Swarm – Page 85 – Iceland geology

October 28, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano update for 27-October-2014

During the weekend activity in Bárðarbunga volcano was in the same manner as it has been for the past two months. Largest earthquakes during the weekend had the magnitude of 5,2 and 5,3. Pollution was a big problem south of the eruption in Holuhraun and new record was set for SO2 pollution in populated areas in Iceland. The pollution levels did go up to 21.000 μg/m3 when they where the highest during the weekend. A emergency was declared for Höfn in Hornafirði when the worst pollution did go over the area. Currently there is a little bit less pollution, but air quality is poor in parts of south Iceland at the moment.

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

Largest earthquake on 27-October-2014 had the magnitude of 5,3 and happened in the south-east part of the caldera. Since it has been quiet in terms of earthquake activity. According to Icelandic Met Office this is normal and has happened before. Subsidence of the caldera happens without any earthquake activity most of the time. According to Icelandic Met Office and others (pdf file here), the caldera has now dropped some 40 meters. New cauldrons have been forming along the caldera rim and older ones (that I did not know about until today) have been getting deeper according to measurements from Friday (24-October-2014). The new and older cauldrons appear clearly on images that can be found here (text is in Icelandic). GPS data is showing minor inflation in the dyke that is currently erupting, suggesting that more magma is flowing into it then is erupting from it.

If any melt is happening in the caldera it is not appearing on the glacier yet. As for the water, it just goes down. Rock inside volcanoes leaks, a lot, so it is easy for the water to go into the crust. It doesn’t have to go anywhere else in small amounts that might be melting if the crust has warmed up enough to do so. Currently there are no evidence for that taking place, but with 850 meters of glacier on top of it is difficult to be sure. There are no other news about the eruption that I know of at the moment.

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October 27, 2014

Minor earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge

Last night (27-October-2014) a minor earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes Ridge. Around 10 earthquakes where recorded and the largest one had the magnitude of 3,7.

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

No further earthquake activity has been detected today besides this earthquake activity around midnight. This does not rule out future activity, since earthquake swarms are common on the Reykjanes Ridge and they often can get big and last for few days to week when they happen.

October 25, 2014October 25, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano Friday update on 24-October-2014

This is the Friday update for Bárðarbunga volcano eruption.

During the past 48 hours total (when this is written) of 69 earthquakes with magnitude of larger than 3,0 have happened in Bárðarbunga volcano. Total number of earthquakes in that same time period is 286 earthquakes (when this is written). Since yesterday it appears that earthquake activity is increasing in Bárðarbunga volcano at the moment, there is minor fluctuation in activity every few hours. I do not know why that is happening.

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Green stars are earthquakes larger than magnitude 3,0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Most of the earthquake activity is taking place in North-east part of Bárðarbunga volcano caldera rim. Few to no earthquakes are happening in the centre of the caldera. Currently the caldera continues to lower around 30 – 40cm/day according to latest news from Icelandic Met Office. Far as I know the eruption in Holuhraun continues at the same rate as yesterday with no major change taking place. Some minor earthquake activity has been taking place along the dyke for the past 48 hours. Other then this I don’t have heard any other news about current status. I am currently looking into few details about what might be happening, but I am as always waiting to see what nature does next.

Added: I forgot to mention that Holuhraun lava field is now 63 square kilometres in size. It doesn’t grow in size today as fast as it used to do. It might however be adding volume rather then size at the moment, with occasional break in the lava rim allowing it to expand slowly.

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Other: Next week I move to a different schedule since current phase is not changing a lot between days. This means that updates are going to be on following days. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Unless there is something new happening then I am going to update right away with newest information. I never know what is going to happen so I don’t keep tight schedule on updates.

Article updated at 22:51 UTC.

October 23, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano daily update for 23-October-2014

Currently earthquake activity is increasing in Bárðarbunga volcano. For the past 48 hours 53 (when this article is written) earthquake with magnitude above 3,0 have happened. It is unclear what is going now in Bárðarbunga volcano, at the moment most of the earthquake activity is located in north-east of the caldera rim. I am unsure why earthquake activity is increasing the way it is currently doing.

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the past 48 hours. Green stars show earthquakes with magnitude above 3,0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I am not sure if there have been any harmonic tremor this time around in Bárðarbunga volcano. That might well be without me noticing them. Even if the eruption in Holuhraun stops it is clear that Bárðarbunga is far from being a stable or in dormant state. A new eruption vent is more likely to open up then not. That might happen under a glacier and that is going to mean glacier flood and volcano ash eruption while water gets into the crater. This has not yet happened on large scale in Bárðarbunga. There is also no eruption taking place in the caldera at the moment and the glacier is getting thicker this time of the year due to fresh snowfall on top of it and making it heavier at the same time. Far as I know the eruption in Holuhraun is at the same pace as it was yesterday. I didn’t see anything on the web-cameras due to weather when I checked them earlier.

