Monitoring – Page 124 – Iceland geology

May 31, 2013

Minor earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge on the 29th of May

On the 29th of May (2013) a minor earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes Ridge. The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2.3, the depth range in this earthquake swarm was about 5.5 to 12 km. This was just a minor earthquake swarm, it also did not last long.

The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge on 29th of May 2013. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This area of the Reykjanes ridge is highly active, only about three weeks ago there was a strong earthquake swarm in this area. This might just be a aftershock activity from that, it is however difficult to know for sure. I am expecting more earthquakes in this area in next few weeks to months.

May 24, 2013

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)

May 10, 2013May 11, 2013

Strong earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge

Last night a earthquake swarm started on the Reykjanes Ridge, this earthquake swarm started slowly with just few minor earthquakes. It however did pick up later today with stronger earthquakes and more activity. Strong earthquakes in this swarm so far have had the magnitude 4.5 and 4.7 according to USGS/EMSC. There have been over 10 magnitude 3+ earthquakes, there is also a chance of more earthquakes with the magnitude above 4.0+ in next few hours to days. According to Icelandic Meteorological Office, there have been over 310 earthquakes in this area today (my counter is still offline, more on that later in this blog post).

This earthquake swarm has been showing the pattern of stopping and then continue for few hours, and repeating this pattern. This sometimes happens in earthquake swarms on the Reykjanes Ridge, why that is I do not know. Last eruption in this area was sometimes on the 18th or 19th century I think. If this activity is connected to volcano activity it is too early to know at the moment, at the moment there is nothing that suggest that is the case. That might however change without a warning if that is the case. This volcano is located out in the ocean, so it is poorly monitored so current status of it is impossible to know for certain. Currently there are no harmonics being detected, just normal earthquake activity and nothing else.

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

Trace showing how the evolution of the earthquake swarm has been for the past few hours.Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is difficult to know for sure what happens next in this earthquake swarm. It is clear for the moment that this earthquake swarm is in full force as is, so more earthquake activity is to be expected. This earthquake activity can be monitored here, on my webicorder web site. It is updated every 5 min.

Other

I am sorry for this late blog post, but I always use some time to see how earthquake swarm evolve and what happens in them before I write, unless there is a really big earthquake with magnitude 50 or larger.

I have also been busy today trying to get my server computer back up and running, it has been working somewhat but I had to start from scratch again due to technical issues with few things. I am running FreeBSD on my server computer now. Since I am moving away from Linux solutions and it has been more of a challenge then I expected. I hope to have everything worked out now, so I hope to have my server computer up and running properly tomorrow. Since I know what I did wrong first time around and I did avoid it this time around, so I am not expecting any problems in setting up FreeBSD properly this time around.

I also want to point out that donations help me running this blog, since my financial status is not as strong that I wanted it to be. Thanks for the help.

Blog post updated at 13:26 UTC on 11. May 2013.

April 27, 2013June 17, 2013

Earthquake activity in Hekla, Katla, Krísuvík and Bárðarbunga volcanoes

Before I start. I want to remind people that donations help me to keep this blog up and running. I only have social welfare from Iceland and that is barely enough to make end meets. Just 10€ go a long way for me. Thanks!

Hekla and Katla volcanoes

I am going to write about both this volcanoes here. Since I am going to be using the same image anyway for both volcanoes.

Yesterday (26.04.2013) there was a magnitude 1.1 earthquake in Hekla voclano. This earthquake was in the same area that triggered uncertainty level to be declared just before Easters in March. It was later cancelled when nothing more happened.

Earthquake in Hekla volcano. Also on this picture earthquake activity in Katla volcano (read more below). Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Katla volcano has been having some earthquake activity in past days. So far it has just been minor earthquakes and nothing more. But it has been taking place where a minor eruption took place in Katla volcano during the summer of 2011. That minor eruption created a minor glacier flood. But it did destroy a bridge and closed down the ring road (road 1) in this part of Iceland.

While this activity is currently nothing to worry about. It is worth keeping a eye on it. Just in case it increases, or if some other changes start to take place in Katla volcano.

Krísuvík volcano

A minor earthquake swarm took place in Krísuvík volcano today (27.04.2013). The largest earthquake had the magnitude of 1.9. The depth of this earthquakes was around 8.6 km. Activity in this area is normal and there does not seem anything strange about it. But Krísuvík volcano has been having periods of inflation and deflation for the past three years. Earthquake activity increases when Krísuvík volcano is in period of inflation. If that is the case now I do not know.

