (that I can spare) for the apartment costs, moving cost and all that needs to be paid when I move between countries. I also plan to buy me a new television when I move to Denmark. So I am also collecting for that. For this reason, I am a bit depended on donations for the moment. I not sure yet when I move back to Denmark. But the search for the apartment starts in the early months of the new year of 2012.

Because of that. I do not have any apartment in Iceland and after December I am not going to have any good internet connection. For that reason my main computers are going to be turned off until I can move back to Denmark. This is going to limit me a little bit on what I can work on. But I am going the best I can with this. At least I have my laptop to work on (I should not fail, I hope anyway).

School is finished

I am now finished with school. All that is left are two tests. After that I move from the dorm where I have been living for the past few months. When that is over I move back to my mom and dad until I can get a apartment in Denmark. This all takes few months from start to finish. I do not think that there is anything else to say in this monthly web site news about this blog.

If there is something that I forgot. I am just going to add it later in a update to this blog post.

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Bogus news story going around about Katla volcano

There is a bogus news story about Katla volcano. The bogus news are that Katla volcano is just few days from erupting. This is wrong. At the moment there are no signs that Katla volcano is about to erupt. There is currently a relative quiet in Katla volcano, compared to the activity several weeks ago. But that activity started after the minor eruption in Katla volcano in July 2011 (this summer). This bogus news is also annoying the staff at Iceland Met Office, how are now getting phone calls about this news. Where other professionals are trying to get more information on this or just trying to figure out if the news is correct or not.

For the moment, it is all quiet in Katla volcano. If there are any changes. I am sure to write about it here with up to date information on what is going on. While the Yellow Press is looking for big-foot or something. So once again, the yellow press has it wrong and spreads minor panic following this poor news reporting.

News about this in Icelandic.

Nágrannaþjóðir óttast Kötlugos á næstu dögum (DV.is, Icelandic)
Norskir miðlar: Óttast flóðbylgju í kjölfar Kötlugoss – Getur gosið hvenær sem er – Kötlu illt í maganum (Pressan.is, Icelandic, Picture from the 1918 eruption in this news)

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Website news for November 2011

This is the first official website news for Iceland volcano and earthquake blog for November 2011. The purpose of this web site news is to tell people what is going on with me [Jón Frímann] and this web site that I run. I do not intend this to be a long blog posts unless I have to. This is going to be divide into needed sections of what is going on. I hope that have this every month from now on.

Monitoring changes for earthquakes and volcanoes

The following areas has been added to my personal monitoring system, Spain and Canary Island (part of Spain), Denmark (since February). Following areas are now part of special report system. Azores Islands, Madeira Island. But special reports cover eruptions and major earthquakes for a short time period. I also cover all major earthquakes that happen on the planet Earth. That is earthquakes that are larger then Mw8.0 in size. I have to have limit to what I cover here. As I cannot have good quality if I am cover too much. I rather want to cover less and have better quality of what I cover.

Twitter

I have added a twitter button to this web site. So links can now be shared more easy on twitter. Facebook button is so far not in the picture. As they are just too complex to setup from my point of view (they also appear to track people from what I can gather). So I won’t bother with setting up a Facebook button.

Web site traffic

It took one year to get 1 million page views. But it only took a month or so to get up to 2 million page views. Currently the page load counters stands in this number, 2,142,929 page loads. But this equals to 652,725 visits to this blog during a little bit over the year. For the earthquake pages there have been 3,057,298 page loads since that web site was started back in the year 2006. But that are 696,378 visits to that web sites since I did start it. So far the traffic does not warrant a move to dedicated server. But that might change if the traffic grows even more in the future. So I am watching out for that possibility in the future.

Geophone network

The geophones that I did order are finally in Iceland. I am going to pick them up at the post office tomorrow I hope. I hope that I can install and start both of them in December. But I am not going to have time to install then in November.

Money issues

I became debt free yesterday (finally). The last day of October 2011. But that does not change the fact that I am going to continue to be broke as I have been. Since now I have to spend my money into saving for the move to Denmark (since I was unable to have both options). I am also saving up so that I can buy a new tv, as my old tv is getting tired and bit breaking down in the tube monitor (I also find it better to look at LCD monitors, but I have poor eyesight). The total cost of moving back to Denmark and buying a new tv is estimated about 4.396,00€, 32.697,00DKK, 6.153,00$, 3.843,00GBP, but this is about 700.000 ISK that I need to save up before I can move back to Denmark. But I am saving everywhere that I can. I have placed payments from Google Adsense on hold so I can save that money. I am not getting anything from Amazon ads at this moment, so it does not matter at current time. The saving for the move to Denmark starts tomorrow. It is going to take me until June to get the money that I need to move back to Denmark. I plan to start looking for a apartment in March or maybe earlier. It is a bit unclear at the moment. But it is going to take few months to get apartment in Denmark (I think). But I am in a hurry to move from Iceland for many different reasons.

