Wind – Iceland geology

November 22, 2023

Update on Grindavík for Wednesday 22. November 2023

This is a short update. Information there might go outdated quickly and without warning. This article is written on Wednesday 22. November 2023 at 21:32 UTC.

There’s little news to report at this moment. Mostly because of bad weather. The progress of the dyke has also stalled from earlier, or this might be it for now. It is difficult be sure currently.

Risk map of Grindavík and the total of 15 km in both directions. The red zone, danger zone b has been withdrawn to north of Grindavík and now its just a small line north of the town and up north along the dyke. The most dangerous risk zone is north of the town. — The risk zone around Grindavík. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The inflation at Svartsengi (upwards movement) stopped in the last 24 hours. This either means this series of events is stopping for now or something major is about to happen. I am not sure. Risk of this being a error are small, but this might be interference from weather (rain, snow).

The air code for Reykjanes volcano has been downgraded to yellow.

Aviation colour code for volcanoes in Iceland. All are green except Reykjanes volcano that is now yellow. — The aviation colour code of volcanoes in Iceland. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The situation in Grindavík and in Sundhnúkagígar and the nearby area can still change without much warning. Since the ground is very fractured there and is not going to be much resistance to any magma movements in the near future.

If anything more happens. I’ll update soon as I can.

December 29, 2015December 30, 2015

Weather warning for Iceland 30-December-2015

The weather forecast for Iceland on 30-December-2015 is looking really bad. The worst weather is going to be in eastern Iceland and possibly in western Iceland. It is not known where the worst wind is going to be exactly, but it is going to be real bad weather in eastern Iceland. UK Met Office has named this storm Frank, news about it can be found here (BBC Weather). The main risk is strong wind and rain.

This storm is also going to create a major problems in Faroe Islands and in the general area around Iceland.

The storm system low in hPa. Images are from this blog here (in Icelandic).

The storm system. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

The storm system.Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

I’m going to update this article as needed if everything goes bad when the storm arrives in Iceland on 30-December-2015.

Update 1

There was a storm in east Iceland yesterday. Creating a flood and snow-mud slides. One of those mud slides took out one SIL station.

The SIL station at Aðalból is now off-line due to mud-flood in that area. The image above shows when the mud-slide hits the SIL station and damages or destroys it. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Image of the mud-slide can be found here. Washington Post has news article about this storm and it can be read here.

New wind forecast for Iceland on 30-December-2015. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Flight delays should be expect according to FlightRadar24.

Update 2

Eastern part of Iceland got hit bad in this weather. North Iceland (eastern and western) are next going to be hit with this weather, it is not going to be as bad as in eastern Iceland. Mudslides also fell, damaging roads and creating other issues. Flooding was also a major problem in eastern Iceland. Some road damage has happened, but I don’t know the extent of at the moment. The lowest air pressure measured was 930 hPa according to Iceland Met Office.

News with images and videos of the storm in eastern Iceland (in Icelandic)

Aurskriður féllu í Fljótsdal (Rúv.is)
Malbikið flettist af veginum í Eskifirði (Rúv.is, images)
Ótrúlegar myndir frá Eskifirði (Rúv.is, videos)

Svipmyndir frá Eskifirði morguninn eftir storminn (Vísir.is, images)
Sjóhús svo gott sem farið: „Aldrei kynnst öðru eins“ (Vísir.is, images, video)

I don’t know when the weather is going to be fully over, but the worst appears to be over currently. I’m going to update this article as more information comes in.

Other

~~I’ve opened up the possibility for people to register again. If it stays spam-bot free it is going to be a permanent feature.~~ This didn’t work out due to manual spam registration. If anyone wants to use the registered user function please contact me over email so I can manually register a user name (password is going to be a random). There isn’t anything I can do about spam registration on my website, since they are done by people that get paid $1 for every registration that is made. All spam users are going to be deleted once they get active.

Article updated at 17:55 UTC.
Article updated at 16:03 UTC on 30-December-2015.

December 6, 2015December 8, 2015

Weather warning for Iceland Monday-07 and 08-Tuesday December-2015

Weather warning for Iceland on 07 and 08 December-2015.

If you are a tourist and if you know a tourist in Iceland at the moment. Please follow the following advice given by the Iceland Met Office.

After 15:00 UTC it is advised against all travel tomorrow, even in emergency. If you have an emergency during the storm contact 112 for advice and help. Problems with power and communication problems can and should be expected tomorrow during the duration of the storm.

I’m expecting both of my geophone to stop working at some time during this storm, due to power loss, loss of 3G signal or WiMax signal (Heklubyggð) or some other issues that might appear during this storm. Nothing can be done about this and I just hope for the best during this weather.

