Posted on by Jón Frímann

More new tremor spikes in Katla volcano

Yesterday and today there where two tremor spikes in Katla volcano. This follows a higher then normal background noise that I cannot directly trace only to wind as I did first think. What is going on is not clear, but it remains a bit of events just before the July 1999 minor eruption (suspected). But it has been speculated by scientist that event was related to inflation event deep inside Katla volcano systems. But the actual fact remains unclear. More information on the event in July 1999 can be read here (in Icelandic).

Pictures from the year 1999 of the harmonic tremor event in July that year.


The harmonic tremor spikes in July 1999 in Katla volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Met Office.

There was also special note on this tremor chart here from skh SIL station (now gone). But in the year 1999 this signal was most clear on Snæbýli SIL (snb). But today this signal appears to be most clear on Goðabunga SIL station and Eystri-Skógar SIL (esk) SIL station. I do not know what the difference is. But it clearly is something.


The harmonic tremor spikes in July 1999 in Katla volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Met Office.


The harmonic tremor spikes in July 1999 in Katla volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Please note that all earthquakes have been cleared from this old SIL tremor plots.

Current day activity in Katla volcano looks like this on the SIL stations where it is most clearly seen.


Odd spikes can be seen here on this tremor plot. I do not know what they are. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Met Office.


Hard to see spikes can be seen on Goðabunga SIL station. They are the same as from Eystri-Skógar SIL station. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Met Office.


Same as above. But stronger then on Goðabunga SIL station. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Met Office.

It is hard to know for sure what this signals means. But I am sure that this signals are going to mean something someday. But when is hard to know.

373 Replies to “More new tremor spikes in Katla volcano”

    2. Jack I have searched to find this median filtered plot . How do find it or what do I do to filter? Thank you.

  2. Have there not also been some recent spikes at the stations near Krafla? What is your thoughts on that?

  4. Ah ha … I just read a good piece on understanding Iceland’s volcanic systems. A great read and crucial to gaining a clear picture on what is happening beneath the surface.

    For me, it can also be used to model how volcanoes can in fact be linked on a deep fundamental level (Eyja & Katla, for example), while magmas and other indicators may seem to indicate there is no causal linkages between them.

    http://petrology.oxfordjournals.org/content/49/3/465.full.pdf+html

    And thankfully, the knowledge is for free (which is vry often not the case, unfortuunately).

    Side thought: Captcha’s have devolved into a game played between spammers and anti-spammers, where human who post messages are just pawns in the game.

    1. On a second thought….could it be related to
      2011-09-15 08:00:07.0 36.39N 141.29E 10 6.2 NEAR EAST COAST OF HONSHU, JAPAN
      2011-09-15 07:53:21.04 35.33S 178.83W 30 6.0 EAST OF NORTH ISLAND, N.Z.

      very close in time and similar…..

      1. A 6,2 at Honshu is too small to do that.
        It was the 2,0 at Myrdalsjökull at
        Thursday
        15.09.2011 06:38:00 63.626 -19.317 2.3 km 1.7 75.13 3.7 km WSW of Goðabunga

  6. Interesting. The red and green lines show a similarity in pattern on all the plots Jon has shown above for ALF, GOD and ESK, even if the blue line on GOD differs. Maybe two events in the offing? Or have high winds been affecting the GOD plot?

    2. Maby it was all the M 6 of this night… according to the USGS map…

      Japan… 6.2

      Jamaica… 6.0

      New Zealand… 6.0

    2. One thing I have learned about eyjafjallajokull is that you can’t trust your eyes with that one. The time of day, the weather, the mist/fog, shadows, all get together to make so many variations of what you think you are seeing. Beautiful. I liken the ice hanging off the side to the outline of Africa. If it stops looking like something else, I think it’s going to be a different story.

