Bárðarbunga – Page 17 – Iceland geology

November 14, 2015November 14, 2015

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano

I’m sorry for lack of articles. It has been quiet in Iceland for the past few weeks and I needed some time off after the work I’ve been in. I’ve also been dealing with a tax problem in Denmark, that issue is on-going for me (sadly) and might delay my move back to Denmark, how much I do not know yet.

Earthquake activity continues in Bárðarbunga volcano continues, this are mostly minor earthquakes that are taking place. Most of the earthquake activity is taking place on the north-east part of Bárðarbunga volcano caldera. According to Iceland Met Office this is due to continued subsidence of the volcano at that location. It is my view that Iceland Met Office estimate is correct, with just one exception. It is my view that magma pressure inside Bárðarbunga volcano is increasing, based on latest data, the pressure increase might be happen at more depth than I first estimated.

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

I’m also seeing cases of increased hydrothermal activity south of Bárðarbunga volcano, in Hamarinn volcano. This was best seen in the larger size of Skaftárkatlar cauldron. This change in size suggests higher output of hydrothermal activity and it might be connected to higher magma activity at depth in this volcano. It is difficult to be sure since the area is covered with a glacier, but it is a well known sign impending eruption in many cases. There are few cases when there is a increase in hydrothermal activity without an eruption taking place. It is impossible to know when anything might happen in Hamarinn volcano, if anything happens at all to start with. Last minor eruption that took place in Hamarinn volcano (in my view) was in July-2011, it lasted around 8 hours with breaks.

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Twich and Youtube

I’m currently testing my game stream on Twich here. My Youtube stream tests can be found here. This Youtube channel is a work in progress. I have a other YouTube channel (can be viewed here), it however mostly just contains nature video. Since I’m on slow 3G internet connect at the moment I won’t do a lot of streaming, just basic tests in order to learn how to properly due this. I won’t run many more tests with Youtube than I already have, it seems to work rather well as is.

Article update at 23:29 UTC. I changed the YouTube channel for streams. I’m going to use a other channel on YouTube with the same name as my Twitch channel. The name is Channel 99 on Twitch and YouTube.

November 4, 2015November 4, 2015

Earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (4-November-2015) a earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is now almost a weekly feature in the Bárðarbunga volcano system. This is suggesting that magma pressure inside Bárðarbunga volcano is currently increasing at rather fast phase. If and when this might start a new eruption is impossible to know. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 3,1.

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

I’m expecting this earthquake activity to continue for some time now. At least until a new eruption occurs in Bárðarbunga volcano, since the rifting process that started all this has not ended and this is going to last few more years.

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Article updated at 23:14 UTC.

November 2, 2015

Overview of week 44 activity in Iceland

This is a short overview of activity in week 44 in Iceland.

Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ)

Earthquake swarm took place in TFZ in week 44. Largest earthquake had the magnitude of 3,5 and other earthquakes had the magnitude of 3,1. Other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.

Earthquake swarm on the TFZ. Largest earthquake swarm took place where the green stars are. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

A second smaller earthquake swarm took place south of Grímsey. It is not connected to the stronger earthquake swarm east of Grímsey island.

Bárðarbunga volcano

A magnitude 3,0 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This suggests increased pressure inside Bárðarbunga volcano. I forgot to save image of last week activity in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Tungnafellsjökull volcano

Earthquake activity continues in Tungnafellsjökull volcano. As before all of the earthquakes taking place are small in magnitude. At the moment the earthquake swarm activity appears to be centered around the top of the volcano, one of the main craters. Earthquake activity is steady in Tungafellsjökull volcano at the moment. It sometimes drop down, as is to be expected when magma moves inside volcano.

Earthquake activity in Tungnafellsjökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Skaftárkatlar cauldrons in Vatnajökull glacier

Recent survey of Skaftárkatlar cauldrons in Vatnajökull glacier has shown that the eastern cauldron has grown considerable in size. This is now thought to be the main reason why the glacier flood from eastern skaftárkatlar cauldron was the largest in recorded history. The cauldron is now 2,5 sq/km in size and 150 meters deep. Video of the overflight can be found here (Facebook). Measurements and other details can be found here at University of Iceland Earth science website (Icelandic). This are early results from recent survey.

Other things

Please remember to support my work with donations or by using Amazon. Due to problems with the Danish tax authorities I did not get my social welfare paid out this month in Iceland. Reason being that I have not got my copy of the tax statement for the year 2014, that I have . I hope this is resolved in November as has been promised to me. This however means that I have to use the salary for last months work to survive this month, money that I was saving in order to pay for moving cost when I move back to Denmark. If this is not resolved by December, I have to go on emergency income from my municipality. I won’t move to Denmark until this issue with the Danish tax is resolved. The temporary work that I was in is over so I’m going to be updating now when things happen in Iceland or close to it.

