Posted on by Jón Frímann

Support to buy two geophones stations for Eyrarbakki and Katla volcano

I am asking for donations so that I can buy two geophone stations for Eyrarbakki town for SISZ and Reykjanes monitoring. The second geophone goes close to Katla volcano so I can monitor what happens there. The total cost is like this just for the basic geophone hardware. Not counting computers and other costs that I have too cover.

2 – PSN-ADC-USB Version III (USB version) = $175.00 each, total = $350.00
2 – PSN-ADC-EQAMP with 3 channels = $145.00 each, total = $290.00
2 – Mounting Kits @ $10.00 each, total = $20.00
2 – Garmin GPS 18x LVC OEM Timing System @ $80.00 each, total = $160.00
2 – Metal Enclosure @ $50.00 each, total = $100.00
2 – L15B Used Geophone with wires @ $110.00 each, total = $220.00
Shipping = $88.00
Total = $1228.00USD (904.600EUR, 6,731.18 DKK)

Amount at the moment (13:35 UTC, 1 October, 2011): 3,926.44 DKK

The hardware that I want to buy can be looked at here (pictures).

This donation button allows people to donate in USD. Use the donation button on the sidebar to donate in Euro.

So far I got 1,045.81 DKK in donations. But I also need some for the custom and VAT when I import this to Iceland. But I am sure think that the custom is going to 10% on some of this and the VAT rate is 25,5% of the price (plus customs). I am no good in math, so I am not sure how much amount this is going to be. I also want to buy backup power if I can, but that costs 101,69USD, 553,04DKK, 74,33EUR, 11950ISK.

I also need two computers. But those I need to get from somebody that lives in Iceland. They need to be able to run Windows XP and that needs to be legal too. Other versions of Windows are good too. But they have to support IPv6, as I plan to move my whole geophone network to IPv6 soon as it is supported by the software that I use. I plan to set-up this two new geophones soon as I can.

Update 1: About the PC issue that has been discussed in comments. If anyone has a suggestion about a embedded hardware that is cheap and might even run Windows XP (a minimal if I am too use that). Please let me know in the comments. I am also willing to run embedded linux software on the remote stations if it works with the software that I am using. That software is WinSDR.


Donations in other currencies (by request)

Danish Krona, DKK.

British Pound, GBP.

Swedish Krona, SEK.

Blog post updated at 20:23 UTC on 28 September, 2011.
Blog post update at 20:29 UTC on 28 September, 2011.
Blog post updated at 22:12 UTC on 28 September, 2011.
Blog post updated at 23:29 UTC on 28 September, 2011.
Blog post updated at 11:42 UTC on 29 September, 2011.
Blog post updated at 20:11 UTC on 29 September, 2011.
Blog post updated at 20:13 UTC on 29 September, 2011.
Blog post updated at 13:35 UTC on 1 October, 2011.

237 Replies to “Support to buy two geophones stations for Eyrarbakki and Katla volcano”

  1. Jon – it would be helpful if you were able to budget for your total costs all in, with a factor for unforseen extras; also a time schedule for when each part of expenditure needs to take place. You can then set targets for how much you need to raise, and when. Those of us who can assist can then make pledges against the expenditure looking forward.

    There may also be the possiblity of approaching some of the larger businesses in Iceland with an email requesting a small amount of sponsorship – they may wish to get some publicity, and they may also may wish to be seen to support the aims of this blog i.e. tourism in all its forms and perhaps others such as any major computer hardware suppliers in Iceland; they may at the very least be prepared to supply you at cost which would save some money. A quick press release may help here (there are many free press release channels available on the net). Worth a shot?

    1. It is hard for me to give exact number on to grand total. But this is as close I can give it. The reason for that is that the custom system here in Iceland is complex and it is close to impossible for me to know what price each item is going to get in terms of customs and VAT. That is the sad reality of the matter.

      As for Iceland companies I doubt that they are willing to support this. As they are mostly going broke them self many of them. Travel costs are not in this. But I fully expect to pay for them my self somehow. Icelandic companies also often just ignore sponsorship for this type of thing matter today. Because of the recession in Iceland.

