Category: Magma

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Magnitude 4,3 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

Yesterday (21-March-2018) at 22:56 UTC a magnitude 4,3 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake is at the usual place inside the Bárðarbunga volcano caldera, but this location that had activity now is also the place that has high energy hydrothermal hot springs. This area of hydrothermal activity is high enough to melt trough the 100 meters of glacier at this location.


The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake activity appears to be ongoing at the moment in Bárðarbunga volcano and nearby SIL station show that more smaller earthquakes are currently happening in Bárðarbunga volcano than are showing up on the map of Bárðarbunga volcano.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (07-March-2018) there has been deep earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake activity was in two areas. In the main volcano and south-east of it.


The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The earthquake swarm in the main volcano is normal and is connected to current inflation activity of Bárðarbunga volcano. Earthquake activity happens mostly when magma is pushing the crust upwards when it flows into the volcano from depth. The earthquake swarm to the south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano is more interesting. That is a dyke and it has been in this area for numbers of years already. At the moment this dyke remains at depth of 15 – 23 km but this increase in activity might be increasing the risk of eruption if it does not quiet down. The increased magma activity in Bárðarbunga volcano has increased the earthquake activity in this dyke over the last few months.

There is a high risk of strong earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano in the next few days to weeks.

What also happened in this earthquake swarm was a high intensity tremor on the mid-band (1-2Hz) during the earthquake swarm. This is highly unusual. What it means is less clear.


The tremor activity (close to the end) on a SIL station close to Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

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Thanks to donations I was able to buy the moving boxes I need to pack my stuff into before I move back to Iceland. But I always welcome donations since they help me writing articles and in general making this work in Denmark while I am living in Denmark. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Ongoing earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano, fresh earthquake activity in Tungnafellsjökull volcano

At the moment the earthquake activity that started in Öræfajökull volcano on 25-February-2018 is currently ongoing. Most of the earthquakes happening are small, most are smaller than magnitude 1,0.


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

Tungnafellsjökull volcano

Directly north-west of Öræfajökull volcano is a another volcano making earthquakes. That volcano is named Tungnafellsjökull volcano. Most of its earthquake activity is also small earthquakes with magnitude smaller than 1,0. After the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano 2014 – 2015 earthquake activity increased in Tungnafellsjökull volcano. Earthquake activity was also high during the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano due to stress changes in the crust. It is likely that current earthquake activity is due to adjustment of tectonic stresses.

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Please remember to support my work with donations. Currently I am broke due to how bills work here in Denmark. I am moving to Iceland by the end of May and that is going to resolve this issue but until that happens I am stuck with the problem of being broke. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Fresh earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano

Yesterday (24-February-2018) and today (25-February-2018) earthquake activity increased in Öræfajökull volcano after a long quiet time. Largest earthquake recorded had a magnitude of 2,2. Other magnitude where from 0,6 and up to 1,2. All earthquakes are marked as at shallow depth, but that might not be correct.


Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano (south to the right on this image). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano is due to magma pushing up into the volcano. This is above background level of activity in Öræfajökull volcano since background level activity is around 1 – 2 earthquake a year (up to 10 earthquakes a year).

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Hydrothermal activity creates dangerous ice cave in Hofsjökull volcano

Hydrothermal activity has formed a ice cave in Hofsjökull glacier (volcano details here). According to an announcement by Icelandic Met Office this ice cave is dangerous due to sulphur (SO2) pollution and that it goes above 60ppm. That can result in loss of breathing, loss of vision and damage to eyes and lungs. People should only enter this ice cave with gas monitoring hardware on them. One seven year old girl passed out due to sulphur poising some weeks ago in a trip to this newly formed ice cave. There is also a high risk of collapse from the roof of the ice cave as ice appears to be loose above it and can collapse down without warning at any time.

There is also a risk of hydrothermal activity increasing and that is going to result in more sulphur (SO2) gas in the cave and other dangerous gases coming up. This appears to the same location that had increased activity 15 years ago that also formed an ice cave. The reason for this increase in hydrothermal activity is unclear since no earthquake activity has been recorded in Hofsjökull volcano for the past 10 years. This means earthquake activity above background levels, one or three earthquakes are recorded each year in random part of the caldera or parts of Hofsjökull volcano outside of the caldera area. Höfsjökull volcano is on its own rifting zone (information here, related paper here) (marked as SRZ on some documents) along with Kerlingarfjöll volcano (it is now under GVP as Hreppar. I don’t know why that is).

