Category: Monitoring

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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 for 16-December-2014

This is a short update on Bárðarbunga volcano. Due to weather I won’t be able to do full regular updates on Bárðarbunga volcano today. Since bad weather prevented me from getting the computer table that I need to use.

Yesterday (Monday 15-December-2014) an magnitude 5,4 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Earthquake activity dropped in Bárðarbunga volcano following this earthquake. It has however been picking up again in the last few 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.

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano remains around the same. There have been fewer earthquakes detected due to bad weather happening in Iceland, since wind and ocean noise lower the detection threshold of earthquakes, making it difficult to impossible to record smaller earthquakes. Observations of Holuhraun are impossible at the moment due to bad weather. I haven’t been able to check the web-cameras since my laptop can’t handle it.

Tungafellsjökull volcano earthquake activity has been increasing for the past 48 hours. Largest earthquake in this latest earthquake swarm activity had the magnitude of 3,2. There are no signs of any other unrest in Tungafellsjökull at this moment.

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Minor earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge

Today (16-December-2014) there was a minor earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge. Only one earthquake had the magnitude of 2,9. Other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It appears that this earthquake swarm is over for now. It might start again in next few hours to days, such activity is not uncommon on this part of the Reykjanes ridge.

Notice on updates: I had planned on starting regular updates today. That won’t happen due to bad weather preventing me getting a computer table that I need. I don’t know how long the delay is going to be since there is heavy snow in Iceland at the moment.

Article updated at 15:27 UTC.

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Bárðarbunga volcano update 12-December-2014

This is super short update for Bárðarbunga volcano.

  • The lava field is now around 76 km² in size. I am getting slightly conflicting reports on the size of the lava field. I don’t know why that is.
  • Lava tubes have started to form inside the lava, recent observation suggest this according to latest news.
  • Flow of the lava is now to the north (toward the Míla cameras). The lava breaks out at the edge of older and colder lava.
  • There is no change in the eruption at the moment according to best observations available at the moment.
  • Earthquake activity remains about the same as before. There has been a while since earthquake larger than magnitude 5,0 took place.

New video of the eruption can be found in the link below. Part of it is in English. Other than this there is nothing new to report. I have also not been able to properly follow the newest information on what is going on while I am moving back to Iceland.

Breytt landslag í Holuhrauni (Rúv.is, Icelandic, part in English, video)

Other: My belongings are now in transit to Hvammstangi. I am going to get them on Monday. This means I can start to provide more updates after than and on more regular basis. Since my laptop is no good for this type of job, since it is slow and not far from failing due to many faults that have appeared over the last seven years.

Donations: Please remember to donate or to by what you need from Amazon. Thanks for the support.

The storm: For those interested in how bad snow storm looks in Iceland. Please check the video below.

Farmer films crazy storm (mbl.is, English, video)

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Bárðarbunga volcano update 9-December-2014

This is super short update for Bárðarbunga volcano.

  • The eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano has now reached 100 days.
  • The lava field is now around 77 – 80 km² in size. The volume is over 1,0 km³ according to last measurements that I know of (my numbers might not be fully up to date).
  • The frequency of magnitude 5,0 is dropping and it is now longer time passing between them, at least that is the case for the moment.
  • The subsidence in Bárðarbunga volcano is now more than 50 meters.

I don’t have good chance to make better report than this at the moment. Bad weather is going to delay my trip to Hvammstangi about one day, there is going to be two day snow storm in north Iceland from tomorrow.

Donations: Please remember to donate to support my work or support my work by using the Amazon banners to side while shopping from them. If your area does not have a banner you can check for it in Amazon Webstore page that I have. Thanks for the support.

Article updated at 20:27 UTC.
Article updated at 20:34 UTC.

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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.

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Bárðarbunga volcano update Wednesday 26-November-2014

This is going to be a short update on the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano and the Holuhraun fissure.

