Category: Magma

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Two magnitude 3,9 earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (21-November-2017) at 13:53 and 13:55 UTC two magnitude 3,9 earthquakes happened in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake activity was in the regular area in the north-east part of the Báðarbunga volcano caldera. It remains to be seen if there is any change in conductivity in Jökulsá á Fjöllum following this earthquake swarm.


Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano today (green stars, red dots). Öræfajökull volcano is quiet today (maybe due to extremely bad weather in this part of Iceland at the moment). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The aftershocks form a interesting line that goes east to west in the caldera. I’ve not seen that form before and it’s interesting to see it. I don’t know yet if it means anything besides a possible fault in the volcano. It takes the glacier water 9 hours to reach the monitoring station at Jökulsá á Fjöllum, Grímsstaðir from the one at Upptyppingar. I don’t know how long it takes the water to reach Upptyppingar from the glacier, it is at least several hours.

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Please note that with current high activity I’m getting a bit stressed out with the workload when a lot of things are happening in short period of time.

Current list of unrest volcanoes is this.

Bárðarbunga (continued in September 2015 after the August 2014 – February 2015 eruption)
Öræfajökull
Katla
Askja (deep magma activity, not a major concern at the moment)

Other volcanoes are not a concern until they erupt without warning.

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Update on Bárðarbunga volcano and high conductivity in Jökulsá á Fjöllum glacier river

Conductivity remains rather high in Jökulsá á Fjöllum as it has been doing since before 14th of November. The source remains at Bárðarbunga volcano. The conductivity has slowly been getting lower since it peaked before 14th of November (I’m not sure when the peak was). Yesterday (18-November) I did notice the news a little discussion about Bárðarbunga volcano. It was stated that at least one cauldron in the glacier above Bárðarbunga volcano is so hot that is makes a steam trough the glacier. I have also not hear any other details about the reason why conductivity remains rather high in Jökuls á Fjöllum glacier river from the observations yesterday.

The steaming hydrothermal systems means there is a considerable energy in Bárðarbunga volcano system at the moment. This also invites the risk that next eruption cycle in Bárðarbunga volcano is going to large. This also increases the risk of small eruptions that are also hard to detect and might not break the glacier surface, unless they happen close to one of the new hydrothermal areas.


Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano in the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

When next eruption cycle starts in Bárðarbunga volcano is impossible to know.

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Uncertainly level declared for Öræfajökull volcano, aviation code moved to yellow alert

Yesterday the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management declared uncertainty level for Öræfajökull volcano. Aviation colour code was also moved up to yellow alert level (can be viewed here).

Current status is that a ice cauldron has formed in the centre of the Öræfajökull volcano caldera. It is about 1 km wide and around 21 to 25 meters deep according to early measurements. This is the first time in documented history that such ice cauldrons has formed in Öræfajökull volcano. It is now believed that the ice cauldron has been emptying it self all week resulting in smell of sulphur in Kvíá glacier river. The glacier river can be viewed here on Google Maps Street View. Currently there is not a lot of earthquake activity happening in Öræfajökull volcano. This is to be expected (I guess). It is also worth noting that Öræfajökull volcano did do in few months what took Eyjafjallajökull volcano 16 years to do until an eruption happened.

There is not a lot of details on earlier eruptions from Öræfajökull volcano. Earliest eruption to our in time took place between 1727 and until 1728 (289 years). Before that an eruption took place in 1362 (655 years) and lasted for five months. Currently I don’t have a lot of information about the current status. This is due to lack of measurements as it was not expected that Öræfajökull volcano would do this even if earthquake activity was happening in the volcano. It was only from October (it seems) that it was figured out that something was going on in Öræfajökull volcano.


No earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano during the past 48 hours (blue dot in the south part of the image). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Images of the new ice cauldron can be found here on Icelandic Met Office website.

I’ll post new information in this article as needed. If anything major happens I’ll write a new article.

Article updated at 16:26 UTC. Added information that I forgot.

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High conductivity in Jökulsá á Fjöllum glacier river is from Bárðarbunga volcano

It seems that the close to 10 days high conductivity in Jökulsá á Fjöllum glacier river is from Bárðarbunga volcano rather than Kverkfjöll volcano as first thought. New images from the area show this clearly as the river from Kverkfjöll volcano doesn’t show any change and the high conductivity has continued without showing any peak as is normal for glacier floods from the lake in Kverkfjöll volcano.