Update 1: Due to currency restrictions in Iceland I cannot save money on Google Adsense as I had hoped. As I am going to need that income to pay for bills and other things from my danish bank account. I just hope for the best in this regards.

For that reason I am going to have to relay on donations as before. At least until this annoying period in my life goes over. I do not ask for a lot. Just something to make the month in terms of expense that we all have to deal with.

Thanks for reading and the support.

Blog post updated at 13:45 UTC on 1 November, 2011.
Blog post updated at 08:52 UTC on 5 November, 2011.

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New video of Fimmvörðuháls craters and lava fields

Rúv News continues to show small bits of the area on Fimmvörðuháls that did erupt last year (2010) with lava fountains and Hawaiian type eruption.

It has been over one year since the eruption in Fimmvörðuháls took place. But the lava fields there are still warm and steaming. But they also have there share of dangerous gases too.

The news from Rúv.is.

Dularkraftur á Fimmvörðuhálsi (Rúv.is, Icelandic, video ,Windows Media Player required). Here is a direct link too the video.

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New video of Eyjafjallajökull volcano crater

Tonight Rúv did show a new video of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano crater area. But the Rúv News team accompanied the scientist up too the top of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in order too view the crater that is there, and the lave field that did flow from the top crater. According to the news on Rúv it is going to take many years until the glacier recovers fully from the year 2010 eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. As the lava field is up too 100 meters thick due the cooling from the glacier when it did flow form the crater in the eruption.

Rúv News. Use Google translate with the hope that it might translate…or not.

Eyjafjallajökull rannsakaður (Rúv.is, Icelandic)

Vísindamenn ofan í gígum Eyjafjallajökuls (Rúv.is, Windows Media Player required, Icelandic, at the end of the news on Rúv)

Blog post updated at 15. May 2011 at 00:08 CEST. Fixed text and added extra information.
Blog post updated at 15. May 2011 at 19:20 CEST. Fixed the blog post title.

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How to get Icelandic media in a case of a eruption in Iceland

When a eruption starts in Iceland. All media in Iceland covers it. Both in there news web sites and on the radio stations on the internet that publish information in english and other languages if needed. Here is a list of the main media stations in Iceland.

Radio stations:

Rúv Rás 1 – Public radio station. Needs Windows Media Audio player to listen to this radio station. It is also possible to listen to Rás 1 over satellite on 1W.
Rúv Rás 2 – Public Radio station. Needs Windows Media Audio player to listen to this radio station. It is also possible to listen to Rás 2 over satellite on 1W.
Bylgjan FM 98,9 – A radio station with news. A flash might be needed to listen to this radio station.

Tv stations:

Rúv Sjónvarpið – Can be watched on-line here. Both with flash player and Windows Media Video capable player. In Europe Rúv Sjónvarpið can also been watched over satellite on 1W if you have Conax access card to view the channel (only available in Iceland to Icelandic citizen living in Iceland, don’t ask me for it). But Teletext information is still available even if the channel is scrambled and cannot be viewed because of that.
Stöð 2 – Can be viewed on-line on the web-site Vísir.is. But at that web page only news can be viewed. Flash player is required to view it. Stöð 2 does not broadcast over satellite.

When a eruption starts in Iceland. This are the best options to get into touch with Icelandic media that broadcast live video or audio. But other news web sites are mbl.is, dv.is. But this are only news papers that don’t offer any direct and live coverage when a eruption starts in Iceland.

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Update on the crack in Þingvellir (Thingvellir), Almannagjá fissure

Tonight Rúv did have a news about the fissure that did open up in Þingvellir (Thingvellir) few weeks ago. Now scientists have started to explore this new fissure. So far they have measured that it is about 10 meters deep. It is still unclear how long it is. The current theory is that this new fissure started to open up after the Mw6.8 and Mw6.7 earthquakes in SISZ in the year 2000, or the Mw6.3 earthquake in the year 2008. But that is however unclear at this time.

What appears also to have happened is that ground water have cleaned out loose material in this new fissure. This might possibly have deepened the fissure. But this aspect of this new fissure is still a bit unclear one. But what is the most amazing thing is that the road has not started to collapse earlier then it did. Due how big this new fissure appears to be.

News on Rúv about this. Use Google translate at own risk, as Google does not know what Icelanders are saying.

Furðulegt að ekki hafi hrunið fyrr (Icelandic, video (Windows Media Video), picture, Rúv.is)