      2. So true. I’ve also been looking at “Africa”, amazed. At moonlight the site looks like a view into a fairytale. And at special weather conditions, such as sunny mornings, the river down in the valley reflects the sunlight so that ik looks like wonderful silver lace.
        The Eyja cam is placed on Þórólfsfell, north of Eyja.
        Now I’ve got the good map from “Já is the answer”, I figure out that “Africa” is the Gigjökull, the “silver lace” is the river “Steinholtsá” (please correct me if I’m wrong!).
        http://en.ja.is/kort#x=468197&y=353341&z=6&type=aerial

    3. Better than the mist on Katla and rain on Hekla. But does this wash the ash from the air?

      Hope they hold off any interesting activity until the weather clears and we can see them.

  8. Thursday
    15.09.2011 12:12:56 65.714 -16.827 2.3 km 2.9 90.01 3.2 km W of Kröfluvirkjun
    Thursday
    15.09.2011 12:12:55 65.644 -16.735 12.4 km 1.3 67.19 7.7 km S of Kröfluvirkjun
    This is near any big volcano?

    1. Well the quality is rather poos on these quakes so I imaging they will be revised.

      Otherwise the closest volcano is indicated by the name “Kröfluvirkjun
      “.

      Krafla volcano.

      1. Yepp, that was the volcano, not Kröfluvirkjun. The 1,3 is a ghost, but the 2,9 is probably about correct.
        The quake was north of the transverse Graben and about where the most of the activity of the magma-chamber was last week (harmonic tremoring).
        Something is happening in the bowels of Her, but what is another thing.

  10. I would imagine that “Kröfluvirkjun” means something along the line “Krafla proper” or something like it.

      2. I would say it is a hell of a lot to see. Because the location of the quake is right ontop of the “center” of activity for Krafla. Northwest quadrant of the inner hidden caldera is Krafla proper 😉

    1. 90,01 is as high as they can be when auto-located. The 1,3 is only a ghost though.
      But the area around Krafla is very well measured so the 2,9M is probably correct (aboutish).

    2. Have I got the directions ass backwards? If I do not remember it the IDDP – Kröfluvirkjun hole is about 3,6km to the East-South-East?
      I had it that the drill hole was a couple of hundred meters to the south of the transverse graben?

      1. Don’t really know but it is named IDDP-1.

        The power plants do seem to be really close the crater edge when you look at the pictures in the project report. Creating a mini volcano right there……they are a lot braver than me.

      2. I know, I’ve been there.
        I sometimes just have a problem remembering where the heck north was from the Kraflavirkjun. I’ve gotten my bearings back now 🙂

  13. For those who wondered why the hell there was so much quaking at Hellisheidarvirkjun/Hengill a couple of days ago should look at the videos above. Notice how the ground is shaking so much that the camera and the guy holding it rocks…
    Where there is white steam coming up is how it should have been. Notice though the clip with grey/blackish smoke… Purely hypothetically here, that was not nice to be around when the hypothetical Runner hypothetically happened.
    I do not at all like that after the testing there has been harmonic tremors, and now a pretty large quake for the area.

    2. Yes Carl!

      This is the place that I told you I saw the big steam cloud coming in from. And I remember was a dark grey, and not white sometimes. So, now I know, that what I saw the other day (the huge steam column over Hengill) was their Deep Drilling hole.

      1. There is though a difference…
        Krafla was not a true runner, in the end it stabilized without that many quakes. Hengill on the other I think almost got them totally out of controll.
        Krafla is in a way a beautifull volcano to do testing on, far from anyone, well-behaved, known eruptive style, would give a minimum of problem even if it blew. Hengill is the oposite of all the above…
        Seriously, if they want to fool around with new and unproven technology they should do it at Krafla, not at Hengill. Because if Hengill goes someone will probably loose their life, and the economic impact will be large. Bad idea…

        I heard today that the main reason for Örkjuveity Reikjavikur doing it is their bad economy, and the need to get money influx. Cheech… 🙁

