Category: Magma

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga, Öræfajökull, Langjökull north volcanos

This is going to be a little compressed article. Since I’m currently in Iceland. I’ll be back in Denmark on 18-May. No GVP links now. I don’t think that my laptop can handle it (its slowly turning into non-functional computer).

Bárðarbunga volcano

The regular earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano continues, it follows the same pattern has it has been doing for the last 7 – 8 months.

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

The largest earthquake had the magnitude of 3,2. Other earthquakes had smaller magnitude. This earthquake activity is like the earthquake activity before, there doesn’t seems to be a lot of difference between the earthquake swarms that are now taking place between weeks.

Öræfajökull volcano

There is a interesting earthquake activity taking place in Öræfajökull volcano. It suggest that some magma is entering the volcano at depth (5 – 10 km). At the moment there is nothing that suggests an eruption is getting close, however the eruption history of Öræfajökull volcano is not well known and no reliable data exists on what might happen in the case of eruption. At the moment, all of the earthquakes taking place are minor, suggesting the amount of magma entering Öræfajökull volcano is minor at the moment.

Langjökull (north)

Today (12-May-2016) an small earthquake swarm took place in north Langjökull volcano. This earthquake activity has been taking place in this area since the year 2000, it was started by the magnitude 6,5 earthquake in SISZ. The reason for this earthquake swarm are unclear. No change in the main volcano has been observed, both in terms of earthquake activity or other changes. One idea is that this are stress changes in faults at this area, suggesting they might be lateral faults, not connected to the volcano it self.

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The earthquake activity in Langjökull north volcano (Hveravellir). Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

None of the earthquakes that took place had strong magnitude, largest earthquake had the magnitude of 2,0.


New – Analyzing articles

I plan on to start writing analyzing articles about volcanoes in Iceland in order to attempt to explain what is going on with the most active one and what might happen. Those articles will take few days to write, that means I won’t write many of them each week if needed. This is also going to cover history of the volcano if that is possible. I am going to try and expand this website a little in order to bring in more readers.

Hardware support needed

Since I have to go the dentist when I go back to Denmark (sight). I can’t afford the hardware upgrade and maintaining my desktop computer (I got a failing hard drive). I also need hardware for setting up a second geophone computer in Denmark and a new Power supply for my main earthquake computer, it now running a 350W power-supply from a different computer, making it a little under powered.

Here is the list of hardware needed if anyone can help me with this.

1 500W power supply for my main earthquake computer (It has to be Intel six CPU pin power compatible).
1 1TB hard drive for my main desktop computer. The current hard drive is failing, its making clicking sounds, suggesting that its read head is about to fail.
1 1TB hard drive for my main earthquake computer. This for my main backup of all my data (earthquake data and other important data, images and so on). The second backup is on the internet. I so far haven’t been able to setup my third backup plan.
1 500GB to 1TB hard drive for my second geophone computer in Denmark.

Extra

1 Used laptop that is faster than 2,3Ghz and with more than 2GB ram. It can be used, it just has to work and be younger then 2010 model of laptop. It doesn’t have to have Windows installed on it. It does have to have a working hard drive.

Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano (Week 17)

After a short period of quiet, it seems that Bárðarbunga volcano has started again making earthquake swarms. The source of this activity is the same as before, inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano and infiltration of magma at shallow depth (that might not erupt).

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

Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 3,4. Other earthquakes in this swarm had smaller magnitude. The number of earthquakes in this swarm was typical, around 20-ish. Currently the activity has stopped, but it is going to start again in few days, as has been the pattern since end of the eruption in February 2015.

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The magnitude 3,4 earthquake as it appeared on the vertical axes (Z) in Heklubyggð geophone. The signal is filtered at 2Hz. This image is under Creative Commons License. Please see CC License for more details.

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Magnitude 4,2 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

Shortly after midnight of 8-April-2016 a magnitude 4,2 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake activity was shallow, most depth was around 3 to 5 km. Few earthquakes took place at 7 to 11 km depth, suggesting a magma movement at depth. Nothing suggest that magma reached shallow depth this time around.