Wind forecast for tomorrow at 22:00 UTC. This is highly dangerous weather.

Please read the following news in English about the coming weather in Iceland on Monday.

Hurricane-force winds tomorrow (Rúv.is)
Violent storm with total white out to hit Iceland on Monday (mbl.is)
Hurricane force winds predicted for tomorrow (mbl.is)

Please check Iceland Met Office website and Facebook page for more details about this weather.

Update 1

English
The National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police in association with the District Commissioners in Iceland declares an uncertainty phase due to weather forecast from the meteorological office of a violent storm with hurrican force winds in all areas of Iceland
Travel advisory for all areas is in effect. Travellers are advised to avoid travelling in the South of Iceland from 1200 and in other areas from 1700. Uncertainty phase/level is characterized by an event which has already started and could lead to a threat to people, communities or the environment. At this stage the collaboration and coordination between the Civil Protection Authorities and stakeholders begins. Monitoring, assessment, research and evaluation of the situation is increased. The event is defined and a hazard assessment is conducted regularly..

(Almannavarnir Facebook page)

Update 2

Two of Vegagerðin wind stations that monitor wind did go down.

This is under Eyjafjöllum. Copyright of this image belongs to Vegagerðin in Iceland.

South of Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Vegagerðin in Iceland.

Article updated at 17:48 UTC.
Article updated at 11:18 UTC on 07-December-2015
Article updated at 06:17 UTC on 08-December-2015

November 13, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano update Wednesday 12-November-2014

Eruption activity continued in Holuhraun at the same rate as on Monday (10-November-2014) and yesterday (Tuesday 11-November-2014). While bad weather has making observation of the eruption in Holuhraun difficult and close to impossible there are no signs of the eruption ending any time soon. A lava lake has now formed that is around 400 meters long and 100 meters wide. This is the first lava lake in Iceland in a long time. I don’t know when last lava lake existed in Iceland, but that was a while ago.

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

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano continues as it has been doing for the past two and half months. This means that the caldera continues to subside at unchanged rate. I do not know how much the area has grown that is now subsiding, I think there is limited information on that due to limited access to this area in the winter time. At the moment nothing seems to be changing and GPS data is supporting that view of mine. Comments on this blog and blogs posts by people how have gone to the eruption site in recent days say that new fractures are appearing south of current eruption crater. This means that rifting is continuing, this also means that new eruption south of current crater might start at any time without warning. Since magma is at shallow depth at this location, with depth being only 1 – 2 km at most, it is possible that it might even be at shallower depth closest to the eruption crater (but has not erupted yet).

Tungafellsjökull volcano

There has been minor increase in earthquake activity in Tungafellsjökull volcano. At the moment this looks just like a tectonic stresses are adjusting to all the changes in Bárðarbunga volcano. Earthquake activity in Tungafellsjökull volcano might increase in next few days or weeks. I don’t expect any eruption to take place at this point in time.

Bad weather warning

For the next two days there is going to be bad weather in Iceland. This means that detection of earthquakes is going to be limited in Holuhraun and around Bárðarbunga volcano. This means that only largest of earthquakes are going to be properly detected. Visibility to the eruption site on web-cameras is not going to be awful to none due to the snowstorm that I expect might follow this storm in the highland (it might rain, but I am not sure on that detail yet). It is storm season in Iceland so expect a lot of storms all winter.

November 7, 2014November 7, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano update Friday 07-November-2014

Bad weather in Iceland has been making monitoring of Bárðarbunga volcano difficult at best. Information for that reason is a bit limited at the moment.

Earthquake activity continues in Bárðarbunga volcano as it has been doing for the past two months. Largest earthquake this morning had the magnitude of 5,4 and happened at 07:11 UTC. Other earthquakes have been smaller, due to bad weather in all of Iceland fewer earthquakes have been recorded today and yesterday (06-November-2014).

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

GPS measurement are showing that subsidence in Bárðarbunga volcano continues at the same rate as before. The rate of subsidence is the same, the change however is that larger area of Bárðarbunga volcano has now started to drop, suggesting that current eruption in Holuhraun has started to drain magma from other dykes in Bárðarbunga volcano or sill in it. The details of this can be found here in latest report from Icelandic Met Office on current activity in Bárðarbunga volcano.

No change has taken place in Holuhraun, the eruption continues with same rate as before far as I know. Bad weather has blocked the web cameras and I don’t think there is anyone close the eruption site due the weather. Far as I know there is nothing else in the news about the activity in Bárðarbunga volcano.

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October 31, 2014November 1, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano update for Friday 31-October-2014

This is the update for Bárðarbunga volcano on Friday 31-October-2014.

