Category: Swarm

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Strong earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano during the night

During the night of 08-March-2017 a strong earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 4,1 and the second largest earthquake swarm had the magnitude of 3,9. Other earthquakes in this swarm where smaller in magnitude.


Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano (green stars). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake activity happens in Bárðarbunga volcano mainly due to magma being injected into the main volcano at depth. This goes into magma chambers somewhere in the volcano, current data suggests that the magma chamber that erupted in in August 2014 to February 2015 is currently inflating. The rate of this type of earthquake activity has gone down in Bárðarbunga volcano, this used to be a weekly activity but now only happens every 2 to 4 weeks at the moment. This slowdown in activity is likely to continue if nothing else happens (new eruption or dyke activity).

Donations

Please remember to support my work. I’m currently dealing with money issues and I have been for a long time. That generally means that once I’ve paid all the bills I don’t have much left (if anything at times). I’m working on a solution but progress is slow. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Possible dyke intrusion in Þórðarhyrna volcano

Tonight (05.03.2017) an possible dyke intrusion has taken place in Þórðarhyrna volcano. It’s a small volcano south-west of Grímsfjall volcano and on Global Volcanism Program website it is counted with Grímsfjall volcano eruptions. Last eruption in Þórðarhyrna took place in 1902 at the same time there was an eruption in Grímsfjall volcano (size VEI=4). Before that eruption, the earlier eruption in Þórðarhyrna took place in the year (August 15th) 1887 and lasted for two years (ended in 1889).


Possible dyke intrusion in Þórðarhyrna volcano (south-west of Grímsfjall volcano). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2,5 and the second largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2,4. Other earthquakes where smaller. It is not possible to know how this is going to evolve since there is a lack of data on Þórðarhyrna volcano due the fact no eruption has happened since the year 1902. That means for now, it is just more wait and see what happens next.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. It helps me in daily life and to keep this website and everything that connects to it going and working properly. Thanks for the support. 🙂

RSS feed

If people want to keep up with articles in real time (in case of an eruption), it is possible to do so with an RSS feed that WordPress supports. Both for new articles and new comments as they appear. Its an alternative with the email list I currently support.

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Strong earthquake swarm on Reykjanes Ridge yesterday (02.03.2017)

Yesterday (02.March.2017) there was an strong earthquake swarm on Reykjanes Ridge. This earthquake swarm took place around 540 km away from the coast of Iceland. The largest earthquake had the magnitude of 4,9 (EMSC information here), the second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 4,4 (EMSC information here). It is unclear what started this earthquake activity, nothing suggests that an eruption started and at this distance nobody would notice. The depth in this area is such that a ship might not get any surface clues about what is happening deep in the ocean.


The magnitude 4,4 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.


The magnitude 4,4 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Heklubyggð. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.


The magnitude 4,9 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.


The magnitude 4,9 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Heklubyggð. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.

More earthquakes might appear on SIL network or my geophone if they are strong enough. It is difficult to know for sure due to distance from monitoring networks.

Donations

I pad all the bills this month and I’m broke. If people like my work they can support it by sending me donations.

I have started to stack up the bills for April (due how the system works here in Denmark, I have found it to be good idea to this if I’m unsure about anything) and from the looks of it appears that April is not going to be easy billing month due to a cable bill I have [3.733,73 DKK], stupid decision to get it, since most channels just show reruns and more reruns, but I was just after two news channels that I have now figured out to get with a 40 cm satellite dish indoors (yay, knowing inverse square law of radio waves).

I have cancelled my cable subscription now with an email. Like with the internet bill in February, they are charging me for a six month period. I also think that next three month internet bill is in April (around 900 DKK for next three months according to my estimate). The only good news is that I have been saving up a little for this cable bill since I already knew it was going to be a big one, the sad part is that March bills upset that plan a little bit, thanks to a donation I can increase my saving up a little for that bill, making it slightly easier to pay the cable bill in April. It might however upset my plan for an upgrading a IPTV box (this upgrade has to happen, the old system closes down at the end of April) I have for Icelandic channels (in case of an eruption I have it, not because of good programming). I have to send it to the company I bought it from to upgrade it and that costs in total around 600 DKK in the mail both ways.

This, along with my heavy debt payment plans make keeping all this afloat a bit of challenge at the moment. The money situation is going to be little easier from June when the debt payments I have get lowered down a bit. Until that I guess I’ll have to ask for more donation and support. It might appear that my money problems have been going on forever, they have been going on since 2012 and I fully expect them to end in 2018. Adjustment takes a little time and I’m working hard on solving this issues I’m dealing with.

Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Strong earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano this morning

This morning (01.03.2017) there was an strong earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano. Strongest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 4,1 and other earthquakes where smaller. Total of 5 earthquake happened with magnitude above 3,0.


The earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano. Green stars are the earthquakes with magnitude above 3,0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is how the largest earthquake with the magnitude of 4,1 appeared on my geophones.


The magnitude 4,1 earthquake at Heklubyggð geophone. Shows strong surface wave activity. Filtered at 1Hz. This image is under Creative Commons Licence. See CC Licence site for more details.


The magnitude 4,1 earthquake at Böðvarshólar geophone. Filtered at 4Hz. This image is under Creative Commons Licence. See CC Licence site for more details.

This earthquake activity happens due to magma influx into Bárðarbunga volcano, resulting in a inflation. The last month (February 2017) has been the most quiet since end of the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano in February 2015.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. This month I can pay all the bills without any major issues, the problem is that once I’m done paying all the bills I’m going to be rather broke for the rest of the month. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Ongoing earthquake activity in Katla volcano

For the past few days there has been a earthquake activity in Katla volcano. This is in two forms, as earthquake swarm that are taking place and earthquakes that spread around the caldera and the volcano.


