Category: Hekla

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Earthquake in Hekla volcano, continued activity in Katla volcano

Today (30-June-2014) at 03:52 UTC a magnitude 1,0 earthquake took place in Hekla volcano. This earthquake had the depth of 0,1 km and that means it a an surface earthquake due to crust movement. No other activity has been detected in Hekla volcano following this earthquake.

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Earthquake activity in Hekla volcano and Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquake activity has continued in Katla volcano (see picture above). The main area of activity is close to an place in Mýrdalsjökull (Katla) that is called Hábunga. The largest earthquake in the past 24 hours is a magnitude 1,6 and it has the depth of 0,2 km. Deeper earthquake continue to happen, the deepest earthquake in the past 24 hours has the depth of 20,6 km. Shallower earthquakes have also taken place in the same area. So far nothing suggest that eruption is going to happen any time soon in Katla volcano. It is however important to monitor this activity in Katla volcano since it might be leading up to something, this activity also might not lead to nothing at all. There is no way to know currently what is going to happen in Katla volcano.

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Magnitude 2,5 earthquake south of Hekla volcano

Today (3-June-2014) a magnitude 2,5 earthquake took place south of Hekla volcano. Depth of this earthquake was 9,6 km. It did appear clearly on my geophone in Heklubyggð, it can be viewed on-line here.

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The earthquakes south of Hekla volcano. Some minor earthquake activity in Katla volcano also appears on this image. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

There was no signs of harmonic tremor or anything suggesting that volcano eruption was about to start following this earthquake. Everything is quiet for now. Some minor aftershock activity took place following the main earthquake. I am expecting minor earthquake activity to continue to take place at this location. Earthquake activity at this location has happened before in similar way as it did today. When eruption do starts in Hekla volcano, there is going to be a lot more earthquake activity then took place today. Until that happens, there is no reason to worry about this. If you are going to hike on Hekla volcano then please do go safe route, since Hekla volcano is well known for sudden eruptions with no warning at all, besides the earthquake swarm in the hour or two before a start of an eruption.

Donations: Please remember to support my work. It helps me keeping people updated on what is happening in Iceland. Thanks!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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Three earthquakes in Hekla volcano. Earthquake swarm in Hengill volcano

For the past 24 hours tree earthquakes so far have been recorded in Hekla volcano. There is no sign of eruption or anything other than earthquakes taking place at present time.

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The earthquake activity in Hekla volcano (top left). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is possible to monitor Hekla volcano here for earthquakes (almost real-time data).
Here is an list of web cameras that point to Hekla volcano.
Míla web camera of Hekla volcano can be viewed here.
IMO earthquake web page can be viewed here.

Currently there is bad weather in south Iceland that makes observation and monitoring of Hekla volcano difficult.

Earthquake swarm in Hengill volcano

Yesterday (23-March-2014) and Today (24-March-2014) an earthquake swarm took place in Hengill volcano. This earthquake swarm has its source in water being pumped down into the ground from Orkuveita Reykjavíkur (geothermal plant in this area).

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

This are not volcano related. This happens when cold water (polluted) is being pumped back into the ground. That makes earthquake swarms like this one common.

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Two earthquakes in Hekla volcano. Deep earthquake in Katla volcano

Yesterday (20-March-2014) and today (21-March-2014) there were earthquakes in Hekla volcano. The earthquake yesterday had the magnitude of 1,2 and depth of 9,1 km. The earthquake today had the magnitude of 1,2 and the depth of 7,1 km.

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The two earthquakes in Hekla volcano and the deep earthquake in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake activity does not mean Hekla volcano is about to erupt. What this means is unclear at present time.

Katla volcano

Today there was also an deep earthquake in Katla volcano. This earthquake had the magnitude of 1,4 and the depth of 21,8 km. Earthquakes at this depth are due to some change in the magma at depth. This however does not mean Katla volcano is about to erupt. Far from it. Earthquake activity in Katla volcano is normal and possibly below normal activity, it is at least certainly not above winter earthquake activity at present time.

Monitoring

It is possible to monitor Hekla and Katla volcanoes here on IMO website.
I have my webicorder website here.
I have list of online web cameras here.
Live from Iceland web camera can be found here.

Icelandic news about this

Tveir jarðskjálftar við Heklu (mbl.is)

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No imminent eruption in Hekla volcano

There have been rumours that Hekla volcano is about to erupt. This is according to Rúv News, Icelandic Meteorological Office and Icelandic Civil Protection authorities. Currently there are no signs of imminent eruption in Hekla volcano, it’s as quiet as it has been for the past 14 years. That is going to change one day, but at the moment everything is quiet. What is being done now is that Icelandic Authorities are setting up warning signs (new ones) to warn people and provide guidance in advance in the case an eruption starts. Since eruption can and has started with a short notice in Hekla volcano in the past and short notice eruption is going to take place in the future. When that might be is not something that can be predicted at current time.

Geological scientists are also installing more gas monitoring hardware up close to Hekla volcano. They hope to spot changes in gas release some time before an eruption takes place. It is untested if this is going to work. Doing this also has some issues, since weather and wind can make it difficult to detected the gas that comes out from the ground. Along with other issues that I don’t know the details of.

If people want to monitor Hekla volcano them self. They can do so on-line at following internet websites.