Not much has changed since Wednesday (29-October-2014) update in Bárðarbunga volcano. Earthquake activity continues as it has been doing for the past two months. No major change has been taking place in according to GPS data. No major change has happened in eruption vents in Holuhraun, the lava field is now around 65 square kilometres in size.

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

Strongest earthquakes for the past 24 hours have the magnitude of 5,3 and 5,2. Other earthquakes have been smaller. There is no change in earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and the caldera continues to drop around 40cm/day at the moment. Current SO2 output levels are around 20,000 to 40,000 tons/daily of SO2 from the eruption in Holuhraun. Bad weather has blocked proper earthquake detection and monitoring of the eruption in Holuhraun and of Bárðarbunga volcano. The weather is going to be extremely bad in Iceland for the next 6 – 10 hours. Other than this I don’t have any more news of Bárðarbunga volcano eruption.

Article updated 01-November-2014 at 00:30 UTC.

October 21, 2014October 21, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano Monday update on 20-October-2014

I am sorry for this late update. I was working on my server computer. More details at the end of this article.

Overview of weekend (18 – 19-October-2014) activity in Bárðarbunga volcano

Strongest earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano during the weekend had the magnitude of 5,4, second largest earthquake that took place during the weekend had the magnitude of 5,2. Other earthquakes have been smaller. Eruption in Holuhraun continued as it has been doing so for the past 1,9 month. During the weekend the new lava field in Holuhraun became the biggest in Iceland for the past 200 years. Other then this, nothing major did happen far as I know.

Monday 20-October-2014 activity update

Earthquake activity has been in high today, compared to yesterday (19-October-2014). Strongest earthquake had the magnitude of 5,0 and the second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 4,8. Other earthquakes where smaller, but a lot of magnitude 3,0 and 4,0 have happened today. Earthquake activity along the dyke has been increasing again after few quiet days.

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

The lava field in Holuhraun continues to grow and is now around 61 square kilometres in size. That is an (my own estimate) around 0,9 km² of lava in the Holuhraun area. Making this the largest eruption in Iceland for the past 200 years and it just keeps going on. The 16-October-2014 marked two month anniversary of start of the activity in Bárðarbunga volcano, it is going to be two months since the eruption started on 29-August-2014. The first eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano happened on 23-August-2014 and happened under the glacier, that eruption ended the same day. Other then what I report here, I don’t think there is nothing else to report about the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Notes about Bárðarbunga volcano

Please note that there is no evidence of felsic or intermediate magma in Bárðarbunga volcano. It is all just Ultramafic magma that is now erupting. For more details on magma please click here (Wikipedia). The glacier inside the caldera is moving down with the caldera. There is no evidence of any eruption taking place inside the caldera so far. It might happen in the future (and the wait might not be long), so far it just has not happened yet. There is a chance of hydrothermal activity taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano due the magma warning up the crust, that is however only of the magma is shallow as 1 – 2 km deep in the crust.

FreeBSD server

The reason why I didn’t update last weekend and late today is that I was trying to move my server from FreeBSD to Gentoo Linux. That did not work. What my server does is few things. Among the thing that my server does is to count earthquakes in Iceland like this image shows.

Image of the mrtg counter script for earthquakes. This image is released under Creative Commons, see CC Licence page for more details. Mrtg is a open source software.

It also runs my Minecraft server. I Play that game since I don’t play many games now. Both due to lack of time and interest. I play the game with my friends at times, when we have time to do so.

Lava in Minecraft. It doesn’t create lava fields. I guess that would be bad if it did that. Copyright of artwork belongs to Mojang and / or Microsoft. I took the image from the game using it screenshot function.

It is important for me to keep the earthquake counter running when I can do so. I also have to have my Minecraft server up and running so I can play when I have time to do so.

Article updated at 02:07 UTC.

October 16, 2014October 16, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano update for 15-October-2014

Far as I know there has not been a big change in the activity in Bárðarbunga volcano today (15-October-2014). Largest earthquake today had the magnitude of 5,4 and was felt in Akureyri. When the magnitude 5,4 earthquake happened the caldera dropped 15 cm in one go according to the GPS measurements in its centre. Over the past two days earthquake activity has been increasing in Bárðarbunga volcano and along the dyke that is erupting in Holuhraun. After the largest earthquake today the earthquake activity appears to have dropped a little.

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

Other then this I don’t think there is anything more in news of activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Since day to day activity remains the same. Tungafellsjökull volcano continues to show earthquake activity following the stress changes that are now taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano. I still think no eruption is going to take place in that volcano [Tungafellsjökull volcano], at least as things stand at the moment.

