Category: Hekla

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The Hekla volcano system earthquake last night

Here is a high resolution image of the Hekla volcano system earthquake yesterday. The earthquake was located in south-east part of the Hekla volcano system. But that area has been having earthquakes for few months now, starting few years ago. I am unclear on why this is happening in Hekla volcano system. But sometimes Hekla volcano erupts in fissures (crater row eruptions). But not from the main volcano.

This earthquake was small like the earthquakes before him, registering only at ML2.43. The depth was 10 km. It was only 15.4 km away from my geophone. But that is the reason why it appear so clearly on my geophone.

Small weather news

Here is the view from my apartment in Hvammstangi earlier today. This is due to a storm that is coming from the north of Iceland. The winds are strong and the snow is on the move due that. The frost is only about -3C. But with the wind it goes down to -20 to -40C.

Click on both pictures to get full resolution.

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Small streams around Hekla volcano dry up

According to Icelandic news there is little water in small streams that come from Hekla volcano. This lack of water in streams from Hekla volcano is often looked as indicators that a eruption is going to happen in coming months. This phenomenon has happened before a eruption took place in Hekla volcano, the last one that took place in the year 2000. But according to old news article (in Icelandic, pdf) (from the year 1995) this phenomenon was also observed before the big eruption in the year 1755. But I do not know if this happens always (it seems to do so. But I don’t have it confirmed) or just before some eruptions.

There has been drought in the area. But that might explain in part this lack of water in streams coming from Hekla volcano. But the rest of this lack of water might be related to changes in the area before Hekla volcano starts erupting. Far as I know there has not been any study into this phenomenon and why this happens to Hekla streams months before eruption takes place.

Hekla volcano does not give many long term signals on when it might start erupting. But far as this one goes, this might be the best signals we can get on the impending eruption in Hekla volcano. When the eruption might take place is impossible to know at current time.

Icelandic News.

Vatn er lítið í ám og lækjum nærri Heklu (Vísir.is, Icelandic)

Low Water Levels Indication of New Iceland Eruption? (English, Iceland Review) – Thanks to Erik at Eruption blog for this link!

Blog post updated at 04:19 UTC. A english news added.