It remains unclear what is going on. At the moment there aren’t any sign of an eruption having taken place in Bárðarbunga volcano and it remains unclear from where the glacier flood water is coming from since weather has prevented flying over this area in recent days. It is possible that this is just a cauldron the glacier emptying it self, but given how long the high conductivity has been going on it must be a large cauldron. This might also mean bad news for the area where bridges are if a major flood happens without warning due to this change or if an eruption starts suddenly and without much warning.

Icelandic news

Upptök frekar í Bárðarbungu en Gengissigi (Ruv.is, Icelandic)

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Deep earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano system and increased conductivity in Jökulsá á fjöllum glacier river

Today (7-November-2017) there has been deep earthquakes taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano system, just south-east of the main volcano. This earthquakes are not strong and only have the magnitude of 16,4 to 18,8 km. This time none of the earthquakes that happened reached magnitude 1,0.


Location of the deep earthquakes is south-east of the main Bárðarbunga volcano. It is marked by three red dots. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is also in the news that conductivity in Jökulsá á fjöllum glacier river (map of Jökulsá á fjöllum glacier river can be found here) is at all times high and have been increasing for the last two weeks (14 days) and are now the highest ever recorded. It is unclear at the moment why this is happening as no eruption has been detected from Bárðarbunga volcano during this time. The glacier river is also unusually dark for this time of the year and smell of hydrothermal water has also been detected. Current values are 295µ/cm. This is a risky situation if something more happens under the glacier as this area goes close to Road 1 and connected bridges. If a major flood happens those bridges are going to get lost and there is always a risk of more damage happening, but that depends on factors that are impossible to predict.

Icelandic News – Google Translated can be used for raw translation

Aukin rafleiðni í Jökulsá á Fjöllum (Rúv.is)
Aukin rafleiðni í Jökulsá á fjöllum (Vísir.is)
Raf­leiðni í ánni farið hækk­andi (mbl.is)

Update 1

There is a possibility that this might be a glacier flood from Kverkfjöll volcano. That has not been confirmed as of this moment. Glacier flood from Kverkfjöll volcano happen every few years.

Updated Icelandic News

Hlaup hugsanlegt í Jökulsá á Fjöllum (Rúv.is)
Aukin rafleiðni í Jökulsá á Fjöllum bendir til hlaups (Vísir.is)

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Article updated at 22:11 UTC.

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Earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano

For the last few hours there has been a earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano. I’m not clear on how many earthquakes have so far happened in Öræfajökull volcano at the moment. Most of them have been smaller than 1,5 in magnitude and only few earthquakes with magnitude 2,0 and above have so far happened. This is a unusual earthquake swarm and possibly the largest one since the unrest started in Öræfajökull volcano few years ago.


The earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano at the south end of Vatnajökull glacier. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake swarm is on a line that is almost north-south direction and that is interesting as it crosses the crater of Öræfajökull volcano. That type of pattern appeared last month during the earthquake swarms that took place then. Between now and then there has just been few earthquakes here and there in the volcano. Old history tells (from the eruption 1362) that before the main eruption at least two earthquakes are felt nearby. How accurate that documentation is questionable due its age and possible rewrite over history. Detailed report on Öræfajökull volcano can be found here (pdf) by Icelandic Met Office. Historical data shows that eruption from Öræfajökull volcano are powerful and can lost for a short time (1326 eruption), but they can also last for few months like the 1727 eruption that started in August 3rd and ended on May 1728 (+- 30 days error margin).

Notice on Esjufjöll volcano

There has also been a minor increase in earthquake activity in Esjufjöll volcano. This seems to be a side effects of the activity in Öræfajökull volcano. Why and how that works is unknown to me. I don’t expect any eruption to take place in Esjufjöll volcano. Last eruption was possibly in the year 1920 and was short lived (few hours?). I don’t know how long this earthquake activity has been going on in Esjufjöll volcano, but it is mentioned in a Icelandic Met Office report from 2002, that report can be read here (pdf).