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

All clues suggest that an eruption is going to happen soon in Katla volcano, as it currently stands. The problem is that Katla volcano might cool down and not erupt at all, what makes this period different is the fact this earthquake activity has been ongoing since end of August-2016. At the moment the earthquake activity is just a minor activity, with most earthquakes have less magnitude of 3,0. There are no signs that suggest that this activity is slowing or stopping.

Technical problems (Iceland geology)

Yesterday I was having technical problems with Iceland geology. Turns out the source of this issue is that my server is getting too small. I started using the current dedicated server in 2015 and then it was enough (page view count for 1 day ~1100, today that is ~2100 for 1 day). Today, Iceland Geology has traffic that is too much for my current server. This means that I need to do an upgrade when I can afford it. That won’t be this month as it currently stands, moving to a new server costs $219/month, at the moment I’m paying $140/month for dedicated hosting. The new server is going to be 3,60Ghz with 16GB ram. Current server has 4GB ram and just 1,66Ghz CPU. Making this upgrade a urgent one due to the increase in traffic that Iceland geology is currently seeing.

At the moment I’m hoping that I’ll be able to move to a new server in May or June at the latest. I just hope that Katla doesn’t erupt before that, since it would result in a server issues due to lack of capability to handle all the traffic.

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Earthquake swarm not far from Skjaldbreið (Presthnjúkur area)

Yesterday (22.02.2017) there was an earthquake swarm in the Presthnjúkur area, in a area not far from Skjaldbreið volcano.


Earthquake activity yesterday close to Skjaldbreið. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This was a minor earthquake swarm, with the largest earthquake only having a magnitude of 2,2. Depth was from 18,3 km and up to 1,1 km. This earthquake swarm appears to be over.

Article updated at 12:08 UTC on 24.02.2017. Title error fixed.

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Continued and strong earthquake activity north of Kolbeinsey Island

For the past few weeks something has been going on in the deep ocean far north of Kolbeinsey Island. The area north of Kolbeinsey Island has been having strong earthquake swarms for several weeks now, what is creating them is less clear.


The earthquake activity north of Kolbeinsey Island (blue dots). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

All magnitudes are under-estimated at this location. I managed to record the last earthquake swarm (largest earthquakes) and it was clear by this activity that something was going on. Five earthquakes that where at least magnitude 3,2 (estimate) took place in the space of 4 – 8 minutes. This where only the earthquakes that I was able to record, distance from my geophone to this area is ~230 km at shortest distance. Making it difficult for me to record earthquakes on my simple geophone. Icelandic Met Office SIL network is not having much better luck recording earthquakes at this location, due to distance the SIL network underestimates the magnitude and location of the earthquakes has higher than normal error margins (up to several dozen of km at most).

There is a possibility that an eruption is taking place at this location now. There was a possible eruption or dyke injection at this location in October of the year 1999, the Global Volcanism Program report on that activity can be found here.

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Earthquake activity increasing in Katla volcano again

For the last 24 hours (15 and 16.02.2017) earthquake activity has been increasing in Katla volcano. If it follows earlier pattern, a swarm of earthquakes with magnitude 3,0 or stronger might happen in Katla volcano in next few days or next week at the latests. Please note that there is no good way to say when this might happen and time estimates are just guesses (based on current best data).


Earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Current earthquake activity was not strong, the largest earthquake that happened had a magnitude of 2,0. All other earthquakes had smaller magnitude (at the moment). Earlier pattern have been that small earthquake swarm starts, a break happens for several hours for up to several days and then a swarm of activity happens with one or more earthquake with magnitude above 3,0. I’m expecting this pattern to repeat it self now, but what actually happens remains to be seen.

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Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge

Yesterday (12.02.2017) and today (13.02.2017) there has been a earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge. For this area of the Reykjanes ridge, this earthquake swarm is normal. It doesn’t appear that it was due to magma movement and only tectonic in nature. The area in question is a fault valley according to ship survives (I think).


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

Largest earthquakes in this swarm had the magnitude of 3,1 and 3,2. Depth in this earthquakes swarm was from 17 km and up to 2,4 km (there is some error margin). It appears that this earthquake swarm is over for now. It might restart again with double or triple amount of earthquakes happening, there is also a equal good chance of that not happening. All that can be done is to wait and see.

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Strong earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano

Yesterday (30.01.2017) there was exactly one week (article here) since last earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. In this weekly activity there is an emerging pattern, that pattern is that earthquake magnitude is growing. Number of earthquakes happening in each swarm has not increased that I have noted (at the moment at least). Magnitude 4,3 earthquake moves the fault few mm upward in this case. Those millimetres have now started to add up. I don’t know what the inflation currently is due to lack of GPS data at the moment.


The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Latest earthquake swarm had magnitude (in the order they happened), magnitude 4,3, magnitude 4,1, magnitude 3,4. Depth of this earthquake swarm was also slightly different, being from 9,4 – 8,3 km. It is difficult to know for sure what is going on at this depth, magma might be creating path for it in the crust on its way to the surface or this simply might just be the fault inside the caldera moving upward at slow phase. Earthquake activity happens when fresh magma is injected into Bárðarbunga volcano. This is going to continue to happen for a long time, maybe until next eruption.

Donations

Please remember to support my work. Due to unusual high bills February is going to be a one big annoying mess for me in terms of money (I don’t like it at all, but its out of my control and there is not much I can do about it). Thanks for the support. 🙂