If anything major happens I am going to post update here soon as possible.

October 22, 2014October 23, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano daily update for 22-October-2014

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Bárðarbunga volcano eruption in Holuhraun has not changed much from yesterday. Latest news however say that the eruption in Holuhraun is slowly coming to an end. When that might happen is not known, there is less lava flow today then two weeks ago. Activity in Bárðarbunga volcano is far from over and I am expecting new eruption starting at any time with no warning at all. There is also no major change in the GPS data as can be seen here.

Earthquake activity today in Bárðarbunga volcano. Green stars show earthquakes with magnitude above 3,0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There is no longer any point for me to mention the largest earthquakes today. Since there happen magnitude 3,0 – 4,9 earthquake every one to three hours at the moment and earthquakes with magnitude above 5,0 every 20 – 30 hours. People wanting to check magnitude details can do so on Icelandic Met Office website here. Any large earthquake also appear clearly on my geophones, the website for those can be viewed here. Other then this I don’t have any new news about what is happening in Bárðarbunga volcano. The day to day changes are not great as I have mentioned earlier.

Update 1: Rúv News has published a news about new estimate from Icelandic Met Office if an eruption happens in Dyngjujökull or in the river area of Jökulsá á Fjöllum. New estimates are that 25,000 cubic meters per second of water are going to flood down Jökulsá á Fjöllum in such eruption and are going to reach Holuhraun eruption and lava field in about 30 minutes. The news can be viewed here with graphics, both language and text is in Icelandic.

Icelandic News about Bárðarbunga volcano

„Þetta hættir einn góðan veðurdag“ (mbl.is)

Other: Due the fact that the eruption in Holuhraun and activity in Bárðarbunga volcano is almost the same now between days I am going to write fewer articles about the activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. The reason is that I want to get a little rest before the next chapter in Bárðarbunga volcano activity starts and I find it is difficult to report always the same thing almost every day. I am going to keep the daily update format until Friday and from Monday I am doing to update every other day, this means there is going to be update on Monday, then on Wednesday and on Friday. Unless something major happens then I am going to update soon as I can do so.

Article updated at 21:48 UTC.
Article updated at 22:57 UTC.

October 21, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano daily update for 21-October-2014

This is the daily update for Bárðarbunga volcano.

Largest earthquake today had the magnitude of 5,3. Second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 4,7. The magnitude 5,3 earthquake had the depth of 15,6 km. This suggest that something is happening at depth inside the volcano. What that exactly is bit unclear that the moment. Other earthquakes today have been smaller, but there have been good amount of magnitude 3,0 and 4,0 earthquakes taking place today.

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

Earthquake activity has been increasing along the dyke today. This suggest that pressure is increasing along the dyke, this might mean that more magma is flowing into it at the moment. After what appears to have been some type of pressure drop earlier today. What this means is unclear, but an eruption under the glacier continues to a be a big risk in Bárðarbunga volcano. The Holuhraun lava is now around 60,4 square kilometres in size. This is according to latest measurements that have been taken. The volume of lava is considerable more, since the lava is up to 10 – 30 meters thick at locations and might be getting thicker as the time passes. I don’t think there is anything more to report currently.

October 21, 2014October 21, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano Monday update on 20-October-2014

I am sorry for this late update. I was working on my server computer. More details at the end of this article.

Overview of weekend (18 – 19-October-2014) activity in Bárðarbunga volcano

Strongest earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano during the weekend had the magnitude of 5,4, second largest earthquake that took place during the weekend had the magnitude of 5,2. Other earthquakes have been smaller. Eruption in Holuhraun continued as it has been doing so for the past 1,9 month. During the weekend the new lava field in Holuhraun became the biggest in Iceland for the past 200 years. Other then this, nothing major did happen far as I know.

Monday 20-October-2014 activity update

Earthquake activity has been in high today, compared to yesterday (19-October-2014). Strongest earthquake had the magnitude of 5,0 and the second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 4,8. Other earthquakes where smaller, but a lot of magnitude 3,0 and 4,0 have happened today. Earthquake activity along the dyke has been increasing again after few quiet days.

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

The lava field in Holuhraun continues to grow and is now around 61 square kilometres in size. That is an (my own estimate) around 0,9 km² of lava in the Holuhraun area. Making this the largest eruption in Iceland for the past 200 years and it just keeps going on. The 16-October-2014 marked two month anniversary of start of the activity in Bárðarbunga volcano, it is going to be two months since the eruption started on 29-August-2014. The first eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano happened on 23-August-2014 and happened under the glacier, that eruption ended the same day. Other then what I report here, I don’t think there is nothing else to report about the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Notes about Bárðarbunga volcano

Please note that there is no evidence of felsic or intermediate magma in Bárðarbunga volcano. It is all just Ultramafic magma that is now erupting. For more details on magma please click here (Wikipedia). The glacier inside the caldera is moving down with the caldera. There is no evidence of any eruption taking place inside the caldera so far. It might happen in the future (and the wait might not be long), so far it just has not happened yet. There is a chance of hydrothermal activity taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano due the magma warning up the crust, that is however only of the magma is shallow as 1 – 2 km deep in the crust.