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Strongest earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano since February 2015

Yesterday (26-October-2017) and today (27-10-2017) two strongest earthquake took place in Báðarbunga volcano since end of the eruption in February 2015. The magnitudes of earthquakes so far are two Mw4.7, One magnitude Mw3,9 and one Mw3,2 earthquake. So far other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude. No harmonic tremor has been detected so far, but given the location an eruption might start in other part of the caldera without warning even if the earthquake swarm activity is happening in the northern part of the Bárðarbunga volcano caldera.


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


The magnitude 3,9 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Dellukot. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.


The magnitude 3,9 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.


The second magnitude 4,7 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Dellukot. For some unknown reason (maybe bad weather) I was unable to properly record the magnitude 4,7 earthquake at 23:26 UTC. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.


The second magnitude 4,7 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. For some unknown reason (maybe bad weather) I was unable to properly record the magnitude 4,7 earthquake at 23:26 UTC. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.

At the moment no eruption has been detected. But this strong and increasing earthquake activity suggest that magma pressure inside Bárðarbunga volcano might be reaching critical point. If it has not reached critical point already. For the next 24 – 36 hours really bad weather is forecasted in Iceland. With wind gusts forecasted up to 45m/s in the highland and in northern Iceland. This bad weather is going to cause problems in detecting earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano and elsewhere.

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Earthquake activity in south part of Bárðarbunga volcano caldera

Today (24-October-2017) at 14:18 UTC a magnitude 4,1 earthquake took place in south part of the Bárðarbunga volcano caldera. Few moments later at 14:54 UTC a magnitude 3,4 earthquake took place and few other earthquakes followed.


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

What is different now is that the earthquake activity is now happening in south part of the caldera. Close to the area where deep cauldrons have appeared due to shallow magma at this location. This makes the earthquake activity at this highly interesting and possibly highly dangerous if magma has now started to push it’s way up at this location. A small eruption at this location could result in a serious glacier flood, even if such an eruption only lasted for few hours.


The magnitude 4,1 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Dellukot. This image is under Creative Commons License, please see CC License for more details.


The magnitude 4,1 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. This trace has been filtered at 4Hz. This image is under Creative Commons License, please see CC License for more details.

It remains a question if an earthquake is going to happen in north-east part of the Báðarbunga volcano caldera in next few days. That seems to happen when a earthquakes takes place in south part of the caldera. I don’t know why that happens, it is just seems to do.

Article updated at 23:48 UTC. Text fixes.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano on 13-October-2017

On Friday 13 of October 2017 there was an earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Largest earthquake in this activity had the magnitude of 3,1. Earlier earthquake had the magnitude of 2,9.


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

This latest earthquake is at an interesting location. This earthquake happens close to or inside the hydrothermal area in the Bárðarbunga volcano caldera rim. This area has not seen a lot of earthquake activity in recent months. Magma at this location is at shallow depth as is shown by the hydrothermal activity. Geologists are estimating that magma is at around 1 km depth at the hydrothermal location. This hydrothermal vents have melted hundreds of meters of glacier already due to how energetic they are. The magnitude 2,9 earthquake took place in the normal north-east place in the Bárðarbunga volcano caldera rim. There is also a interesting cluster of earthquakes in the north part of the caldera happening in last few hours.

At the moment there isn’t anything that suggest that an eruption is imminent in Bárðarbunga volcano.

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Sulphur smell felt from Múlakvísl glacier river

On the 3-October-2017 there was an increase in earthquake activity in Katla volcano as I wrote about here. This activity was deeper than suspected as during the night there was an small harmonic spike as was mentioned in this comment here.

Today (08-October-2017) there was a news on Rúv about sulphur smell being detected and higher conductivity in Múlakvísl glacier river at the same time. The main idea is that one of the twenty cauldrons was emptying it self of hydrothermal melt water that builds up in them, resulting both in the increase conductivity and the harmonic tremor being detected as the cauldron empted it self. This does result in a minor glacier flood in Múlakvísl glacier river. I don’t know for sure what the case is here, but this type of activity has been happening consistently for the past few months in Katla volcano. Conductivity remains rather high in Múlakvísl glacier river according to latests automatic readings on Icelandic Met Office website.

Icelandic news on this

Brennisteinslykt á Mýrdalssandi (rúv.is)