  14. More earthquakes in line in that region! Thursday
    15.09.2011 13:24:11 65.875 -16.865 1.1 km 1.2 90.01 4.1 km E of Þeistareykir
    Thursday
    15.09.2011 13:24:05 66.254 -17.117 9.8 km 2.3 90.03 25.6 km NNE of Húsavík
    Thursday
    15.09.2011 12:12:56 65.714 -16.827 2.3 km 2.9 90.01 3.2 km W of Kröfluvirkjun
    Thursday
    15.09.2011 12:12:55 65.644 -16.735 12.4 km 1.3 67.19 7.7 km S of Kröfluvirkjun

  17. The by now down-graded quake at Krafla was north of the starting point LEIRHNJUKUR Crater Row 65.73°N 16.82°W. Leirhnjukur is as is well known the starting point of the fissure eruption called the Krafla fires.
    Leirhnjukur is to the NNW of the Kraflavirkjun, so the quake was probably not related to the IDDP.
    It was probably a result of cooling magma from the Krafla fires. If not, it might have been a sign of normal or renewed activity in the faultline.

      1. Well hi there Carl 😉 I´ve been following this site for a long time for educational reasons and your writings impress me very much. I am very much into big black skinny objects as you put it yourself.

        Tell me Carl, is the big black objective going to erupt any day soon? Cause if it did I´d like to be there 🙂

      2. Hello Katie!
        Thank you very much!

        Krafla is pretty much the ultimate tourist volcano in Iceland, since it has large and long-lasting eruptions that are very beautifull. Only problem is that it rarely makes an appearance 😉
        Krafla is probably not going to erupt for a while since it erupts only when Iceland is having a rifting episode, ie. when Iceland is being torn apart in that region.
        The 4 most likely volcanos to erupt on Iceland is (in probable sequence) Hekla, Grimsvötn, Katla and Askja. And neither of those are really good at being tourist volcanos since they explode violently. Grimsvötn, Katla and Askja will give a lot of signs before going off, so you could probably book a ticket in time to go there, but Hekla is not giving off enough signs for that, and even if it did I wouldn’t go close to it… 🙂

        But surprises are common, it might for all we know be a one of the tourist volcanos of Iceland that makes a surprise appearance 🙂

  19. There is quite a series of odd anomalies going on across Iceland – What it means I have no idea. These are just observations, with no conclusions or surmising what they may be caused by

    Vestari (vsh) SIL station is showing an increased intensity of tremor over and above the highly energetic tremor of the last few weeks (vsh is SSE of askja)

    Askja has an odd spike to it and no indication at IMO that there is particularly bad weather here – yet the tremor increase has been limited to the higher frequencies. i.e 1 – 4 hz range. Askja is also in a line with the recent earthquakes which track the faultline

    Vatnsfell tremor looks like it should be experiencing a series of earthquakes with a strong 2 – 4hz signal (anomalous for this SIL)

    Krisuvik has gone off the scale again (error or real?)

    Just odd.

    1. I think vestari saudahnjukur is affected by weater, wind and waves.
      Krisuvik I think is just crazy, but I guess we will see… 🙂
      Vatnsfell is odd, very odd. I guess that might be some tremoring from the north east part of the dead zone, but I am guessing here.
      Askja has shown a bit of odd behaviour lately with some harmonic tremors, but with few quakes.

    3. I see tremor in Vatnsfell (besides the stations around Katla). Vatnsfell is close to Veidivotn fissure, and this behavior worries me, because apparently we have seen tremor before in Skrokkalda, which is further close to Hamarinn inside Bardarbunga fissure region. But now tremor happening further southwest, could indicate that magma is travelling along to the extreme southwest of the Bardarbunga fissure. Alternatively, I am wrong and this is just tremor caused by the reservoir.

      Askja and nearby: I think that is noise. But if an eruption happens near Askja, I bet that it will happen to the east, where earthquakes have been occurring. Krisuvik, I think the station is malfunctioning. But there has been significant activity there, that is well known.

      But Grimsvotn has also been showing what seems to be some tremor. Besides it, there has been tremor spikes around Katla, but earthquake activity has greatly reduced in recent days.