FreeBSD server

The reason why I didn’t update last weekend and late today is that I was trying to move my server from FreeBSD to Gentoo Linux. That did not work. What my server does is few things. Among the thing that my server does is to count earthquakes in Iceland like this image shows.

Image of the mrtg counter script for earthquakes. This image is released under Creative Commons, see CC Licence page for more details. Mrtg is a open source software.

It also runs my Minecraft server. I Play that game since I don’t play many games now. Both due to lack of time and interest. I play the game with my friends at times, when we have time to do so.

Lava in Minecraft. It doesn’t create lava fields. I guess that would be bad if it did that. Copyright of artwork belongs to Mojang and / or Microsoft. I took the image from the game using it screenshot function.

It is important for me to keep the earthquake counter running when I can do so. I also have to have my Minecraft server up and running so I can play when I have time to do so.

Article updated at 02:07 UTC.

October 17, 2014October 18, 2014

Friday update for Bárðarbunga volcano on 17-October-2014

Bárðarbunga volcano eruption in Holuhraun did reach one big milestone today (17-October-2014). It is now the largest eruption in Iceland since the eruption in Laki (Skaftáreldar) in 1783 – 1784 eruption. By volume the lava field in Holuhraun is now larger than the 1947 eruption in Hekla volcano that is 0,8 km³ by volume and took 13 months to erupt that amount of lava. Current size of the lava field in Holuhraun is larger then 59 square kilometres (km²) in size, or around 0,83 km³ by volume according to University of Iceland Tweet on this matter. University of Iceland also has new map of the lava field, I just don’t know how to link to that image here.

Earthquake activity today in Bárðarbunga volcano and Tungnafellsjökull volcano to the left. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquake today had the magnitude of 4,4. Second largest earthquake today had the magnitude of 4,2. Other earthquakes have been smaller today and there has been less earthquake activity today compared to earlier this week (Week 42). There was not big change in the eruption in Holuhraun today according to the news, the magma that did erupt today was reported to be more gas rich then in past few days or weeks. There is no major change taking place in the dyke area according to GPS measurements from the area around Bárðarbunga volcano. The GPS mesurements can be found here. New images of the eruption in Holuhraun can be found here. So far I have not read or seen anything more taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano. If everything stays quiet (I’m sure it won’t do that), I plan to have next update on Monday 20-October-2014 if no major activity takes place.

I wish everyone a good weekend.

Article updated at 23:46 UTC.

October 17, 2014October 17, 2014

Increased risk of eruption in Tungafellsjökull volcano

There is now an increased risk of eruption in Tungafellsjökull volcano (this is my opinion only). This volcano is different than Bárðarbunga volcano and is not connected to it on crustal levels (46 km top layer of the Earth crust in this area).

Tungnafellsjökull volcano is to left of Bárðarbunga volcano on this image. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There has never been any historical eruption in Tungnafellsjökull volcano far as I know. So I have no data to work with in terms of analysing historical behaviour of this volcano. There is a stress factor at work here from Bárðarbunga volcano, this means that all the activity and drop of the Bárðarbunga volcano is changing the stress in nearby crust, this is the idea for the moment about how activity in Tungnafellsjökull volcano started. There is an increased risk of magma rising from depth into Tungnafellsjökull volcano from all of this. I don’t know why that appears to be the case (based on the data that I got), since magma coming into Tungnafellsjökull volcano is from its own deep root system that is connected to Tungnafellsjökull volcano. Even if magma is entering Tungnafellsjökull volcano it does not mean an eruption is imminent. The risk of an eruption in Tungnafellsjökull volcano is increasing at the moment, it might get lowered again soon, but this is the current status. Tungnafellsjökull volcano continues to have Green status on Icelandic Met Office website.

If anything more happens in Tungnafellsjökull volcano I am going update this article or post a new one.

October 17, 2014October 17, 2014

Bárðarbunga update for 16-October-2014

Largest earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano today (16-October-2014) had the magnitude of 5,0. Second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 4,6. Other earthquakes have been smaller. There have been more earthquake activity today compared to yesterday. The eruption in Holuhraun continues as it has been doing for the past 1,8 month, currently there is nothing to suggest the eruption is about to end any time soon. I don’t have any other news of the eruption today.

Rúv has new video of the Holuhraun eruption and it can be viewed here. It shows the power of this eruption clearly. The text is in Icelandic and there is no (or poor) audio with the video.

I am only going to post short updates when nothing special is to report since day to day changes of this eruption are not great. I am going to post updates to this eruption while it continues. Even if that is going to be for 10 years or longer.

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