Monitoring – Page 116 – Iceland geology

May 3, 2014May 3, 2014

Ongoing earthquake swarm north of Herðubreiðartögl

Today (03-May-2014) around midnight (00:02 UTC) a earthquake swarm started north of Herðubreiðartöglum (Global Volcanism Program link on Askja volcano can be found here), this area is an small mountain ridge that has built up with regular eruptions over some period of time. The largest earthquake in this swarm took place this morning at 05:49 UTC and had the magnitude of 3,5 with the depth of 7,6 km. After this earthquake took place the swarm increased with many minor earthquakes. So far over 265 earthquakes have been recorded today, this number gets obsoleted quickly since new earthquakes happens ever 1 to 3 minute when I am writing this text.

Tremor plot on nearby SIL stations show that a lot more earthquake activity is taking place than appears on IMO earthquake website. Reason for this is simple, the earthquakes cannot be located since they are only detected at one or two SIL stations, a minimal of three or four SIL station are required for location of each earthquake. The tremor plot in the area also show that no magma is erupting, but that does exclude the possibly that magma injection is responsible for this earthquake swarm. It has not reached the surface and currently there is no eruption taking place at this location. If an eruption takes place in this location, it is going to be Hawaiian eruption with large lava flows.

The earthquake swarm north of Herðubreiðartögl as they appear on Icelandic Meteorological Office maps. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The earthquake rate during this earthquake swarm. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The SIL station in Askja volcano. As can be seen the earthquake swarm is dense and highly active. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The SIL station south of Herðubreiðartögl, this SIL station is called Mókollar and the earthquake swarm appears clearly on it. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquake swarms are common in this area and have been for a long time. Most of that earthquake activity has been contributed to normal tectonic activity in this region (plate tectonic movements). This area also has erupted in the past (last 12,000 years). I don’t think there have been any eruptions in this area in the past 1000 years, at least there are no such signs on the surface (crates, lavas). It is difficult to know what happens in this area for the next few hours to days, all that can be done is to continue monitor the activity that is now taking place. The largest earthquakes appears clearly on my Böðvarshólar geophone (link here), even if the distance is up to 200 km.

Donation note: Please remember to donate. Otherwise I am going to have a rather bad month of May in terms of being broke. Thanks for the support.

April 27, 2014May 3, 2014

Minor earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano

Yesterday (26-April-2014) and today (27-April-2014) an minor earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. I am not sure if this earthquake activity is due to dike intrusion or normal tectonic activity.

Minor earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This area of Bárðarbunga volcano is well known for high earthquake activity. If this is an dike intrusion as is an possibility, it does not increase the risk of an eruption, since dike intrusion without starting an eruptions are a common feature in Icelandic volcanoes.

April 27, 2014April 27, 2014

Minor earthquake swarm on Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ)

Yesterday (26-April-2014) and today (27-April-2014) an minor earthquake swarm took place on TFZ not far from an island named Flatey. This was a small earthquake swarm and largest earthquakes had an magnitude around 2,0.

The minor earthquake swarm on TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is difficult to know if this earthquake activity is going to continue. Earthquake activity at this location is only tectonic based, this area of Iceland is volcano free.

April 27, 2014

New earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge

Yesterday (26-April-2014) and today (27-April-2014) an earthquake swarm started on the Reykjanes Ridge (no GVP profile) in a submarine volcano south of Reykjanes volcano (I wrote about it few days ago here). This earthquake swarm was at the same location as an earthquake swarm that took place there on 13-April-2014 and I wrote about it here. There are clues pointing towards that magma might have been the reason for the earthquake swarm on the 13-April-2014. It has not been confirmed due to remote location of this volcano, observations are also limited due to depth of the ocean at this location (about 1 to 2 km depth is at this location).

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

Its difficult to know what is happening. Currently the earthquake swarm has continued, but with it stops for shorter or longer period of time at current time. I do not know why that is. So far everything has been quiet tremor wise on the closest SIL stations to this location. The closest SIL stations are some 35 to 45 km distance. I expect more earthquake activity to take place at this location in next few days to weeks. It is impossible to know if an eruption is going to take place out there in the ocean at current time.

April 14, 2014

Renewed earthquake activity in Hekla volcano

Today (14-April-2014) an earthquake swarm took place in south part of Hekla volcano. The earthquake swarm took place close to Vatnafjöll mountains. This area is made up of crater rows from earlier eruptions. The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2,9 and the depth of 8,6 km. This earthquake did appear clearly on my geophone at Heklubyggð and it can be seen here.