  20. Re: vestari – The only thing that makes me doubt waves/weather is that is has been consistently energetic like this ONLY for the last few weeks. There has been some pretty foul weather and storms in the past but these have not induced tremor patterns like these. Before that it was pretty unremarkable over the last 12 months plus. This is new, and the intensity is increasing – if waves and weather, why is this pattern not observed frequently? What is different this year to last?

    1. I still think it is weather-related, or maybe related to off-flow from the glacier. There are after all some really nice rivers running away from Vatnajökull close to VS.
      But, whatever it is, it is not volcanic. The only Volcano there is Thingmuli and that is not going to do anything for a long long time… I think we would have seen increased activity at Glumstadir and Hvannastadsföll if they had been up and running. If you compare with Adalbol you see that it follows the same pattern, but less spiky then VS.

      1. I suppose the heat of the Grimsfjall eruption would increase water melt, and there appears to still be some activity (or potential for it) under the ice cap which could lead to increased melt and therefore higher river flows and noise. Have to look at the IMO hydrology data. Are there major rivers flowing around Askja too that you are aware of? I would guess they would be fed from vatnajokul and ice melt too.

      2. Sorry should have said that the reason for the Askja query was that it exibited similar patterns post the eruption this spring for quite some while before settling back to ‘normal’ which is when vestari took over. The thing that intrigued me about this is that this sort of pattern was seen 100s km apart in all sorts of locations, but was shortlived and lasted only for the duration of the eruption. Still odd, and still looking for an explanation.

  22. I think vestari saudahnjukur is affected by weater, wind and waves. Krisuvik I think is just crazy, but I guess we will see… 🙂 Vatnsfell is odd, very odd. I guess that might be some tremoring from the north east part of the dead zone, but I am guessing here. Askja has shown a bit of odd behaviour lately with some harmonic tremors, but with few quakes
    What criteria are not to put maps of earthquakes in
    http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/skjalftar/skjlisti.html
    http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/
    but it lacks a few, this page at 16:20 H 15/09 is one Katla
    http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/alert/2011/sep/15/index.html
    but it is not placed on the maps above, anyone know why?

    1. Looks like the system is not updating at the moment rather than filtering stuff out. Because it still has not updated as I type.

      May be a long late lunch or a staff meeting delaying checking of the raw data?.

      1. Vatnsfell: The station is near lake Þórisvatn, one of the biggest reservoirs of Iceland. There are crater rows nearby belonging to Bárðarbunga volcanic system which is about 190 km long and reaches far to the south, nearly down to Landmannalaugar.

  23. Seems like they have started at Hellisheidarvirkjun again.
    I will now leave you with what I think is another quakeswarm brewing.
    Have to get ready for the plane home.
    See ya’ll!

  25. Nothing shows on Jon’s helicorders for 19:31 so there has not been a large event in Iceland; nothing shows up on USGS for the Atlantic, so it must be Fiji.

    1. Nope, this is just the light of the city which is reflected by low hanging clouds. We have actually stormy and rainy weather here in Reykjavik.

      1. Looks more like reflected city lights from clouds now.

        Sorry you are having bad weather but hope the ash has settled a bit.

      2. The ash is actually no problem, since we had some rain already last night and also over the day. This literally washed away the ash out of the air.

    2. Is the depth based on the top of the icecap or surface of the vulcano underneath the icecap? Given the max thickness of the icecap covering Katla with 700m, would the relative depth be 1,9km?

      2. I know USGS has mean sea level as a reference to depth measurments. Which might explain all the 0.1 depth quakes. I guess it might be because it happens within the volcano itself between the peak and the base of it which would be mean sea level.

        Going from 3.1 strength and 2.4 km depth to 2.3 strength and 0.1 km depth and with the clear harmonic tremor charts might be a sign of a dike intrusion within the volcano itself and not in the crust?

      1. It has been downgraded to 2.3 on the IMO site. The situation is clearly watched pretty closely. Otherwise this would have happened tomorrow morning.