Once I’m back in Denmark I can start uploading detailed images of earthquakes and keep a real time watch about what is going on in Iceland. Its difficult for me to do that at the moment.

October 23, 2015

Rare earthquakes in Hreppar micro-plate and other activity in Iceland

Due to family obligations I won’t be able to write a long post until Sunday (I hope). So here is a short overview of activity.

Hreppar micro-plate

A rare swarm of earthquakes took place on the Hreppar micro-plate today. All of the earthquakes had less magnitude than 1,0.

Hreppar micro-plate earthquake activity on its edge with the American plate. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

South Icelandic Seismic Zone

A swarm of earthquakes took place in SISZ this week. Largest earthquake had the magnitude of 2,5 and was felt in nearby populated areas.

Earthquake swarm on SISZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Bárðarbunga volcano

Last week a magnitude 3,2 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This don’t appear to be deflation earthquakes, they rather look like inflation earthquakes. I don’t have time to write about it now, so details have to wait for now.

The magnitude 3,2 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

I hope to write more on Sunday if I have time.

October 11, 2015

Overview of week 41 activity in Iceland

Week 41 in Iceland was rather quiet, compared to last two weeks in Iceland. Here is a overview over the highlight in the earthquake activity in Iceland.

South Iceland Seismic Zone (SISZ)

Constant earthquake activity has been in SISZ over the week and it has been ongoing for the past weeks, none of the earthquakes have been large, with almost all of them being less then magnitude 1,0. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2,5.

The earthquake activity on SISZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Bárðarbunga volcano

For most part earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano was normal this week, with regular earthquake swarms taking place in the usual places. The most interesting earthquake this week took place under Trölladyngju, it was only magnitude 0,7, but it was on depth of 26,2 km.

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

Herðubreið

Earthquake swarm has been taking place all week in Herðubreið. Earthquake swarms are common in this area and often have magnitude 3,0 earthquakes or larger. The earthquake swarm is ongoing when this is written.

Earthquake activity in Herðubreið/Herðubreiðarfjöll area (north of Askja volcano). Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Reykjanes ridge

A magnitude 3,4 earthquake took place deep on the Reykjanes ridge this week. The earthquake was not felt and there might have been more than one earthquake. My geophone in Heklubyggð shows more than one earthquake one hour after the magnitude 3,4 earthquake happens.

Earthquake activity on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

A magnitude 3,0 earthquake also took place around 200 km off the coast of Reykjanes peninsula (around 153 km south of Eldeyjarboða). That earthquake location was poor due to the distance from the SIL network.

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October 4, 2015

Glacier flood from Skaftárkatlar cauldrons and other updates

This is going to be a short article since I don’t have a time to write a long one.

The glacier flood from Skaftárkatlar cauldrons is mostly over. There continues to be a lot of water in rivers that were flooded, with the flood peak being at 2200 m³/s (uncorrected). Some damage has taken place on roads and few bridges, with one major bridge almost collapsing from the river eating into the river banks. A graph showing this glacier flood in realation to older glacier flood from the eastern skaftárkatlar cauldron can be found here (Icelandic news). The glacier water that did flood into a lava field (that erupted from Laki) is still on its way and is going to reappear in few days as clean water, a lot of clean water that might create problem in nearby rivers and nearby roads if any exist. I don’t know the layout of roads and such in this part of Iceland so I don’t release what type of damage might happen. Image of the largest damaged bridge can be found here (Icelandic news), there is a video in this news.

Bárðarbunga volcano

There has been a slight increase in earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano this week. A magnitude 3,1 earthquake took place along with little increase in smaller earthquakes. There have also been clusters of small earthquakes been appearing in east and in south (both east and west) part of the volcano. This activity suggest that new magma is flowing into the magma chamber at depth and the pressure has increased. Maybe not to eruption levels at the moment, but that moment is getting closer as the time passes.

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

North Langjökull volcano (Hveravellir)

Earlier this week an earthquake swarm took place close to Hveravellir (volcano). This earthquake swarm was not large and the largest earthquake only had the magnitude of 2,5 (or around that number. I was working when this happened and I did not have chance to check or save the data). Earthquake activity in this area has been increasing slowly for the past 10 years. It is unclear why that is happening.

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

Western Fracture Zone

There has been for the past few days earthquake activity in WFZ. This earthquake activity appears to be taking place in a extinct volcano in this area. I don’t think that this volcano is named and I don’t know the name of the mountains at the location were the earthquake activity is taking place.