The earthquake swarm in SW Hekla volcano system. The swarm is marked by orange dot (they change colour as they get older). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The largest earthquake did appear clearly on my geophone that is close to Hekla volcano. The magnitude 2,9 earthquake did appear like this on it.

The magnitude 2,9 earthquake in Hekla volcano system. Its the earthquake at the 04:00 UTC line and is clearly visible. This image is released under Creative Commons Licence. See CC Licence page for more details.

There are currently no signs of an eruption is about to start in Hekla volcano. After this earthquake swarm took place everything has remained quiet at present time. That might change, but there are currently no signs of such change. Even if there is earthquake activity taking place in Hekla volcano system.

April 13, 2014April 13, 2014

Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge

Today (13-April-2014) an earthquake swarm started on the Reykjanes Ridge. The earthquake swarm is taking place not far from Geirfuladrangi that is an ocean rock in this area. It is only occupied by birds during the summer. This rock was formed in an eruption at this location some 300 to 700 years ago. I am not sure exactly what year that did happen. This is the second earthquakes swarm taking place at this location this month with last earthquake swarm taking place in this location on 4-April-2014 as can be seen here.

The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Largest earthquakes have had the magnitude around 3,0 and above. Due to distance from the SIL network there magnitude is being underestimated by the automatic calculations in the SIL network. It is possible to see the earthquake appear on my geophone network here (the two stations I still have up and running in Iceland). The earthquake swarm is currently ongoing, it however drops in activity for shorter and longer period of time. I don’t know if this is due to tectonic movements or magma movement in the volcano that is at this location. So far I have not seen any signs of eruption on nearby SIL stations.

Hard drive update: I am now up and running (mostly) since I got new hard drive earlier this week. It appears that I might have lost some data. I am not sure how much data was lost. But it might have just been an minor data loss from the looks of it. Few earthquakes pictures of activity in early April-2014. This data loss was due to bad sectors on my old hard drive and the lost data cannot be recovered.

Google Adsense: As all “good” monopoly Google Adsense has close to zero help service when it comes solving issues with Google Adsense accounts. Currently my Google Adsense account is in some type of enabled or disabled state (I don’t know and information about the problem is limited to none, even if I have asked for help on this issue). I am not sure what is going to happen with my Google Adsense account. I am not sure if I am going to try and enable it soon, since that might not work at all. I am not just sure what happens if I try again since this process at Google Adsense is about 90% automatic and done with robots rather than humans.

Amazon Advertisements: Since I don’t have Google Adsense advertisements (at the moment anyway). I am going to use Amazon Advertisements and try to earn some income from them. However there is an difference between Google and Amazon. The difference is that Amazon advertisements are not CPI advertisements or CPC/PPC advertisements.

With Amazon Advertisement I get 5 to 15% of the price of each item sold on Amazon via my banners that I have up here. Each click is valid for 90 days (it used to be like that) according to Amazon FAQ (UK. US FAQ can be found here) on the income aspect of Amazon Advertisements.

April 4, 2014April 4, 2014

Earthquake swarm in Hengill volcano

Today (4-April-2014) has been marked by an large earthquake swarm in Hengill volcano. For the moment this earthquake swarm is man made. This earthquake swarm is due the fact that Orkuveita Reykjavíkur is pumping down large amount of water (full of led and other hazardous things) back into the ground. This creates pressure change in the crust and that starts an earthquake swarm in the area. It is possible to monitor this earthquake swarm here on my webicorder website.

The earthquake swarm in Hengill volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Activity has been so high in this area today that it has been creating ghost earthquakes on the earthquake map of Iceland.

Some earthquakes on this map are ghost earthquakes due to high earthquake activity in Hengill volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake swarm in Hengill volcano is going to continue for as long as they continue to pump down water into the crust in this location. As for the magnitude of the earthquakes that appear during this time is difficult to say. Largest earthquake so far had the magnitude of 2,9, it is also possible that larger earthquakes might take place in this location or nearby location if stress changes due to this activity take place. I don’t know if that is going to happen, but it is worth monitoring for such changes just in case anything happens.

Blog post updated at 20:54 UTC.
Blog post updated at 20:57 UTC.