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

The second largest earthquake in this activity had the magnitude of 3,5 at the depth of 4,3 km. Other earthquakes in this swarm where smaller in magnitude at different depths. Magma did not reach the surface in this earthquake swarm, this appears to have been a movement of fault lines do to stress changes at depth due to magma inflow. I’m expecting continued earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano in coming weeks and months.

Donations and move to Denmark

I want to remind people of this article here. I also want to remind people to support my work with donations. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Deep earthquake activity in Askja volcano

Yesterday (06-April-2016) a swarm of deep earthquakes took place in Askja volcano. None of the earthquakes that took place where large in magnitude, with the largest one having a magnitude of 1,6.

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Earthquake activity in Askja volcano, close to Dreka (dragon). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Main depth of this earthquake swarm was around 21 km. It did not go up in the crust and nothing suggests that it is going to do so at this point in time. No change in harmonic tremor took place during this earthquake swarm.

Thanks for donations

I want to thank everyone that has donated to support me during April and other months of the year. Once I’m back in Denmark I am going to get me a job so that I have higher income and can live in Denmark for good (and stop being broke all the time). Details about my current status can be found here.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano (Week 13)

Before I start. I want to remind people on this article here that I wrote about my move to Denmark.

Today (3-April-2016) magnitude 3,4 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. It was followed by few minor aftershocks. Pre-earthquake with the magnitude of 3,0 also took place before the main event.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Green star shows the location of magnitude 3,4 earthquake. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

This earthquake took place not far from the dyke that created the eruption in Holuhraun. At the moment no other activity appears to be taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano.

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Minor earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano

Over the past few weeks there has been a slight increase in earthquakes in Öræfajökull volcano. Due to glacier quake activity I’m only using earthquakes that have confirmed depth of 1,5 km or deeper. This earthquake activity is minor and doesn’t suggest that an eruption is imminent, it however does suggest that something is going on.

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Öræfajökull volcano is to the south on this image (two red dots). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This activity has a long history, it started happening in 2012 at the earliest that I know of and has been going on slowly since then. Öræfajökull volcano did go from having no earthquakes and up to having two to five earthquakes a year. Sometimes more. There are clues in this activity that magma might be starting to push it self up into the volcano, but at the moment it doesn’t seems to be going far up into the volcano. Based on the current depth and low seismicity in Öræfajökull volcano. I don’t expect this to change any time soon. Since most of the time, at least for the moment there is little to no earthquake activity taking place in Öræfajökull volcano.

Donations

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

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga and Grímsfjall volcanoes

Yesterday (17-March-2016) an earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is a weekly cycle at the moment in Bárðarbunga volcano so older readers are used to seeing and read about it already. This started in September 2015 (for the new readers) after the eruption in Holuhraun ended in February 2015. This activity suggest that magma has started to flow into the magma chamber in Bárðarbunga volcano again at faster speeds than before the eruption in Holuhraun. The exact rate is difficult to know, since the magma that started the eruption in Holhraun had been building up in Bárðarbunga volcano since 1970-ish and part of that time earthquake recording was poor or did not exist in Iceland or parts of it until 1995 when the SIL network was created by Veðurstofa Íslands.

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The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga and Grímsfjall volcanoes. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

The largest earthquake this week had the magnitude of 3,4 while other earthquakes that took place had smaller magnitude. The second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 2,8. Other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude. It is also interesting that part of the earthquake swarm aligned it self along north-south fault in the eastern part of the caldera. That is a new feature, either a weakness is forming at this location or something else is up. This area has around 300 – 500 meter thick glacier on top of it and an eruption at this location would be extremely bad. The glacier flood from eruption at this location would mostly go down Jökulsá á fjöllum glacier river. Other flood locations can’t be ruled out (I’m not an expert on glacier floods and I do have limited knowledge of the landscape under the glacier).