      3. Either it is a relatively quiet night or they are twitchy after all that activity near Hellisheiðarvirkjun over the past few days. Plus we are close to the 18m following Lady E’s eruption (no guarantee that Katla will follow past history, but in the circumstances I would be keeping an eye on what’s going on).

        Off to bed. Hope you have a quiet night.

      4. NASA issues a warning that the CME eruption occured on Sept. 14 will arrive on the earth at UTC 4:00 on Sept.17.

      7. It is an isolated earthquake guess it meant nothing at the end of an earthquake of 2.3 ML

      2. Tremor charts keep burping all over the map. Skrokkalda, Askja, Adalbod, Grimsfjäll. It’s not less weird, and with the 2.3 magnitude quake WNW of Hamarinn at 7.1 km depth that struck at the same time as the one in Katla.

        Askja, Hamarinn and Katla all twitching at the same time. Could there be a common source influencing all these tremors?

      5. Rifting of Iceland would be the answer to that. It also explains some of the weird reading we have had lately at Krafla.
        Iceland have these small periods when the riftings pick up speed for a few days, causing lines of activity.

  33. Thank you. We do not get many of them in London (and it was very small when I looked, or may be I was only seeing part of one) but it has wandered off now.

  34. From what I can see on my Hekla geophone. It seems that a new earthquake swarm has started in Katla volcano caldera. At least it looks like that from my geophone. But I do not have any idea where the earthquakes are happening, as they do not appear on IMO web site.

  35. New article about Augusts earthquakes at Iceland just published at: http://www.vedur.is/um-vi/frettir/nr/2286

    Under Mýrdalsjökull were located more than 400 earthquakes. There were 156 earthquakes under the Katla caldera, 119 earthquakes under the western ice and 126 smáskjálftar Hafursárjökul the south of the carton. The largest earthquake, more than 3 in size was the 19th August. 02:25 a source in the north eastern caldera, the huge dome-shaped Austmann. The epicenter within the caldera were mostly in clusters of 3, the northeast, south of the caldera and number 16 on the west side sigkatla numbers 5 and 6 Sunday 28th between August kl. 11-13 skjálftahrina was about 5 km depth west of the glacier. A total of 27 earthquakes were detected in the cycle, the largest 2.1 points. Earthquakes with Hafursárjökul south caldera were all less than 1 in size and all the sources at the surface. Under Eyjafjallajökull smáskjálftar scored 3 and were all less than 0.5 in size.

    Staff from the Meteorological Office and Institute of Earth Sciences began yesterday (September 14) on Mýrdalsjökull, assisted by the Coast Guard, to prepare for the GPS and seismometer for the winter.

    Nearly 30 earthquakes were detected in Torfajökulssvæðinu were all under 2 in size. In the southern and Langjökull were 11 earthquakes. The largest measured 3.3 points on 20 August. 16:02 a source of hábungu ice. South of Blöndulón scored 7 earthquakes and the largest was 2.3 in size.

    A relatively quiet under Vatnajökull in August. Some seismicity was Kistufell, Bárðarbunga and Kverkfjöll, but earthquakes were few and small (the largest 2.1 points). Between 21st – 24 August scored eight earthquakes southeast of the top of the mountain, the largest 2.2 points. From the beginning of digital seismic measurements (1991) have been the sixth tremor in a dozen Öræfajökull and in the vicinity. If only examined seismicity within the caldera are earthquakes in nearly thirty countries which they have been either single, pairs or repel some shaky as now. Other such cycles urðu in December 2005 and September 2008.

    It was also quiet in the area north of Vatnajökull. Several earthquake was the caldera and national mountain, but other earthquakes were few and scattered. The largest earthquake was 2.7 points with a source east of the national mountain.