The earthquake activity in WFZ today (04-October-2015). Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

I do expect the earthquake activity to continue in this area for next few days. Due to how rare earthquakes are in this area there is a risk of sharp and strong activity. It might also last for a long period of time, up to weeks or months at the longest.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. At the moment I’m trying to collect as much money as I can before I move back to Denmark. I am also trying to save up for a cheap new laptop so that I can write when I am traveling, in the case anything happens in Iceland. It is going to cost me 40.000,00 ISK (~280€/315USD). Currently I’m doing full workday until the end of October (when not in school). To clarify, the work is hard and they only pay legal minimal wages and overtime pay (1 – 3 hours each day).

Thanks for the support.

September 21, 2015September 21, 2015

Increased activity in Bárðarbunga and Tungnafellsjökull volcanoes

I don’t have the time or the energy to write a long article about what is going on in Bárðarbunga and Tungnafellsjökull volcanoes. What I do know is that magma appears to be pressuring Tungafellsjökull volcano, creating earthquakes, the largest earthquakes so far have reached magnitude 2,9. Other earthquakes have been smaller. Some of the earthquakes appear volcanic in nature based on what I’m seeing on my geophones (at poor resolution at the moment).

In Bárðarbunga volcano there has also been earthquake activity today. I don’t know yet if its due to inflation or deflation of the magma system in Bárðarbunga volcano. Largest earthquake today (21-September-2015) had the magnitude of 3,2. Other earthquakes have been smaller, this earthquake activity has been small so there is a chance this does not mean anything yet.

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

The activity in Tungnafellsjökull volcano is likely to continue and might increase. I’m not sure what happens in Bárðarbunga volcano at the moment.

Working schedule: In September and until end of October I’m working Monday to Friday from 07:00 – ?? (Monday/Wednesday/Friday) and 10:00 – ?? (Tuesday/Thursday). Due to the nature of the work (its a slaughterhouse work) I don’t have my mobile phones with me and therefor I don’t know what is going on if anything happens. The longest days are now in process and are going to last until second or third week of October I think.

September 12, 2015September 12, 2015

Something is going on in Hamarinn (Bárðarbunga) and Tungnafellsjökull volcanoes

Today (11-September-2015) an earthquake swarm started in Hamarinn volcano (no GVP profile, see Bárðarbunga volcano). This is a volcano that is inside Bárðarbunga volcano fissure swarm and might be connected to it, that connection is unclear, but historical data suggests that once Bárðarbunga volcano gets erupting sometimes Hamarinn volcano does too. There is a similar pattern in Grímsfjall volcano and Þórðarhyrna volcano (no GVP profile) as an another example.

Current sequence of earthquakes in Hamarinn volcano started with a small earthquake at 22,5 km depth. Few shallower earthquakes happened before that event, those earthquakes however might be connected to changes in hydrothermal systems in the volcano, rather then something else. The deep earthquake that took place started a series of smaller earthquakes at shallower depth, suggesting that pressure is already high inside the volcano, how close it might be to erupting is impossible to know, but the clues that I’m not seeing do not look good. This might die out, but I think the chance of that are small. Last eruption in Hamarinn volcano took place in July-2011, I wrote about it here, here and here.

Current area of activity in Hamarinn volcano. This area is covered with a thick glacier up to 300 – 400 meters. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Harmonic tremor data is showing that current earthquake activity are low and long period earthquakes (green and red spikes). I also noted that on this image a harmonic tremor spike can be seen on the green band. It does not appear visible on the red and blue bands. I’m unclear on why this is. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

The harmonic tremor spike does not appear on the SIL station Skrokkalda. I don’t know why that is. Earthquake activity appears clearly on it (spikes). Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Activity in Tungafellsjökull volcano

There has been interesting earthquake activity in Tungafellsjökull volcano today. Today earthquake swarm started with the depth of 12,3 km and it mostly stayed there. Suggesting that magma dyke injections are taking place in the volcano at the moment. If and when this might lead to an eruption is impossible to know. Magma might be at shallower depth already due to high activity during the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano.

The earthquake activity in Tungafellsjökull volcano, it’s located north of both Bárðarbunga and Hamarinn volcano (NE of Hamarinn). Current activity is a small cluster of earthquakes in north-east part of Tungafellsjökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Largest earthquake in this swarm so far had the magnitude of 1,9. It was also the shallowest earthquake in this swarm. So far no change on the surface of Tungnafellsjökull volcano, meaning that no hydrothermal vents have appeared so far. That might not happen since formation of hydrothermal vents does not always happen before an eruption.

