Bárðarbunga – Page 18 – Iceland geology

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.

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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.

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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)

May 12, 2015May 13, 2015

How Bárðarbunga volcano collapsed

There is a good article about how Bárðarbunga volcano collapsed during it’s six month long eruption in Holuhraun. The most recent data (the work on Bárðarbunga volcano is far from over even there is no eruption taking place currently) show that Bárðarbunga volcano did in fact collapse. This collapse was not marked by a big explosion, but rather slow subsidence of Bárðarbunga volcano over a large area. Holuhraun eruption is the largest eruption in Iceland for the past 230 years, both in magma and size of the eruption.

More details can be found here.

Iceland’s Bárðarbunga-Holuhraun: a remarkable volcanic eruption (blogs.egu.eu)

April 30, 2015

Dyke intrusion in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (30-April-2015) a minor dyke intrusion took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This dyke intrusion was small and appears to be over for now. This does show that current activity in Bárðarbunga volcano is not over even if the eruption in Holuhraun has ended.

The dyke intrusion in Bárðarbunga volcano is a small cluster of earthquakes, it can be found on this image as three orange dots and one red dot. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquake that appeared in the following earthquake swarm took place had the magnitude of 2,1. Depth of this earthquake swarm was around 17 km and going up to 5,3 km. Nothing suggest that at current time this dyke has reached the surface and no harmonic tremor was detected during the time this dyke intrusion took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. More dyke related activity should be expected in Bárðarbunga volcano in next few months to years. Other earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano are due to stress changes in the crust due to deflation the volcano came under during the eruption in Holuhraun, total subsidence of Bárðarbunga volcano during that eruption has been measured 62 meters. Current rifting activity is not over in this area even if no eruptions are taking place at the moment.

April 11, 2015April 11, 2015

Deflation has stopped in Bárðarbunga volcano

According to a short news today on Rúv it appears that Bárðarbunga volcano has stopped deflating and activity is slowing down in new hydrothermal vents that opened up during the most active period of Bárðarbunga volcano. The rift activity that has started in this region of Iceland is not over yet, even if there is nothing happening at current time.

It is impossible to know when next period of eruptions starts in this area. Until then it is going to remain mostly quiet.

Icelandic news

Sigið í Bárðarbungu er hætt (Rúv.is)

March 28, 2015

Deep earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga and Öræfajökull volcano

Today (28-March-2015) there has been deep earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. This suggest that there is a fresh injection of magma into Bárðarbunga volcano system. If this is going to result in new eruption remains to be seen. It is not impossible at current time to happen. So far however nothing has happened. Deepest earthquake had depth of 21,1 km, others earthquakes are shallower.

Earthquake activity in Vatnajökull glacier today. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Öræfajökull volcano

Today (28-March-2015) there has also been deep earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano [Wikipedia link here]. This activity is not new and has been taking place every few months for the past 10 years or so. Quiet times are different in length. Each earthquake swarm that takes place is different in both magnitude and length, current activity appears to be deep, but mostly small earthquakes, less then magnitude 1,5 for most part. Deepest earthquake in this swarm had the depth of 25,0 km. This earthquake activity is only due to fresh magma entering Öræfajökull volcano system, not tectonic activity in this area due the depth of the earthquakes are taking place.

Based on historical accounts of earlier eruptions (1362 and 1728). It appears that eruptions in Öræfajökull start with powerful earthquake swarm (magnitude 4,0+ earthquakes). The following eruption is an ash cloud one with glacier floods taking place, with that phase lasting up to 48 hours. What happens after that is unclear, since it was not documented properly by historical records (at least not properly mentioned or lost due the old age of the historical records in question). Eruptions can last for up to 45 days, based on earlier documented eruptions. Current earthquake swarm is inside Öræfajökull volcano, since it is not round volcano, but goes a little to north where the earthquake swarm is taking place. There is no fissure swarm connected with Öræfajökull volcano, it does not rule out that one exist, it is at least not known at the moment. At the moment there are no clear sign that there is increased eruption risk from Öræfajökull volcano. That might change without warning, as is always the risk with volcanoes.

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March 18, 2015March 19, 2015

Bárðarbunga volcano continues to deflate

The eruption in Holuhraun is over and nothing has been happening the crater for the past three weeks. This does not mean the deflation is over in Bárðarbunga volcano. Currently Bárðarbunga volcano continues to deflate at the rate of 2cm/day, total deflation since 31-August-2014 is around 60 meters. All this deflation has started to move the glacier inside the caldera, creating what appears to be inflation, that change in the glacier, that inflation is 1,5cm/day. That inflation should be 3-4cm/day according to Icelandic Met Office, so the difference is the deflation taking place. Currently the GPS sensor inside Bárðarbunga volcano caldera is not working so the only way to monitor this deflation is to continue to fly over the glacier and measure it that way. Next scheduled flight for Bárðarbunga volcano is going to take place after Easter.

News in Icelandic

Bárðarbunga hefur sigið um 60 metra (Rúv.is)

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