Webicorders (The station named Hekla, earthquakes, harmonic tremor appear here)
Web camera Hekla (Heklubyggð, same location as my geophone)
Míla Hekla webcamera (live stream)
Rúv Hekla webcamera (currently not working)
Icelandic Meteorological Office Hekla web-page (Icelandic)
IMO Mýrdalsjökull earthquake map also has Hekla volcano on it (top left). It’s updated every 5. min, and anything that happens in Hekla volcano is going to appear on this page.

If anything happens in Hekla volcano it is going to appear clearly on the above links.

Icelandic Civil Authorities warning sign about what to do if there is an eruption in Hekla volcano. Orignal pdf file can be found here.

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Click on the image for full size. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Civil Authorities (Almannavarnir).

Icelandic and English news of Hekla volcano

Hekla Volcano Eruption Hazard Signs Put Up (Iceland Review)

Engin merki um að Hekla sé að bæra á sér (Rúv.is, Icelandic)
Gasmælingar aukast við Heklu (Visir.is, picture of a gas monitoring station, Icleandic)

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Earthquake in Hekla volcano. Deep earthquake in Katla volcano

On the 17-March-2014 at 19:59 UTC an earthquake took place in Hekla volcano. This earthquake had the magnitude of 1,0 and the depth of 9,1 km. I did record it on my geophone just barley, it is possible to watch for activity in Hekla volcano here. This earthquake does not mean that Hekla volcano is about to erupt, but it is interesting anyway. What it means remains unclear at the present time.

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The earthquake in Hekla volcano. It is marked with an blue dot. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Katla volcano

Yesterday (18-March-2014) an deep earthquake (in the picture above, in the central caldera) took place in Katla volcano. The magnitude of this earthquake was 0,7 and this earthquake had the depth of 28,9 km. As was mentioned in comment yesterday. This earthquake in it self is no important from the looks of it. No special harmonic activity took place following this earthquake.

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All quiet. Just wind and ocean waves. The spike on the 19-March-2014 is due to earthquake in Goðabunga part of Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Donations: Please remember to support my work by donation. Thanks!

Advertisements:

I did try to go advertisement free (for the second time) and it failed again. Since I need the extra income from this website and from my writing work to make a proper living. I want to be advertisement free, as I did explain here (I have updated this post now). Going advertisement free requires donations that I am simply not getting and it is an fact one cannot be without money. Without it it’s just hunger and pain. As it is not far from what I am currently experiencing (I got €0,49 in my bank account at current time or 3,61 DKK). The thing however is that I am well advised in not having any money so I prepare a little in terms of buying food but currently I am at my limit. I am not sure what the rest of this month (March) is going to be for me. This site might one day be advertisement free, that is however not going to happen until I can afford it. When that might be I have no idea.

The job question:

Many people wonders why I don’t have a job and many people expect that I have a job and don’t ask for donations. I have asperger’s syndrome [Second link here]. I have problem with working a normal job. It’s not that I am not physically able, because I am. But I have problem with communications and dealing with work social things. I have issues with normal social stuff on every day. I can and I have worked for a short period of time, but such things always drain me mentally and make things difficult for me in the long run. It would also prevent me from monitoring earthquakes and volcanoes as I do now. I am also writing more stories and I have already published one, even if I have not yet sold many copies so far.

Blog post updated at 20:45 UTC. Time of the earthquake corrected.
Blog post updated at 21:55 UTC.

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More magma in Hekla magma chamber then before 2000 eruption

According to news today on mbl.is there is now more magma in Hekla volcano then before the 2000 eruption. The news says that since the year 2006 there has been more magma in Hekla magma chamber then before the last eruption in the year 2000. This has not meant an eruption so far. Hekla volcano magma chamber have the depth of around 10 to 20 km. This means this inflation that is now taking place does not appear clearly on the surface, but changes are being measured by GPS system that Icelandic Meteorological Office has. This is also appearing on GPS instruments that geological department University of Iceland has. Even if inflation is now more in Hekla volcano then during the eruptions in the year 1991 and 2000 it does not mean that next eruption is going to be bigger. Since the size of the eruption depends on how much of the magma is mobile in the magma chamber. That amount remains unknown until eruption takes place and even then not all of the mobile magma might erupt.

It is also pointed out in the news that it is risky to go on top of Hekla volcano as is. At least while no eruption has taken place currently. Since the risk of eruption is in place and the time from magma starts to move and until eruption takes place is short. Often less then 1 hour. It is advised in this news that people should not go on top of Hekla volcano. The risk is that eruption starts and trap people on top of the volcano, with deadly consequences.

It is possible to read the Icelandic news here. Please use Google Translate with care. It’s not always correct.

Kvikusöfnun meiri í Heklu en árið 2000 (mbl.is)

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Three earthquakes in Hekla volcano system

Today (03-Mars-2014) three earthquakes where detected in Hekla volcano system. All three earthquakes where small with none having magnitude above 1,0.

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

No other change has been detected in Hekla volcano at this time. Earthquake activity has been taking place in Hekla volcano in the past. It is not clear what is the source or why this earthquake activity is taking place. It is possible to watch Hekla volcano here on my webicorders and live images can be found here. If something happens, but I think it is unlikely to do so at present time.

Donation notice: Please remember to support my work. Otherwise I am looking at really broke month of Mars-2014. It is also possible to buy my first e-book short story here. Thanks for the support.