Category: Monitoring

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Minor earthquakes in Katla and Bárðarbunga volcanoes

There has been minor earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and Katla volcano for the past few days. This is just a short overview of this earthquake activity.

Bárðarbunga volcano

A minor dike intrusion took place in Bárðarbunga volcano on 18-June-2013. This was a small earthquake swarm, with largest magnitude at 1.2, the most depth in this earthquake swarm was at 24.3 km. So this was most likely a magma dike formation.

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The magma dike earthquakes form a nice line on this IMO map. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Katla volcano

A minor earthquake activity has been taking place in Katla volcano for the past few days. So far it does not mean anything, this is most likely a summer related earthquake activity as glacier weight gets less on Katla volcano during the summer. Some deep earthquakes have been taking place in Katla volcano, it is unclear if they are sign of anything at this stage. This is most likely a some magma dike intrusion at depth, it happens commonly in Katla volcano without resulting in a eruption.

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Activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Other then minor activity, it is rather quiet in Iceland at the moment. With no special activity taking place currently.

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Thieves stealing batteries from remote monitoring stations in Iceland

I did see in Rúv News today that thieves are now stealing batteries from scientists remote monitoring stations, this are the stations that monitor volcanoes, earthquake activity, GPS data and more. Each theft cost around 3 to 5 million ISK (damage to hardware), data is also being lost. Along with other hardware damage that happens when the batteries are removed forcefully from the hardware.

This theft prevents important measurements on active volcanoes in Iceland, that can prevent important measurements of a volcano if something is taking place in it. Theft has happened on monitoring station in Krísuvík volcano and Eyjafjallajökull volcano, not long time ago (about 3 weeks) a battery was removed from both places. It is important if people come across this hardware to just leave it be, it is important to monitoring active volcanoes in Iceland and damage cost money, lost data and even important signs of eruption in worst case.

So if you come across monitoring hardware in Icelandic nature. Leave it at peace!

Icelandic News about this

Stela rafgeymum vísindamanna (Rúv.is)

Blog post updated at 17:25 UTC on 16-June-2013.
Blog post updated at 18:55 UTC on 16-June-2013.

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Skeiðflöt geophone going off-line due to hard drive failure

Due to a hard drive failure the geophone station of Skeiðflöt is going off-line. I have to do this to protect the data on the hard drive until it can be replaced. When I write this I am currently running a hard drive check on it (and I hope it works after that). Once that is finished, I am going to turn the computer off until I can replace the hard drive with a new one. When that is going to happen I do not know yet, at latest this is going to take place in December when I go to Iceland over Christmas.

There is nothing I can due at the moment, since I do not have the money to buy (I am poor person) a new hard drive for the computer. I am also not sure if anyone locally can fix the computer, and clone the hard drive for me (as I plan to due in order to save me setting Windows XP up again from scratch, if I can do so to start with). Until the Skeiðflöt geophone computer can be fixed, it is going to remain off-line.

My next geophone to Katla volcano, in the case something happens is Heklubyggð geophone. All my geophones can be viewed here on my geophone web page.

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More frequent earthquake swarms expected in Tjörnes Fracture Zone

According to a news on Rúv.is, there is now a risk of more frequent earthquake swarms in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. This is due to the tension that has been building up in Tjörnes Fracture Zone for the past 200 years, with the last large earthquake taking place 37 years ago (Kópasker magnitude 6.5 earthquake in January 1976). This short and small earthquake swarms in TFZ are not going to release the tension that has been building up there for the past 200 years (in some areas), for that too happen. It takes one or more earthquakes that are stronger than magnitude 6.0 to take place before tension starts to drop in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone.

Icelandic news about this

Útlit fyrir tíða skjálfta fyrir norðan (Rúv.is)

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Increased monitoring for volcanoes in Vatnajökull glacier

I did see a short news about increased monitoring for volcanoes (you have zoom in manually, the new web page is a mess and not highly useful as such in my view) in Vatnajökull glacier.

Two new seismometer have been added to the SIL network in Vatnajökull glacier. Making detection of activity in Öræfajökull, Grímsfjall, Bárðarbunga, Esjufjöll and other volcanoes easier and more sensitive. It is going to be interesting to see what this information this new seismometer bring to light when it comes to activity in Vatnajökull glacier volcanoes.

Icelandic news about this

Vatnajökull undir nánara eftirliti en áður (Vísir.is)

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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.

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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.

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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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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.