Category: Landslide

Posted on

All traffic to Askja volcano forbidden due to a large landside yesterday (22-July-2014)

According to Icelandic Meteorological Office, a large landslide fell yesterday (22-July-2014) around midnight in Askja volcano, the landslide did go into Askja lake creating a flood wave that was 100 to 200 meters high. It did reach the other end of the crater lake and did flow over its edge, some water did go into Víti crater. This landslide took place in south part of the Askja lake crater (best information I have at the moment). Harmonic tremor was detected following this events, it was recorded for 20 minutes according to news reports (no image since Askja harmonic tremor plot image is missing in IMO website).

A cloud was seen following this landslide, it is not clear if it was steam or just loose dirt material moving up into the air. Early estimates into this landslide are that around 24 million cubic meters of material did come down with this landslide, part of it ending in Askja lake and raising the water levels in Askja lake some two meters (early estimates). Until this matter has been checked by scientist and Almannavarnir in Iceland, all traffic to Askja volcano is forbidden. There is also a risk of more landslides taking place in Askja volcano, since the soil where the landslide took place might not have settled yet. It is highly dangerous to go there under the current conditions and I urge anyone not to go there due to how dangerous this area now is.

Update 1: Image of the landslide can be found here.

I am going to post more information about this once I have more details on this event.

Icelandic news on this

Öll umferð bönnuð um Öskju eftir gríðarlega stóra skriðu (DV.is)
Umferð um Öskju bönnuð eftir stóra skriðu (Rúv.is)
Stór skriða féll í Öskju­vatn (Mbl.is)

Donations: Please remember to donate. While I am going to move back to Iceland in December. I still have to make it until then (somehow). Thanks for the support.

Article updated at 00:34 UTC on 23-July-2014.

Posted on

Landslide in Fljótsdal, east Iceland

Yesterday (1-June-2014) a 300 meter wide landslide fell in east Iceland. This landslide did create minor damage for the nearby farm. The total damage is so far 250.000 ISK (1.615,93€, 1.312,13 GBP current exchange rate). The farmer thinks that at least one sheep was lost under the landslide, it is not told of any lambs where lost, 500 poles for fences where also lost under the landslide. This farmer makes them for sale. Four horses did safe them by jumping over a fence when the landslide got close to them.

The reason for this landslide is melting of snow the mountain above the farm. Summer melt has now started in Iceland and for the past few days have been warm in Iceland with temperature going up to 18C (and above) at locations. There has not been a lot of rainfall in Iceland for the past few days.

Icelandic news of this landslide

Aurskriða féll í leysingum í Fljótsdal (Rúv.is, Icelandic, Picture)

Donations: Please remember to donate to support my work. I am hoping to buy new shoes this month (in Germany). Since the hole in my current shoes only grows bigger by the day and more usage. I am also going to get me long overdue haircut. Thanks for the support.

Posted on

Large landslide in east Iceland (Ímatindi, Vaðlavík)

According to Rúv News an landslide fell in East Iceland last week (best guess). This appears to be an large landslide. It did closed down an road close to two abandoned farms in the nearby area. This landslide appears to have taken place due to heavy snow and spring melt in this area. I don’t know if there is any risk of more such landslides going to take place at this area, there is an risk of new landslides in this same area for now, at least that is my best educated guess.

Pictures of this landslide can be found here on Rúv News. All the text in that news is in Icelandic.

Post updated at 23:46 UTC.
Post updated at 23:48 UTC.
Post updated at 02:32 UTC on 23-April-2014.

Posted on

Risk of landslides in north and east Iceland at the moment

It is worth pointing out that Icelandic Meteorological Office has put out a warning for landslides in north and east Iceland due to spring melt water and heavy rain on top of that.

There have already many landslides taken place in north and east Iceland, many of the blocking roads and damaging them in the worst cases. Along with creating damage to power lines in few rare cases. Any travelers in north and east Iceland should at least keep a eye out for landslide risk if they are going up in Iceland. Due to heavy snow highland roads are still closed, please see Iceland Road administration road conditions web page for more details, it is in Icelandic and can be viewed here.

There is also a considerable risk of ice-dam formation in Iceland at the moment, when it breaks a flood follows and those floods can be dangerous to both people and animals.

For pictures and videos of the landslides, please see the Rúv news coverage below. It is in Icelandic.

Aukið rennsli sést utan úr geimi (Satellite pictures)
Vatnavextir valda tjóni (Pictures)
Enn falla skriður á Norðurlandi (Pictures)
Lokað um Köldukinn fram yfir helgi (pictures and a video, road closed news)
Enn talin hætta á skriðuföllum í Köldukinn (Picture, risk of more landslides)
250 metra aurskriða tók veginn í sundur (picture, video of a large landslide)
Þjóðvegur 85 lokaður (road 85 closed, picture)
Stórt krapaflóð í Fljótsdal (flood due to ice-dam, video, pictures)

Blog post updated at 22:12 UTC on 05-June-2013.

Posted on

Large landslide in north Iceland

Few days ago an large landslide did happen in north Iceland. This landslide did come from the mountain Móafellshyrna. It has been estimated that this landslide is about 300 meters wide and is about 1 km long. Rocks continue to fall from the mountain. Some are large as houses in some areas. So going up close to this landslide is not save for the moment.

It is believed that mixture of earthquake activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone along with rain and melting snow is the reason for this landslide.

Icelandic news about this

Drunur í björgum við Þrasastaði (Rúv.is, Icelandic, Pictures)
Gríðarstór skriða (Rúv.is, Icelandic, video)

Posted on

Large landslide in a valley in north Iceland

A large landslide did fall last Friday in a valley called Eyjafjarðarsveit. This is the largest landslide in this area for 17 years, when a smaller landslide did fall from a different mountain in this area. This landslide was large enough to block a small river that is in this area. Next farm to this landslide is about 7 km away from it. They do not tell what direction (north or south) the farm that is closest to this landslide is. The mountain that this landslide did come from is called Torfufell.

New from Rúv about this landslide.

Stór skriða féll í Eyjafjarðarsveit (Rúv.is, Icelandic, Pictures)

Update 1: Here is a new news about this landslide. It says that the area is going to be up to 30 years to recover in terms of flora and plants in the area that is just mud at the moment. The main rock in this area is Rhyolite. It is now also believed that two landslides took place in this area. But when it came down. It did travel 1.5 km down the valley. It also did create a lake (I have no idea if it is permanent new lake or not) where the landslide did block the river.

Landslagið gjörbreytt eftir skriðuföll (Rúv.is, Icelandic, Picture)
Fréttir: Gerbreytt landslag eftir skriðuföll (Rúv.is, Icelandic, Video, Flash)

Note: Next blog post about the eruption in El Hierro is going to be tomorrow. It seems that not a lot has been happening in the eruption of El Hierro today and yesterday.

Blog post updated on 20 October, 2011 at 22:16 UTC.