Those how are interested in hearing the magnitude 5,4 earthquake that happened today. It is possible to do so in this two audio files that I did convert from my earthquake data earlier. This is how my geophones at Böðvarshólar (bhrz) and Heklubyggð (hkbz) “hear” the earthquake. Each audio file is only 2 seconds long. The sound from Heklubyggð is louder since the earthquake signal is stronger there. Both audio files are released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see CC Licence page for more details.

Böðvarshólar geophone
141015.111600.bhrzZ

Heklubyggð geophone
141015.111607.hkbzZ

October 11, 2014October 13, 2014

Friday update for Bárðarbunga volcano on 10-October-2014

This is current status on Bárðarbunga volcano on 10-October-2014.

There is no change or little in the eruption in Holuhraun far as I know. Visibility has been low today due to bad weather and snow.
Largest earthquake today had the magnitude of 4,8 at 11:26 UTC. Second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 4,7 at 02:24 UTC. Other earthquakes have been smaller.
Earthquake activity is increasing in Tungafellsjökull volcano. Current idea about this activity is that it is responding to tension changes in Bárðarbunga volcano. I don’t know how good this idea is. It might explain some of the earthquake activity. I am unsure if it explains all of the current earthquake in Tungafellsjökull. Currently I am just waiting to see what happens next with this volcano.
Earthquake activity along the dyke was minimal from what I can tell. Most of it took place under the glacier and that might not be a good sign if an eruption starts in that area. Since it would start a glacier flood and later a minor volcano ash eruption.
No further reports far as I know about current status in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Earthquake from Tungafellsjökull volcano at 22:58:28 UTC. There is some signature different in the earthquakes and the one from Bárðarbunga volcano. The main different at the moment is that the earthquakes in Tungafellsjökull volcano appears to be more tectonic and not due to magma movement. That has however been changing since the earthquake activity changed. Latest earthquakes show less pure tectonic activity than before. It is my assessment that magma might be on the move in Tungafellsjökull volcano. There is currently nothing to suggest that an eruption is going to take place even if that is the case. This image is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see CC Licence for more details.

Saturday 11-October-2014 update

No change reported in the eruption according to the news today. The eruption fissure is now one 400 meter long fissure and all the craters that where in that area have merged together into one crater.
Largest earthquake today had the magnitude of 5,0. Second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 4,7. Other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude.
New video of the eruption can be found here on Vísir.is. Audio and text is in Icelandic.
The eruption might last for months according to scientists in Iceland.
When scientists flew over Bárðarbunga volcano on Friday they noted some new cauldrons in the glacier. I suspect this has more to do with minor eruptions in the area rather then hydrothermal or hot spring activity. Such activity cannot be ruled out and possibly is taking place along the dyke. If any hydrothermal activity is taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano it means that magma has now reached depth of 1 – 2 km or less.

Sunday 12-October-2014 update

Largest earthquakes on 12-October-2014 had the magnitude of 5,2 and the second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 4,7.
Slightly higher earthquake activity has been detected today compared to yesterday. There has been more earthquake activity along the dyke then yesterday.
Due to bad weather there has not been any visible observation on Míla web cameras.
I suspect that minor eruptions are taking place under the glacier. I don’t know where they are taking place. A flight over the glacier is needed for such observation to see new or deepened cauldrons in the glacier.
Nothing else to report far as I know.

I wish everyone a good weekend.

Article updated at 22:42 UTC.
Article updated at 00:29 UTC on 13-October-2014.

October 9, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano daily update for 8-October-2014

This is daily update for Bárðarbunga volcano for 8-October-2014. Please note that I am doing to do the updates a bit shorter when nothing special is happening.

Current status in Bárðarbunga volcano

Largest earthquake today had the magnitude of 5,2. This earthquake took place NNE part of the caldera where majority of the large earthquakes have been happening for the past weeks. This activity might be because a dyke is drilling its way trough the crust in that one spot. This is just an idea (based on the clues that I get from the earthquake activity) and is so far not yet proven in any form.
No major changes have been reported in the eruption in Holuhraun. The lava field is now larger then 52 square kilometres in size. The eruption is about the same size as it was when it started five weeks ago.
Bad weather is preventing proper observation of the eruption at times.
The highest crater called Baugur is now some 100 meters tall. The crater called Suðri is around 40 to 50 meters tall. Other craters in the eruption are smaller. Icelandic news with picture with the name of craters can be found here.
There has been almost no earthquake activity detected today under the dyke today.
No other news to report today that I know of.

I am going to post update here if anything new happens. Volcanoes are unpredictable forces of nature so anything can happen without warning when they erupt.

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