    About 300 earthquakes were detected north of the country Tjörnes fracture zone. About 90 sources were north of the Troll Peninsula about 40 km west of Grimsey, which became the ninth cycle days – 13 August. The largest earthquake was 3.0 points, 2.7 and others less. There was also some movement closer to land outside the mouth of the shores. On 11 August was just over tugur tremors in less than an hour, about 40 km north-northwest of Grimsey. The largest was 2.9 in size. Then tíndust a steadily throughout the month about 40 earthquakes a Öxarfjörður center, the largest was 2.2 points. A few scattered smáskjálftar the shores on both sides, some with Theistareykir, the largest 1.5 points and with the requirements also scored several smáskjálftar.

    The four dozen earthquakes were located in Reykjanes, most of them 3 to 5. August and the two largest earthquakes were 3.2 and 3.7 in size. The Reykjanes peninsula bar most of the tremor episodes Kleifarvatn and FC. At forty tremors, urðu east and northeast Grindavik, most from 15 to 18. August. Several major earthquakes were found well in FC where innanstokksmunir hristust. The largest earthquakes urðu Tuesday August 16 (kl.22: 14, 3.4 points), the night of Wednesday 17 August (kl.01: 16, 2.9 points at. 01:34, 3.2 points) and Wednesday (kl.23: 19, 2.6 points). One notification was received well by the earthquake on Wednesday night has been found in fields in Gardabaer.

    216 earthquakes were located in the vicinity and Krýsuvík Kleif lake, about half of them became the 12th August just north of Stephen Cape. The largest earthquake was 3.1 in size and became his noticeable around the metropolitan area. Another cluster of tremors was located on the east coast of the lake around the third August, the largest earthquake which measured 2.9 points. One earthquake was located in Selvogsbanka (about 27 km south Selvogur) and one west of Heimaey (at 15.6 km depth).

    In the South, from Hjalla Ölfus district in the east and the volcano was located between 180 and 190 earthquakes. Most of them were located west of the Town, of which more than 30 eftirskjálftar the Southern Cross cracks from May 2008, earthquakes in Hjalla District and Ingólfsfjall crack (also from 2008). Seventeen earthquakes were also located on the lake and cracks of 21 June 2000, nearly three Selsundssprungunni old (from 1912). A single earthquake was located (at 10 km depth) in Lake Mountains, south of the volcano and three earthquakes were located 2.5 to 6.5 km north of Þykkvabæ, all small.

    1. Very likely weather. A low pressure center seems to be approaching Iceland, and may pass from the SW. Locals may know the forecast better, I have to rely on satellite pictures.

  38. Question: leaving aside the individual volcanoes and their specific locations in Iceland, is there any evidence or markers that measure the plate stresses and rate of movement as a whole (could the faults be under greater stress than usual i.e is there a higher level of movement than measured over previous decades), or are there any markers/ measures that could indicate if the processes within the mantle under Iceland are more active/ less active than usual? It has been noted several times that a cycle exists in terms of general activity (I think it was a 140 year cycle) . To me that could indicate a cycle of activity within the mantle itself, and I wanted to explore this but am not sure where to start looking.

    1. Oh my…
      I think you should clear your schedule for the rest of your life 🙂

      All are very good questions, but sadly without good answers.
      Yes, it is believed that the volcanic activity cycle is triggered by corresponding cycles in either mantleplume/hotspot activity or rifting episodes (tectonic stress).
      I tend to lean to rifting as the major cause. At least for the ultra-large laki/veidivötn/eldgja (LVE) episodes. Another one that is very much a rifting volcano is Krafla.
      I suspect that Kraflafires was the beginning of a rifting episode, and that it might end up with another rifting in the dead-zone (LVE) during the cycle of increased activity that has either started with Krafla, or is about to start.
      Personaly I think the active period has already started since Grimsvötn and Hekla has already picked up the pace, and Krafla has already gone off. But this is just me speculating. IMO is saying that it is starting now. Here history will tell in the future.
      Problem is that we do not have records of seismicity and GPS that covers even an entire cycle, and to make any certain prognosises of this we would need a lot more than one cycle.
      I would say that we need many years and a heck of a lot of research to even beginn to comprehend your questions fully, and actually answering them… 😉

      1. Thank you for your answers… The problems with geophysical time I guess, but surely there are some measures/ markers that can be theoretically extrapolated – even if we have to wait beyond my lifetime to verify?

