Category: Magma

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Strong sulphur smell from Sólheimajökull glacier (Katla volcano)

Today (21-November-2018) Icelandic Met Office issued a warning about strong sulphur smell from Sólheimajökull glacier and Jökulsá á Sólheimasandi (connected glacier river) that come from Katla volcano. People are advised to stay away from this area because if the sulphur smell. There hasn’t been any connected earthquake activity with this increase in sulphur smell.


Katla volcano is quiet. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There is no earthquake activity and no change has been observed on harmonic tremor plots around Katla volcano at this moment. This is unlikely to change, since earthquake activity has been minimal in 2018.

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Two earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (12-November-2018) at 19:21 and 19:23 UTC two earthquakes took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. The first earthquake had a magnitude of 3,6 and the second earthquake had magnitude of 3,3. Other earthquakes that have happened so far have been smaller in magnitude.


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

This earthquake activity is ongoing in Bárðarbunga volcano.

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Earthquake activity in Grímsvötn volcano

During the night there was an earthquake swarm in Grímsvötn volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 2,6 and other earthquakes were smaller in magnitude.


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

Yesterday (06-November-2018) there was also earthquake activity in Grímsvötn volcano but it was at lot smaller scale then what happened during the night. At the moment there are no signs that Grímsvötn volcano are about to erupt. There has not been any more earthquake activity today.

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New measurements confirm Öræfajökull volcano continues to inflate

This based on news from Rúv. I am not translating the news item it self. The link is at the end of this article in Icelandic.

According to latests news on Rúv. Öræfajökull volcano continues to inflate at an increased rate. This has resulted in larger earthquakes in recent months and larger energy release in those earthquakes. Deformation has been clearly detected in Öræfajökull volcano and magma is now collecting just above 5 km depth according to measurements. Earthquake activity has increase compared to 2017 and seems to be increasing at the moment.

Rúv News

Kvika að safnast saman undir Öræfajökli (Rúv.is, Icelandic)

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Magnitude 4,6 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

At 00:08 UTC on 23-October-2018 a magnitude 4,6 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is the strongest earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano for at least three months. A second earthquake with a magnitude of 3,5 happened at 00:12 UTC. This earthquake activity had earlier smaller earthquakes happening in Bárðarbunga volcano. It started yesterday (22-October-2018) with few minor earthquakes.


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

Other earthquakes in this earthquake activity were smaller in magnitude. This type of earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano is now common after the end of the eruption in 2015.

Update on 24-October-2018

Icelandic Met Office has revised the magnitude of few of the earthquakes that happened in Bárðarbunga volcano. Now the magnitudes of the largest earthquakes are magnitude 3,9, magnitude 4,6 and magnitude 3,5.


Updated map of the earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

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Article updated at 15:17 UTC on 24-October-2018.

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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. 🙂