Grímsfjall volcano

It has been five years since Grímsfjall volcano erupted in a largest eruption in 140 years for Grímsfjall volcano. Over the past few weeks there has been a slight increase in earthquake in Grímsfjall volcano. At the moment this doesn’t mean an eruption is imminent, the thing however about eruptions in Grímsfjall volcano is that they happen suddenly and without warning. Normally eruption happens in Grímsfjall volcano every 3 – 5 years on average, sometimes its shorter and sometimes its longer between eruptions.

Notice on Böðvarshólar geophone station

For the longest time now I’ve been having 3G connection issues with Böðvarshólar geophone station. The problems include poor signal, little bandwidth. The poor signal leaks into my recording of earthquakes, making them bad and extremely noisy and that makes them less usable for me. I am going to attempt to improve this situation but if that fails I will have to turn the station down. Since the cost of getting a good antenna for this location is too high and the solution takes too long to implement anyway. I will post a notice if I take down the Böðvarshólar geophone station. If it happens, it is going to happen before I move to Denmark.

Article updated on 18-March-2016 at 13:31 UTC. Minor spelling error fixes.

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Deep earthquakes in Askja volcano (15-March-2016)

Yesterday (15-March-2016) an earthquake swarm took place in Askja volcano. This was an deep earthquake swarm, with deepest earthquake having the depth of 18,7 km and the shallowest earthquake with the depth of 14,9 km. The earthquake swarm took place inside the volcano and there are clues that suggest it has it’s origin. This has been happening regularly since 2010 and after the Bárðarbunga volcano dyke getting close to the main magma chamber in Askja volcano the activity has slowly been increasing. This activity is not above background levels and nothing suggests that an eruption is about to happen any time soon.

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Askja volcano is located to the north-east of Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

For the moment the progress and the change in Askja volcano is slow, but that might change if the magma inside the system finds a pathway to the surface. If an eruption does happen I’m not expecting anything big, just a lava eruption that is going to go on for few days to weeks. Unless the magma gets into contact with water, creating a short term explosions. This is only a speculation, but Askja volcano is an active system and as such anything should be expected from it.

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Still mostly quiet in Iceland

Today (10-March-2016) an magnitude 3,2 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. The location of the earthquake swarm was in the caldera, with the location of the 3,2 magnitude earthquake being in the North-east part of the caldera.

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

The depth of this earthquake swarm was shallowest at 0,1 km, but most depth was 8,6 km. No other change has been observed in Bárðarbunga volcano so far. Other than this minor activity today in Bárðarbunga volcano activity remains low in Iceland. Currently there are storms passing over Iceland, that reduces the sensitivity of the SIL network.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. I’m getting rather broke at this moment. This will get better with time. That I’m sure of. But that moment I’m in minor problems and any help is welcomed. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Possible confirmation of minor eruption in Hamarinn volcano in July 2011

In July-2011 a minor eruption took place in Hamarinn volcano (part of Bárðarbunga volcano system). For a long time I’ve thought that those events in Hamarinn volcano where an eruption, rather than anything else. Due to how the glacier flood appeared and how sudden this all thing did happen.

Today (05-March-2016) Stöð 2 (Channel 2) ran a small news segment about this and the possible confirmation of this minor eruption in Hamarinn volcano in July-2011. I have the same view on the minor eruption in Katla volcano that same month. Its the view of Magnús Tumi, professor in geology that the events in Katla volcano where due to hydrothermal activity, not a minor eruption. I disagree with his assessment on what did happen in Katla volcano that summer. The top flood from Hamarinn volcano in July-2011 was 2.200m³/sec.

The articles I wrote about the events in Hamarinn volcano can be found here.
New harmonic tremor detected. But it is not from Katla volcano
Glacier flood confirmed from Vatnajökull glacier, flood is from Hamarinn volcano (Loki-Fögrufjöll area)

Vísir.is / Stöð 2 news in Icelandic

Lítið leynigos líklega í Vatnajökli árið 2011 (Vísir.is, Icelandic, images, video)