      2. There are, but there is much needed to do about them. Now it seems that the main proof of the increases in instances of eruptive behaviour is based purely on statistical evidence from historic records. And those records are mainly just there for the perioud from settlement, and even those records are sketchy at parts of Iceland. And before settlement pretty much anything not on a stupendous scale is not noticed…
        So, we need more research 🙂

  40. A hurricane warning has been issued to eastern Canada (Maria). Maria might hit Iceland next week.

    1. Thank you for pointing out that I will have a third hurricane showed up my wazoo… I was hit twice by Irene, 3 times by Katia and now I will probably get Mariad at least once… Another female hurricane and I will start dating sheep…

      1. Ahh, for me anyway, i backed away from the sheep thing, i was getting to close to them. 😛 still could go and hit Ireland, i will wait a few days before i book the flight.

  42. Okay, time for me to crawl up to the cross and admit that I got spooked by a picture of clouds.

    This is from Dellukoti-cam. Bjölfell infront and behind is Hekla.
    I refreshed the image, and saw a 4 km atomic mushroom looming behind the clouds infront looking like a picture perfect eruption cloud… So I thought, bloody hell she snuck up on us. Then I looked closer… *sniffle*
    http://i56.tinypic.com/2hxbymu.jpg

    1. Thank you The Other Lurker!

      This quote from Sigrún Hreinsdottir was enlightening;
      “If it would erupt Krýsuvík side, then this would probably a little soft as a means of quickly. If, however, it would erupt in Móhálsdal, we could be seeing a similar eruption in Merapi.”

      Just to be clear here, in the original icelandic she used the word “Fimmvörðuhálsi”, not Merapi in the Philippines… Giggletygook strikes back!
      I am feeling oddly proud that I caught the Merapi/Fimmvörðuhálsi translation thing all of my own. Slowly getting to learn Icelandic…

      The Thingvalla crack in the ground was AWESOME!!!

      3. Oh my, giggle is “outstanding” today as always lol

        Should there be an eruption on the Krýsuvík side, this would probably be a small eruption that would end quickly. If, however, it would erupt in Móhálsdal, we could be seeing a similar eruption as in Fimmvörðuháls.

      4. Wish that Icelandic be so easy…
        Thanks for answer.
        This was a road sometime, right?
        And the crack appeared in a matter of days or weeks?
        I think if it is so, maybe a wise guy put a slow motion camera there and actually see it!

      5. The other Lurker:
        I think we would be better off if you just wrote a shortened translation of things… 🙂

        I still haven’t gotten over the Thingvalla crack.

        The Merapi thing must be out of people getting crazy at Giggletygook when Merapi erupted. In the beginning Giggle stubbornly and stedfastly translated Merapi into “Sea-interface”, so everybody reported their own translations of it.

        Í dag er dagur að dansa og drekka bjór á Jóns helicorder.

      6. Rétt eins og bónus Fyrir Önnur Skugginn

        Google getur ekki þýtt Merapi, en það er túlka Fimmvörðuhálsi til Merapi.

        Now I will shut up with bad trials and tribulations in the Icelandic language untill the next friday as a service to all Icelanders 🙂

      7. Ok short on Krísuvík.

        Scientist are following the rise at Krísuvík closely, 7 cm for the last 16 months. A possible sign of magma but could also be gas collecting in some sort of locked? situation. Land rose in 2009 but fell again in the autumn. Continous measurements there from 2007 but there has been a break of magmatic intrusions now for several hundreds of years but this could mean a new era.

        Sigrun said high seismicity in the area recently can be attributed to this combination of sketches and land plate movements. If so, is that it begins to erupt in the region believes prevail on a minor eruption would be the case.

        Should there be an eruption on the Krýsuvík side, this would probably be a small eruption that would end quickly. If, however, it would erupt in Móhálsdal, we could be seeing a similar eruption as in Fimmvörðuháls.