Icelandic News

Veðurstofa varar við íshelli í Hofsjökli (Rúv.is, Picture, Icelandic)

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Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano

Today (09-Februar-2018) at 05:07 UTC a magnitude 3,6 earthquake took place in Öræfajökull volcano. This is now the strongest earthquake in Öræfajökull volcano since this earthquake activity started in 2017. With earlier earthquake only having the magnitude of 3,4 (article here) on 3-October-2017. This increase in magnitude is something to worry about.


The earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Only one earthquake has happened after this earthquake so far and that only had the magnitude of 1,7. I am expecting more earthquake activity in next few hours and days.

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Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull and Esjufjöll volcanoes

I am writing about both Öræfajökull and Esjufjöll volcanoes in this article.

Öræfajökull volcano

Earthquake activity continues in Öræfajökull volcano. As before most earthquakes are smaller than magnitude 1,0. Earthquake activity is mostly in the caldera but reaches a little outside of it at times. Míla webcamera for Öræfajökull volcano can be found here.

Esjufjöll volcano

After a long time with no earthquake activity. Earthquake activity suddenly appeared in Esjufjöll volcano. As with Öræfajökull volcano, earthquakes do not happen in Esjufjöll volcano unless it is connected to magma movements. I don’t know anything useful about Esjufjöll since no eruptions are documented in the last 12.000 years. There might have been a small eruption in the year 1927 that lasted for 4 days, but I don’t have any useful information about that eruption if it happened. If an eruption does happen in Esjufjöll a glacier flood would go down to Jökulsárlón (this webcamera here).


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

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Current lack of money is making me a bit stressful due to the electric bill and that I currently lack the money to pay it. I only need 925 DKK (124€). I had to buy some food in last few days that explains the increase from 94€ earlier. Thanks for the support. 🙂

The regular donation button has been moved to my PayPal account in Iceland from PayPal in Denmark. I post updates on this on the donation site (link in the banner). The main PayPal donation button is going to changed to Iceland in June. After that it is going to stay like that since I don’t have any plans on moving away from Iceland after I move back to Iceland in July.

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Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano

Earthquake activity continues in Öræfajökull volcano and it remains at yellow status [website can be found here]. Like before the earthquake activity is small in magnitude.


The earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano (orange dots to the south). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There is now a pattern to this earthquake activity. Just and while it happens there are changes in the tremor plot on SIL stations around Öræfajökull volcano. It is possible that this is earthquake activity showing it self on the SIL stations. Other explanations are also possible.


The two spikes after 01/02 line showed up during a earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I don’t know for sure at the moment why this happens or why it shows up as it currently does.

Bad weather is currently blocking detection of small earthquakes in Iceland. A storm is going to pass over Iceland today and a second storm is going to pass over Iceland on Sunday.

Donations

Please remember to support my work since February-2018 is going to be really broke for me. Currently I don’t have enough money to pay the electric bills and I am missing close to 700 DKK (94€) so that I can pay it and then there is the whole month left for other things. In this case I need to buy food. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Moving to Iceland

I have managed to move up my plan on moving to Iceland. I can move in July rather than October. It saves me a bit on the tax payments in Denmark as soon as I move to Iceland my tax obligations in Denmark stop (from the day the move of legal home takes place). This is just a case of me not being able to afford on living in Denmark and there is nothing I can do about it. Since people with minor disabilities from a other country don’t get a job in Denmark (I am also uneducated and that doesn’t help).

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Strong earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano

Yesterday (30-January-2018) Bárðarbunga volcano had strongest earthquake since 27-October-2017. That earthquake had the magnitude of Mw4,9 (at 19:24 UTC). Two earlier earthquakes had happened but they had smaller magnitude of 3,7 (at 17:47 UTC) and magnitude 3,8 (at 18:00 UTC).


The earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano (green stars). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake activity seems to have stopped with last earthquake happening at 21:29 UTC. There is no change in harmonic tremor from Bárðarbunga volcano and that means no eruption. The north-east part of the Bárðarbunga volcano seems to be getting unstable with each earthquake swarm that happens. Magnitude of earthquakes happening has also increased but it is now longer between earthquake swarm. The time between earthquake swarms now can go up to several weeks. Soon after this earthquake activity started in September-2015 this type of activity happened weekly.

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Dyke intrusion south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano

On Sunday (21-January-2018) a dyke intrusion took place south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano. The area is question is slightly outside of Bárðarbunga volcano fissure swarm but seems to be connected to the main volcano.


The earthquakes south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquake only had magnitude 1,2 and the shallowest depth was only 13,9 km with a magnitude 0,8 earthquake. The risk of an eruption in this area is increasing, but it is not possible to know when a eruption might happen. This area has been active for some time now with regular dyke intrusions at the same location.

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