April 4, 2014

Earthquake swarm on Reykjanes ridge

During the night (4-April-2014) an earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes Ridge. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 3,5 and was felt on land according to information from Icelandic Meteorological Office. This earthquake swarm might still be ongoing, but it only lasted for about 1 hour last night. That is not really long period of activity for an earthquake swarm in this area. It is possible to monitor the earthquake here on my webicorder website. I am going to remove the test card images once I have my Gentoo Linux up and running in few days time.

The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge. Green stars mark earthquakes with magnitude larger than 3,0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Unconfirmed information in news on Rúv.is suggest that this earthquake swarm might have its origin in magma movement at this location. Rather than tectonic activity at the same area. This area often has powerful earthquake swarms. Earthquake swarms in this area often drop in activity for few to several days at the time, before they resume at even more powerful then before. I don’t know if that is going to happen now, there is an good chance that is going to happen now or this might just be it. All that can is possible to do at the moment is to wait and see what happens next.

Update on the hard drive saga: So I did buy a new hard drive. When I did try to use it I found out that the drive I had bought was faulty from the factory. The store has already ordered an replacement hard drive and I should get it on Monday. I hope this issue is resolved by then. I have already received donations to support buying this new hard drive. But that does not mean my financial status is good this month. But it is far better now than in April or the months before it. Thankfully. Thanks for the support. I am currently using my Windows XP (normally just used to play games) hard drive to write this while my Gentoo Linux is out of commission due the hard drive failure.

March 28, 2014March 28, 2014

Earthquake swarm in Grímsfjall volcano

Today (27-March-2014) an earthquake swarm took place in Grímsfjall volcano. This activity is connected to current minor glacier flood from Grímsvötn glacier lake that is now taking place. The glacier flood it self is an minor and is about the same size as an glacier flood from Grímsvötn glacier lake in November-2012.

Earthquake activity in Grímsfjall volcano today (27-March-2014). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Harmonic tremor has been increasing in Grímsfjall volcano following this glacier flood. The leading idea is that the glacier flood is creating this high frequency harmonic tremors. This idea however remains unconfirmed at current time.

Harmonic tremor at 21:13 UTC on 27-March-2013 at Grímsfjall volcano. The harmonic tremor starts at the end of this plot. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Harmonic tremor at 22:55 UTC on 27-March-2014. As can be seen the high (blue line) harmonic tremor is increasing at the moment. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

At present time there is nothing to suggest that an eruption has or is about to start in Grímsfjall volcano. However Grímsfjall volcano is unpredictable and highly active when it comes to eruptions. If an eruption starts in Grímsfjall volcano it might do so without an warning. Earthquake activity in Grímsfjall volcano would increase sharply just before the eruption would start as was the case before the eruption in 2011 (covered here). More detailed monitoring can of Grímsfjall volcano and other volcanoes in Vatnajökull glacier can be found here (Icelandic).

Advertisement: As I did say few days ago. I am adding advertisement back to my websites. Since I need to eat and pay the bills. There however has been a minor issue with my Google Adsense account. An issue that has so far not yet been resolved by Google. Once its resolved I am going to go trough the process of getting my account approved again. I was too detailed back in January when I closed down my Google Adsense account. I hope to have advertisements back before some volcano erupts in Iceland.

March 27, 2014

Earthquake activity in Hekla volcano continues

Today (27-March-2014) during the night three earthquakes took place in Hekla volcano. This were typical earthquakes and like those that have been taking place earlier in March. What this earthquake activity means I do not yet know. The magnitude of this earthquakes was in the range of 0,7 to 0,8 with the depth of 9,7 to 8,3 km.

The earthquakes in Hekla volcano system. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

So far there are no signs of an imminent eruption in Hekla volcano. It remains unclear what this earthquake activity means. Since Hekla volcano normally does not have this type of activity before an eruption. But everything is a first sometimes.

Geophone network

Due to some type of internet failure my geophone at Hekla volcano is not updating. It is working but only in local capability. I am not receiving the data from it over the internet as I should do normally. I do not know when this is going to be fixed. This also means that the web camera (I don’t own them or run them) are also not updating for the same reason. Míla web camera for Hekla volcano is working, but it is at greater distance.

The geophone at Bjarghús is offline due to connection issue with 3G. I am currently working on solving this issue. I hope that it is resolved tomorrow (before the weekend). That geophone is also working but I am not receiving its data over the internet.

Eyrarbakki geophone station is no longer in operation. The person who was hosting it for me was unable to host it any more. The hardware is going to be re-located in Húnaþing Vestra in December. I don’t have an location yet for it. But I am working on finding an new location for it.

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