September 5, 2015September 5, 2015

Overview of the small earthquake swarms in Iceland

Over the past few days there have been few minor earthquake swarms taking place in Iceland. None of the earthquake swarms have been large, all of them have been minor and no earthquake did reach the magnitude of 3,0 or larger.

The earthquake swarms in TFZ, Reykjanes peninsula and Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Most of the earthquake activity that has been taking place has been happening in Bárðarbunga volcano, minor earthquake activity has been ongoing in the volcano and fissure since end of the eruption in February-2015. A swarm of small earthquakes took place on TFZ, none of those earthquakes reached magnitude 2,0. Most depth in this swarm was around 22 km, so magma might have been involved, this area is a rift valley. I don’t know of any documented eruption at this location, that does not mean it might not have happened. Minor earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes peninsula, one earthquake reached magnitude 2,8 with other earthquakes having smaller magnitude . The earthquake swarm took place in the volcano system of Krýsuvík. This earthquake swarm appears tectonic in nature rather then volcanic.

There has also been a minor earthquake swarm in Torfajökull volcano, it has been on the none-volcanic area between Torfajökull and Katla volcano. It’s unclear why this is happening, there is a chance this is a earthquake swarm in Katla volcano on the edge of the volcano system, or this is a earthquake swarm on the edge of the Torfajökull volcano system. I don’t have my maps so I can’t check for it.

Other then this it has been quiet in Iceland this week and for the past few weeks, this quiet might continue for the next few weeks to months.

Article updated at 23:45 UTC.

August 16, 2015August 16, 2015

Bárðarbunga volcano one year ago

One year ago activity in Bárðarbunga volcano was increasing, the week before a constant earthquake swarm had been taking place in the volcano. I had planned to write about that earthquake swarm that had been taking place, that never happened due to sudden increase in Bárðarbunga volcano the day that I had planned on writing about the earthquake swarm (I don’t have that image, I think, at least I can’t find it, I possibly did not save it due to me forgetting doing so).

The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano at 11:45 UTC on 16-August-2014. This was just the start. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It was clear that on 16-August-2014 that something was going on when I looked at the harmonic tremor plot at Iceland Met Office website. It was going crazy. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It was clear when looking at the harmonic tremor plot that something was going on and what was happening was big.

Green stars numbers increased as the time passed on the map, so did the magnitude and number of the earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

When 25-August-2014 came the number of earthquakes taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano was in the thousands and earthquakes with magnitude 3,0 and larger was in the hundreds.

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano on 25-August-2015. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The largest earthquake that happened before the eruption started took place on 26-August-2014, it had the magnitude of 5,7 and is the largest earthquake in Iceland since 2008.

The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano on 26-August-2015. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The magnitude 5,7 earthquake on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. This image is under Creative Commons License. Please see CC license page for more details.

The magnitude 5,7 earthquake on my geophone in Heklubyggð. This image is under Creative Commons License. Please see CC license page for more details.

Once the eruption started in Bárðarbunga volcano by the end of August-2014 most of the earthquake activity stopped, it did continue with one to three magnitude five or larger earthquakes in Bárðarbung volcano caldera as it collapsed due the magma outflow in Holuhraun eruption area. That earthquake activity continued until end of February, when the eruption was just about the end in Holuhraun.

Early signs of what was about to happen in Bárðarbunga volcano

It is difficult to know for sure what are the early signs in Bárðarbunga volcano until after an eruption has started. One of the few clues that I know about was earthquake activity like this one. It was considered a normal earthquake activity for Bárðarbunga volcano, there is a good chance that it was a activity telling scientist that Bárðarbunga volcano was about to erupt soon.

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano on 16-May-2014. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is difficult at best to know if an volcano is about to erupt or not. Clues are also difficult to see since the process of why and how eruption happens is often hard to see when data is missing, as is the case with volcanoes with long period of quiet.

Status of Bárðarbunga volcano at the moment

Currently there isn’t a lot happening in Bárðarbunga volcano. However, based on earlier historical record it is clear that current eruption activity in Bárðarbunga volcano is possibly not over yet. There is a good chance of new eruptions over the next time period of 10 – 15 years. The time between eruptions is everything from 1 year and up to 10 years (about). Quiet period in Bárðarbunga volcano can last up to 100 years, the current one that ended in 2014 lasted good 104 years. Where and when next eruption is going to take place in Bárðarbunga volcano is anyone guess, all that I know for sure is that it is going to happen and next eruption might be as big as the one in Holuhraun that ended six months ago.

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