        At the same time water levels in Kleifarvatn have changed drastically and scientists are checking if these events are related in any way now.

        (really really need my new glasses Carl ; ) they are waiting for me at the store, can’t see the captcha tingy)

      8. Why on earth do you not just make a user-account and log in?
        I know the feeling of having bad or no glasses, lost mine somewhere at Newark airport, and only found a really old pair… Took five days before I got my new pair.

        I wonder how large the change has been at lake Kleifarvatn?

      9. The road down Almannagjá has been closed due to cracks (rather a hole or cave found in March) which appeared in March and now grows larger day by day. Work is underway to clean up the new hole.

        “This is almost like cheese. There are big holes and caves in all roads on the way down Almannagjá “says Álfheiður Ingadóttir, representing the VG and Chairman Þingvallanefndar, who had a meeting yesterday. Final decisions on how to go work around the new fissure will wait until it is fully investigated.

        “People seem to have walked on a thin layer of sand that rested (in) on the air. There were some stones there in some places but I do not understand each the other part of the road hang up (or held up). Ideally, this would seem to have hanging around together in a lie (Icelandic proverb) . It’s the greatest blessing that we haven’t one or two heads of states down there, “says Thrain Bertelsson, the VG representative in Þingvallanefnd.

        Ergo the road is unsafe, it’s just luck that nobody has been hurt or injured already and there is as of now no way of telling how they will “fix” the road to prevent accidents in future

        Carl, outstanding work to spot giggles translation errors 😉 you’re getting better in Icelandic.

      11. For anyone interested on the issue of developing fissures, I found this paper but it focuses on the Askja fissure swarm, but interesting nonetheless.

        I am hunting for data on the rate of widening of existing fissures as well as the rate of development of new ones, so if anyone finds anything, i would be grateful for a post!

  45. 😀 Funny that “Loka” if pop up the picture viewer 😀
    Remind me of Shakira “Loca” that picture and nature will….

    1. Last time it reset in the middle of the day…
      I guess the SIL reset itself after reading the news about the inflation at Krisuvik 🙂
      7 cm up in 16 months now 🙂

  48. Irpsit or Chris:
    Seems like you guys are passing the Krisuvik way now and then. Can’t one of you estimate how much this “drastically changed” level of the water mentioned in the news is?
    If it is a shpool in da shtool it would be good to know, kind of…

    2. We are talking a lot, will try to find out later today (guy next door works there 😉 )

      check useracc’nt later, glasses oo now

      6. Well the guess would obviously be down a hole or the fissure – and if that were so, I would expect to see an increased water volume/flow rate from any rivers or streams that lead from there to the sea. I dont know if the data supports this.

      7. JulesP:
        I am more worried about it falling into a fissure… Would not be nice if any magma got connected to it, phreatic ejecta is not nice around small coffee-huts.

      9. You are right. Its been a while, since I have seen it the last time 🙂
        And its even more now, so its probably more like 3-3,5 meters now.

    4. I have not a car yet. I hope to buy one so that I can drive in Iceland and also to Krisuvik.

  49. Friday
    16.09.2011 12:07:26 63.653 -19.076 1.4 km 2.2 99.0 8.2 km N of Hábunga
    Friday
    16.09.2011 11:11:38 63.546 -19.102 0.1 km 1.8 99.0 3.8 km S of Hábunga

  50. Still wondering why Katla has almost no deep earthquakes. Does this mean there is no influx of new magma? Or is the conduit to Katla open and are there no earthquakes occuring there..? The pressure of this magma creates the earthquakes at smaller depths then?

    1. I guess that is due to Katla having the magmatic cervix of a mother of eleven sturdy elephants… Remember that this is a volcano that drops a bomb about every 50 years or so, I guess she is open permanently that way.

      1. Sounds a little nasty 😛 “open permanently” that was what I was thinking too, not in the same words but okay 😛

        Sander

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