Category: Magma

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Earthquake activity continues in Öræfajökull volcano

Earthquake activity continues in Öræfajökull volcano as before. Earthquake swarm happen now every few days and most of them are minor in terms of magnitude and number of earthquakes that happen. Today (15-Ocotober-2018) the largest earthquake that happened in Öræfajökull volcano had a magnitude of 2,1 and 1,5. Other earthquakes are smaller in magnitude.


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

This earthquake activity is due to magma flowing into Öræfajökull volcano at depth. What that depth is unclear at the moment. This earthquake activity happens in pluses with quiet period between them.

Update on the donation for new hardware

Thanks to donations last week I almost have all the money to buy a Raspberry Shake seismometer. I am still missing around ~268€ in order to buy the Raspberry Shake station. With this new hardware I am going to be able to provide a lot better data from what I currently have. This includes I hope a spectrograph of an earthquake (I need a linux computer for this. I’ll set one up once I’ve moved to Spain). I can’t do that with my current old hardware and software. For those that have donated already. Thanks so much for the support. 🙂

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Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull and Bárðarbunga volcanoes

This is article is set-up in this way to save me some time due to the fact that I have to go to work tomorrow at 07:00 UTC (this is until 23rd October 2018).

Öræfajökull volcano

Since yesterday (01-October-2018) there has been a earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano. There has been several dozen earthquakes in this earthquake swarm. Most of them are small. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 3,1 and was felt on nearby farms (there is no town or village close to Öræfajökull volcano). This earthquake swarm is currently ongoing.

Bárðarbunga volcano

A magnitude 3,0 and 3,6 earthquakes happened in Bárðarbunga volcano today. The smaller earthquake happened early in the morning but he larger one at 13:08 UTC. There hasn’t been any large amount of earthquake activity following this earthquakes. This is now the normal pattern of Bárðarbunga volcano since the eruption 2014 – 2015 (Holuhraun).


Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga and Öræfajökull volcanoes. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. See pinned article for what I need for Raspberry Shake seismometer network upgrade. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Minor earthquake swarms in Öræfajökull volcano

An earthquake swarm started in Öræfajökull volcano yesterday (26-September-2018). Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 1,2. Other earthquakes had a magnitude of 0,0 and up to 0,5.


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

This earthquake activity is because of magma is moving inside Öræfajökull volcano. This movement is mostly slow and often stops at times. This is going to continue for a long while longer in current phase. There is no risk of eruption in Öræfajökull volcano at the moment.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. At the moment I am trying to save up for Raspberry Shake sensor to replace my current hardware that Böðvarshólar geophone station. The computer I used has already failed and I am currently using temporarily set-up (it often fails). I’ve gotten some donations but not enough to buy the Raspberry Shake sensor I need. Please see pinned article for more details. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Social Media

I have made the decision to open up my social media a little more. This is only the social media that I use to post pictures to. I can be followed on Twitter using the twitter buttons on the side on this website. If you only want geology information please use Iceland geology twitter. I retweet a lot of stuff on my regular twitter.

My Instagram can be found here (username jonfr500)
My Snapchat is jonfr500

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Magnitude 3,0 earthquake in Öræfajökull volcano

This evening (21-September-2018) at 21:15 UTC a magnitude 3,0 earthquake happened in Öræfajökull volcano. This was followed by a swarm of earthquakes and largest earthquake after the magnitude 3,0 earthquake had a magnitude of 1,4 so far.


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

I expect the largest earthquake to have been felt in nearby farms that are close to Öræfajökull volcano (some are in it roots). In recent weeks the magnitude of earthquakes in Öræfajökull volcano has slowly been moving upwards. This change is not by much at the moment.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. It helps me a lot. I am also trying to buy new Raspberry Shake sensors. Please see pinned article for more details. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Magnitude 4,2 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (14-September-2018) at 10:40 UTC an magnitude 4,2 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Second largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 2,9. Other earthquakes that happened were smaller in magnitude.


Green star is the magnitude 4,2 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is normal for Bárðarbunga volcano as it continues to inflate after the eruption 2014 – 2015. At the moment the rate of this magnitude earthquake seems to be around 1 earthquake each month. It seems that rate of earthquakes is continuing to drop and soon it is going to be one to two earthquakes a year like this in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donation. I also remind on the sticked article about donating so I can get new earthquake recording hardware. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Katla volcano releases massive amount of CO2 daily

According to new study into CO2 release of Katla volcano the amount released by the volcano is massive. According to the news on Rúv the daily amount released of CO2 is 20 kiloton (1 kiloton = 1000 tons). What is not known today is if this high release of CO2 is constant or if it fluctuates during the year. More reaches is needed into that possible.

I don’t know how much magma is needed for this amount of CO2 release from Katla volcano. What I do know is that it is not little amount of magma inside Katla volcano. Largest documented eruption in Katla volcano had a VEI size of 5. The Eldgjá eruption in 934 was more lava than volcano ash and that was the largest eruption in Katla volcano for a long time. It is not possible to predict an eruption in Katla volcano or any other volcano with good precision.

This makes Katla volcano the 3rd largest CO2 releasing volcano in the world.

Rúv News in Icelandic

Kvikusöfnun í Kötlu (Rúv.is, Icelandic)


Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. I am also trying to buy new hardware and I need donations for that so I can continue providing webicorders with close to real time information about earthquake activity in Iceland. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Fresh minor earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano

Yesterday (23-August-2018) an fresh earthquake swarm started in Öræfajökull volcano. This earthquake swarm seems to be progressing in the same way as earlier earthquake swarms. Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano only happens when magma is on the move inside the volcano.


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

Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 2,2 and the second largest earthquake had a magnitude of 1,9. Other earthquake activity has been as before and is mostly made of earthquake with magnitude 0,0 and up to magnitude 1,0. The magma in Öræfajökull volcano is slow moving and that is reflected in current earthquake activity.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Earthquake swarm in south part of Katla volcano caldera

Today (9-August-2018) an earthquake activity increased in south part of Katla volcano caldera. It doesn’t appear that any earthquake in this swarm reached magnitude 2,0.


Earthquake activity in south part (towards the coastline) of the caldera of Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is unclear why this earthquake activity is happening at the moment. There isn’t anything unusual on harmonic tremor plots at the moment and nothing suggesting that an eruption is going to happen any time soon.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. The situation is that I am getting broke this month because I’ve been paying down several things in Denmark (after I moved from Denmark to Iceland). Thanks for the support. 🙂

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More earthquake activity in Katla volcano

Today (8-August-2018) at 21:39 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of 3,1 took place in Katla volcano. Second largest earthquake in this activity so far had a magnitude of 2,4. This earthquake activity appears to be ongoing and magnitudes and number of earthquakes is going to change.


Earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Green star is the magnitude 3,1 earthquake. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There is no change in harmonic tremor at the moment and that for now rules out any movement of magma inside Katla volcano. This might be connected to glacier floods that are now coming from Mýrdalsjökull glacier.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. It helps me keep everything running. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano, ongoing glacier flood from Mýrdalsjökull glacier

Today (7-august-2018) a minor earthquake swarm took place in Katla volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 2,9 and other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.


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

There is also a glacier flood coming from Mýrdalsjökull glacier. This has resulted in dangerous levels of Hydrogen sulfide gases close to Múlakvísl glacier river and the police has asked people not to stop in the area due to a risk of gas build up. The Hydrogen sulfide is at lethal levels in some areas where wind cannot move it.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. It helps me to keep everything going. Thanks for the support. 🙂