Bárðarbunga – Page 17 – Iceland geology

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.

June 29, 2015June 30, 2015

Deep earthquakes in Bárðarbunga and Tungnafellsjökull volcanoes

Even if the eruption in Holuhraun and Bárðarbunga volcano is over, there is no shortage of activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. With deepest earthquake in past 48 hours having the depth of 28,6 km and earthquakes don’t get a lot deeper than this in Bárðarbunga volcano. At this depth earthquake activity happens due to magma movements rather than tectonic stresses.

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano (red dots). Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office.

Earthquake activity in Tungnafellsjökull volcano

Since the end of the eruption and any major activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Earthquake activity in Tungafellsjökull volcano has not stopped as expected. The earthquake activity continues at low levels and at great depth. With deepest earthquake in last 48 hours at 26,2 km.

Earthquake activity in Tungnafellsjökull volcano (yellow / orange dots). Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office.

It is unclear what is going on in Tungnafellsjökull volcano, it is clear that dyke intrusion is taking place at depth, if and when that might result in a eruption is not clear at this moment. This might lead to an eruption or it might not. It is impossible to know at this moment since Tungnafellsjökull volcano has no recorded or documented history of volcano eruptions in historical times.

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June 10, 2015

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (10-June-2015) an magnitude 3,3 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake had the depth of 6,3 km.

Magnitude 3,3 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano is shown with the green star. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

No other earthquake activity has followed the magnitude 3,3 earthquake so far. This earthquake was a long period earthquake, that means it was magnetic in nature and was created by magma at 6,3 km depth. At the moment it is impossible to know for sure what is going to happen in Bárðarbunga volcano, far as I know there hasn’t been any inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano since the eruption in Holuhraun ended, that might have happened, just not detected due to the size of the area.

Donations: Please remember to support my work with donations. I also run the risk of getting really hungry this month due the fact that Iceland is really expensive and that problem is going to get worse until I move back to Denmark (where prices are slightly higher than in Germany, but a lot lower then in Iceland). Thanks for the support. 🙂

June 7, 2015June 7, 2015

Overview of activity in Iceland in week 23

During Week 23 there hasn’t been a lot of activity taking place. Normal minor-earthquake activity has been taking place all over Iceland, some glacier earthquakes have been seen in Vatnajökull glacier. This spread out earthquake activity is normal for Iceland, it is also easily detected in Iceland due to the dense seismometer network in Iceland. Earthquake activity continues in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Normal earthquake activity in Iceland at the moment. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorologist Office.

At the moment the earthquake activity in Iceland is within normal background levels. Minor earthquake activity is almost always taking place in Iceland, there are few days when no earthquakes happen, but those days are rare and it is long between them. At the moment there is nothing to report in terms of the activity in Iceland.

Work schedule

This summer I am working Monday to Friday from 08:00 to 16:00. This means if anything happens I won’t me aware of it until I get back from work.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. They help me work on this website and keep my alive. I have found out that food is expensive in Iceland and over the past two years that price has only gone up and it continues to do so. This means the budget I used in Denmark for food is not enough in Iceland (I have adjusted the plans, that type of living is going to be a challenge for the next 9 – 11 months when I am going to be living in Hvammstangi, Iceland). I am now close to getting completely broke. Most of my working income is going to pay up my debt (what I get of it, since I pay full tax [37,30%] of it in Iceland). I hope to be finished paying up all my debt in October. Thanks for the support.

Article updated at 20:48 UTC.
Article updated at 23:04 UTC.

June 1, 2015

Alert level for Bárðarbunga volcano lowered

Today (1-June-2015) the alert level around Bárðarbunga volcano was lowered to uncertainty level from danger level. This means there are no longer any travel restrictions in the area. Besides normal spring closure in the highlands due to the snow melting (and creating mud areas). There is a risk of snap floods in the area due to hydrothermal activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. It remains high according to the latest news. The risk area for that melt water is in Jökulsá á fjöllum glacier river, since melt water can collect under the glacier and then flood the river days to weeks later. It is also not known what is going to happen when the summer melt period starts in Jökulsá á fjöllum glacier river. A new lake might from in the area next to the glacier where the lava blocked the glacier river path, the glacier water comes from Dyngjökuli glacier.

Icelandic News about this

Frá hættustigi á óvissustig (mbl.is, Icelandic)
Ekki lengur hættustig vegna Bárðabungu (Rúv.is, Icelandic)
Viðbúnaður vegna jarðhræringa við Bárðarbungu færður niður á óvissustig (Vísir.is, Icelandic)

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