Earthquake activity in Krísuvík volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Bárðarbunga volcano

A minor earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano today. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 1.3. Depth range was from 18.8 km and up to 11.1 km. This earthquake swarm is important. Since it appears that this is a dike intrusion in Bárðarbunga volcano. But a minor dike intrusion also took place in this area few weeks ago. That also resulted in a minor earthquake swarm in this same area.

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Most likely due to minor dike intrusion into the volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

A minor dike intrusions into a volcano does not mean a eruption is going to take place. In many Icelandic volcanoes (and around the world also) dike intrusions into the volcanoes are common event and in most cases do not result in any eruptions. But it is worth keep a watch out for this type of eruptions. Since it might signal a more active period ahead in Bárðarbunga volcano. But it might also just equally don’t mean anything. There is no way to know for sure.

Other then this activity. It has been rather quiet in Iceland at the moment. No larger earthquakes have been taking place in the past two weeks since activity slowed down in Tjörnes Fracture Zone.

Blog post updated at 22:32 UTC on 27.04.2013.
Blog post updated at 22:53 UTC on 27.04.2013.

April 13, 2013April 13, 2013

Earthquake swarm north of Kolbeinsey island

Around 11:00 UTC a earthquake swarm started just north of Kolbeinsey island. This earthquake swarm looks rather powerful. But due to distance from land only the largest earthquakes are appearing on the SIL network and on my geophone at Böðvarshólar. I am estimating the largest earthquakes having the magnitude of 4.0+. But that has not been confirmed yet. Last known eruption in Kolbeinsey island volcano took place in the year 1755. A dike intrusion or a volcano eruption took place north (100 km) of current location back in the year 1999. Last eruption before the eruption in the year 1755 took place around the year 1372.

The earthquake activity in Kolbeinsey island. It is marked by the green stars on this map. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The earthquake activity as it has been appearing on my geophone at Böðvarshólar. This image is under Creative Commons Licence. See CC licence page for more details.

No signs of eruption have appeared so far. If they do. They are going to appear on the SIL network. I am not sure if my geophone is going to pick them up due to the distance (around 300 km). There is a chance of more earthquake activity to take place in this area in the next few hours to days. I do not know if this activity is connected to what has been taking place in other parts of Tjörnes Fracture Zone. The smaller earthquakes that are taking place in Kolbeinsey island are not being detected by the SIL network or by my geophone.

It is possible to view the earthquake activity here, on my webicorder web page.

Blog post updated at 19:35 UTC on 13.04.2013.

April 10, 2013

Less earthquake activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Yesterday (09.April 2013) there has been less activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. The largest earthquakes yesterday did have the magnitude 4.0 and 3.3. A smaller earthquake with the magnitude 3.1 also took place. Many other smaller earthquakes also took place as is normal for this type of earthquake swarm. There are no signs of any volcano activity in the area during this earthquake activity.

Earthquake activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone during the past 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake swarm does not appear to be over. Even if it has slowed down from its peak one week ago following the magnitude 5.5 earthquake. This type of slowdown are common in this type of earthquake swarms. In many cases the activity stops altogether and starts again after some time. I now believe that current earthquake swarm is connected (not sure how yet) to the earthquake swarm that took place in TFZ in October 2012 and started view few smaller earthquakes and had one magnitude 5.6 earthquake. For now however the earthquake activity is dropping. But it is impossible to know for sure what happens next in TFZ area.

April 6, 2013April 6, 2013

Minor dike intrusion in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (05.04.2013) a minor earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. The depth of this earthquakes was around 18 – 26 km. Meaning this is magma, rather then tectonic creating this earthquakes. None of this earthquakes had magnitude above 1.0.

Earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano. They are the orange dots. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Dike intrusions happens sometimes in Bárðarbunga volcano without it meaning there is a eruption going to take place soon it. This appears to be one of those cases.

April 6, 2013April 6, 2013

Magnitude 3.6 earthquake in Hamarinn volcano

Last night (05.04.2013) at 01:50 UTC a magnitude 3.6 earthquake took place in Hamarinn volcano (no GVP profile yet!). This earthquake had the depth of 2.1 km. This seems to be a dike intrusion taking place in Hamarinn volcano. No clear signs of harmonic tremor have been detected based on tremor data from Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The Hamarinn volcano is where the green star is. But that is the location of the magnitude 3.6 earthquake that took place last night. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Harmonic tremor plot do not show any harmonic tremor pulse. The signal on this harmonic tremor plot is the earthquake swarm in TFZ for most parts. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake activity is due to minor dike intrusion. Rather then something else. It is not clear if this activity is just normal activity for Hamarinn volcano or signal about something else is about take place. But as before. Hamarinn volcano remains mostly quiet for the moment.