The eruption in Holuhraun continues with no end in sight. There have been a change taking place in the eruption, this has been noted both in the comments on this website and by scientists in the field. There flow of magma now comes in pulses and those pulses happens in cycles, some only last for few seconds, but some pulses have known to last up to 6 – 10 hours (raw estimate of time) [details here]. I don’t know what this means at the moment and it is unclear at the moment why this is happening, so far this has not ended the eruption. Gas output has not changed far as I know, strong winds have carried the gas faster out to sea so it has not been a big problem in Iceland because of it for the past few days. At least that is what I so far know. I might be wrong on that detail.

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

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano continues around the same rate as before. After the magnitude 5,4 earthquake on Monday, earthquake activity dropped. This is normal and earthquake activity continues as before. There are now fewer magnitude 3,0+ earthquakes due the magnitude 5,4 earthquake. Number of magnitude 3,0+ is increasing again and that is to be expected, since this has been the pattern for the past three months now. View on the eruption in Holuhraun has been good during the last few days since weather has been good. Other than this I don’t think anything other to report at the moment.

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Bárðarbunga volcano update Monday 24-November-2014

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

Activity in Holuhraun continued as before during the weekend. Currently it seems that activity is increasing in Holuhraun eruption, I don’t have it confirmed at the moment. What has been detected is a fluctuation lasting from few seconds and up to several hours in output of lava in Holhraun eruption, this possibly that the eruption is about to end. Since the feeding of the eruption becomes unstable and is unable to feed the eruption in the same stable manner as before. There have also been detected changes in gas output (mostly SO2).
This however does not mean that the dyke is closing up, but the erupting vent in Holuhraun might be doing just that. This means there is a high risk of new vents opening up along the dyke if magma is flowing into the dyke with same force as before. There is also chance that the whole dyke is sealing up and the magma is going to find new paths up the surface once that happens. There might still be months until the eruption in Holuhraun ends, even if the changes have started to take place now. The amount of SO2 suggest that the magma is coming from a deep source of more than 9 km.

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

Strongest earthquakes during the weekend and today had the magnitudes of 5,1 and 5,4. Earthquake activity drops after large earthquakes and then slowly builds up in matter of hours to days until a new large earthquake takes place. I don’t know why this happens, it just does. New study into Bárðarbunga suggests that magma system of the volcano is far more complex than believed earlier. This study also suggests that the caldera floor is thinner than originally believed. I don’t know what the implication of that are going to be. There is no major change in GPS data around Bárðarbunga volcano. Other than this there is nothing more to report at the moment far as I know.

New video of the Holuhraun eruption

Nýtt myndskeið af umbrotunum í Holuhrauni (Icelandic, Rúv.is, video)

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Bárðarbunga volcano update Friday 21-November-2014

This is going to be a short update.

There are no major changes in the eruption in Holuhraun. From the looks on the web cameras it appears that wall of the crater has possibly collapsed, I don’t have it confirmed. Other possibility is that the eruption in Holuhraun has increased for the time being. Some lava strokes can be spotted on the north edge of the crater at the moment. The lava flow seems to have changed direction at the moment, the size of the lava field is now close to 72 km².

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

For the past 48 hours there have been 63 earthquakes with magnitude that are larger than 3,0 in Bárðarbunga volcano. In that same time earthquake activity also appears to be increasing along the dyke. There have not been any change in GPS data, suggesting that flow if magma into the dyke is about the same as before. No other changes have been reported at the moment. The eruption is now clearly visible on Míla Bárðarbunga web cameras (Camera 1, Camera 2).

Other things: Based on my latest calculations it is going to take me 1,6 year (best estimate at the moment) to get out the debt issue that I am now in. Both paying down the overdraft with my Icelandic bank, the tax debt with the Danish state (a large pile of money for me) and what I am going to owe mom and dad due the move back to Iceland. Uggghhhh. Sometimes I hate money.

Article updated at 00:55 UTC.