Category: Monitoring

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Earthquake swarm north of Geysir continues

Earthquake swarm north of Geysir volcano (this is a minor volcano) continues, with breaks. Largest earthquake in last few days had the magnitude of 3,2 and was felt on nearby farms.

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

New earthquake swarms more west than current one have also been appearing, so far the earthquake activity has not lasted more than few hours before stopping again. Earthquake activity is common in this area, larger earthquake swarms do happen in this area every few years.

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Bárðarbunga volcano update 27-December-2014

Bárðarbunga volcano continues to erupt in Holuhraun as before. The eruption is around the same phase as before. There was some change detected at the eruption vent in Holuhraun, it is remains unclear at the moment what change is.

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

Earthquake activity has dropped for the past few days, with few earthquakes that have been reaching magnitude 3,0 and above. Largest earthquake in the past few days has had the magnitude of 5,0. It is unclear why this is happening at the moment, earthquake activity might pick up again, it also might increase again. There is also a change that end of the eruption in Holuhraun is getting close, at least the phase that is connected to earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Continued earthquake activity in Tungafellsjökull volcano

Earthquake activity continues in Tungafellsjökull volcano. So far the earthquakes that are happening are smaller ones, with rare magnitude 3,0 or larger earthquake taking place every once in a while. At the moment the earthquake activity in Tungafellsjökull volcano is increasing and it is bit unclear why that is. The risk of eruption in Tungafellsjökull volcano appears to remains, even if that would just be a minor eruption. If an eruption takes place in Tungafellsjökull volcano, it would be the first documented eruption in the past 12,000 years to take place (at least).

New years update schedule

Next article about Bárðarbunga volcano eruption are going to be on the following days.

29-December-2014
2-January-2015

After that I am going to return to normal schedule on reporting on Bárðarbunga volcano eruption.

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Minor earthquake swarm north of Geysir

For the past few days there has been a minor earthquake swarm north of Geysir (a minor volcano in this area). The earthquake swarm has not been inside the volcano, it has been just outside it. The earthquakes have all been tectonic in nature so far.

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Minor earthquake swarm north of Geysir. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

All of the earthquakes that have taken place are minor in magnitude. With the largest only having magnitude 2,5. Others earthquakes being smaller in magnitude. So far only 25 earthquakes have taken place. The earthquake swarm seems to be ongoing, it however has slowed down in last few hours and it might end soon.

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Bárðarbunga volcano update 22-December-2014

This is a short update of Bárðarbunga volcano eruption.

  • The eruption has now lasted almost four months. Making this the longest eruption in Iceland for many, many years. This might be the longest eruption in Iceland since 19th century.
  • The lava field in Holuhraun is now larger then 80 km² in size. The lava now flows underground in lava tubes inside the lava field. It breaks out on the edges at times and sometimes up on the surface.
  • Earthquake activity remains the same in Bárðarbunga volcano. Bad weather has decreased the sensitivity on the nearby SIL sensors. Some remain offline due the weather and heavy snow in the area.
  • Subsidence has slowed, the amount of larger earthquakes has also dropped at the same time. It has not stopped, just slowed down for the moment.
  • There are no signs about the eruption ending any time soon. The eruption could go on for years, at least many months in it’s current phase.

Other news about Bárðarbunga volcano eruption

  • Scientists are getting bored of the meetings about the Bárðarbunga volcano. So far around 80 or so meetings have taken place since the eruption started.
  • Scientists are going to continue monitoring and keeping going to meetings, even if they are a bit bored on them.
  • Police is keep watch in Drekagil location. At the moment there are just two police people at that location now. Since no scientists have been able to go to Holuhraun in the past two or three weeks due to bad weather.

Tungafellsjökull volcano update

  • Latest news report suggest that dyke intrusion is taking place in Tungafellsjökull volcano.
  • If an eruption takes place in Tungafellsjökull volcano it is guessed that is not going to be any larger than the eruption in Fimmvörðuháls in Eyjafjallajökull volcano during it’s eruption phase in 2010.
  • Earthquake activity is expected to continue in Tungafellsjökull volcano while Bárðarbunga volcano is active.

Earthquake map for the last 48 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.

Other than this there is nothing else to report at the moment.

Icelandic News about Bárðarbunga volcano

Lögreglumenn eru einir í Drekagili (Rúv.is, Icelandic, video)
Vísindamenn þreyttir á fundum vegna Bárðarbungu (Vísir.is, Icelandic)
Nornahraun nær yfir 80 ferkílómetra lands (Vísir.is, Icelandic)

Christmas update schedule

Next updates about current phase of the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano are going to be on 27-December-2014 and 29-December-2014.

Other

I have made the decision on moving my Paypal to Iceland. Since I won’t be moving back to Denmark and there is no point in keeping my Paypal account in that country. I am going to move the PayPal account tomorrow (23-December-2014) once everything has clear from it. This means that there won’t be any donation button for the next few days while I move it to Iceland. Since it takes few days to get validated by PayPal. It is going to be possible to donate directly to my Danish bank account until I close it down late 2015 or early 2016. More details are going to be posted on that later.

As always, thanks for the support. 🙂

Article updated on 11:51 UTC on 23-December-2014.

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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.

Donations: Please remember to support my work with donations or by using Amazon store for your region or country. Thanks for the support.

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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.