April 3, 2013April 4, 2013

Update on the TFZ earthquake swarm at 18:31 UTC

This is a short update on the TFZ earthquake swarm. There is no point in making a long update about what is taking place in TFZ at the moment. Since information gets outdated quickly during this earthquake swarm.

About 775 earthquakes have been recorded by Icelandic Meteorological Office since this earthquake swarm started on 2. April 2013 (about 48 hour period). This number is going to be outdated soon or already is outdated by the time this blog post gets published. Since there are about 40 – 60 earthquakes every 1 hour currently. The earthquake swarm however drops regularly in terms of activity. Over 80 magnitude 3.0 earthquakes have been recorded so far. This number is going to increase if this earthquake swarm continues as it has been doing for the past 48 hour period.

The earthquake activity in TFZ. The green stars show the earthquakes with larger magnitudes then 3.0. There is a second fault that has gone active since the earthquake activity started yesterday (02.04.2013). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

As can be seen here. The earthquake swarm has been really powerful at times. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake swarm is the largest one in the area for long time now. At the moment there are no sign about that this earthquake swarm is about to end any time soon.

Map showing the largest earthquakes in this swarm. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquake activity as it appears on Grímsey SIL station. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquake activity as it appears on Skrokkalda SIL station. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Reviewed area of earthquake activity on TFZ. This map does not show the current earthquakes. It is few hours old also. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake swarm is complex and might last for a long time. There is a continued risk of a large earthquake in this area. But there has not been a earthquake larger then magnitude in this part of TFZ since 1910 at least. So this area has a lot of build up stress. Since there has not been a strong earthquake there for a long time. But the magnitude 5.5 earthquake and the following aftershocks have just released tiny amount of the stress that has build up in this area.

Map showing historical earthquake activity in TFZ. The image is from here. Copyright of this image belongs to Gunnar B. Gudmundsson, Pall Halldorsson, Ragnar Stefansson and other connected people.

For the moment. It is just best to keep watching the activity that is taking place in TFZ. It is impossible to know for sure what happens in TFZ during the next few hours to days.

Other news about this in Icelandic.

Um jarðskjálftana austur af Grímsey (IMO, Icelandic)
Jarðskjálftahrinan við Grímsey heldur áfram (IMO, Icelandic)

Update 1: Here is a focal depth of the earthquakes for the past 15 days.

This is the focal depth and number of earthquakes for the past 15 days in north Iceland. This might not show all earthquakes that have happened in this area. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Blog post is updated at 21:17 UTC.

April 2, 2013April 2, 2013

Information on the magnitude 5.5 earthquake in TFZ

This is a short blog post about the earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fraction Zone.

The largest earthquake so far is a magnitude 5.5. The largest aftershocks so far are magnitude 4.4 that took place at 01:14 UTC and 4.7 that took place at 08:55 UTC this morning. This earthquake swarm is taking place on a complex fault area that is highly active. There is also big question what effect this earthquake swarm is going to have on other faults in the area. There is a risk that this earthquake swarm is going to start other earthquake swarms in nearby faults. Uncertainty level has been declared for area from Sauðárkrókur to Raufarhöfn at least. This is the largest earthquake in this area since the year 2002 and 2005. But both this years there was a magnitude 5.0 earthquakes in this area.

The earthquake activity in TFZ. Green stars are earthquakes that are larger then magnitude 3.0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This trace shows how dense this earthquake swarm has been. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The earthquake is appearing clearly on my geophone network. This is Böðvarshólar geophone station. This image is released under Creative Commons licence. Please see the CC Licence page for more details.

The largest earthquakes as they did appear on Heklubyggð geophone station. This image is released under Creative Commons licence. Please see the CC Licence page for more details.

There have been over 500 earthquake recorded since this earthquake swarm did start. It is impossible to know for sure when this earthquake swarm is going to stop, or if it is going to pick up again. But the earthquake swarm is already starting to shown signs of dropping activity. But that might change again if there is new larger earthquake in this area, or swarm of larger earthquake.

I am going to post update of anything major happens in this earthquake swarm. It is possible to monitor the current status of this earthquake swarm here on my geophone web page.

Blog post updated at 15:23 UTC on 02.04.2013.
Blog post updated at 16:14 UTC on 02.04.2013.
Blog post updated at 16:26 UTC on 02.04.2013.

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