      2. I understand Jón’s predicament, just offhand I can’t recall a single firm / business that would support him, you’d have to find some sort of connection to the equipment / software to ask for support / donations. Microsoft in Iceland perhaps, Tölvutek or similar ??

        Hefur þú kíkt á hvort einhverjir á http://www.vaktin.is eiga eitthvað sem þú getur notað fyrir lítið eða ekki neitt 😉

      3. Sometimes companies pass on old equipment when they upgrade. A few emails wouldn’t harm and I’m sure we could all ask on your behalf if a template can be made. I’ve seen it in the UK for companies I’ve dealt with in one way or another. Think of it as recycling. In the UK we have freecycle where people who no longer want something (say a TV or garden equipment) offer it for nothing. You just have to collect. Is there anything like this in Iceland? It’s in a very good cause and every bit counts.

      4. Many companies have used equipment when they upgrade. It is worth contacting them. Jon do not be afraid to advertise this Blog. It provides an educational and informative platform for many professional people. Have you tried contacting your press and media in Iceland explaining what you are doing and your goals?

      5. Most companies in Iceland do not give away there old hardware. What they do with it I do not know.

        But given the times in Iceland, most companies are just not updating there computer hardware at all.

  3. Hey Jon can you make apps ? You should do an Icelandic eq iPhone/android one. Showing quakes and maybe a flashing icon on a map signalling unusual tremors, tap into the hydrology for flow/conductivity. Have links to news items and posts from your excellent blog of course. Give it away ? Could the revenue from unobtrusive advertising on something like this be considered ? People would open it a lot !!!

    1. A iPhone and Android app is something that I have been thinking about. But I won’t do anything about it until I am done moving back to Denmark.

      As moving back to Denmark is going to be a lot of work.

      1. I made an iPhone app for myself that displays the seismic data from IMO on a Google map and some few other features. It’s very basic and not in any shape to release (and is currently broken due to some changes in the IMO site I think). But the iPhone and Android are both pretty easy to develop for if you are already a programmer.

  4. Hi Jon!

    Did you notice what strange start to look:
    Aska (ask) and Flatey (fla)??
    To Aska neighborhood I’ve notice an 2.5 eq. What’s happening?

  5. Hi Jón,

    I assume that the computers don’t need to be the latest and greatest, so surely a couple of discarded PC’s can be found. But will they be internet connected. If so, couldn’t you use an internet clock rather than GPSes? I have a seismometer and a three channel geophone (just the same as you want to order), and I log seismic activity using NTP. NTP gives me the time well within 0.1 s accuracy, which seems good enough, at least for me. And if you use the same NTP server for all of your computers, you should get a relative accuracy that is even better.

    Just a thought that could save you some money.

    By the way, I use a Linksys NSLU2 instead of a PC to log seismic stuff. You can get them on eBay for about $30 or less. A PC seems overkill to me – too many things that can break. And it consumes 5W of power or so, and does hardly take up any space.

    1. Just out of curiosity, where do you have this equipment installed?

      Any possibility to co-operate with Jon, if they’re installed somwhere in Iceland?

    2. The NTP is not accurate enough for me. As I am recoding with quite high time precisions. I have tried the NTP way and in my view it just doesn’t work.

      I do plan to go embedded soon as I can. As PC are too big and can fail too easy as you rightly say. I would go embedded right now. But I am have not found the right hardware as of yet. So I am continuing to use the standard that I have set up as of now.

      I also lack the proper software for what you are using. As I use WinSDR as the main client on the main computer. Any suggestions for software and embedded hardware are welcomed and appreciated. But it has too support what I use for the moment.

      1. Fair enough. I own a USB GPS, but I’ve come to trust NTP more, which is a clever protocol, as I fear that it’s hard to get the timings correct when depending on a 4800 baud serial connection from the GPS. But my fear might be unfounded.

        Embedded usually means an ARM processor and Linux is then the primary choice. I wrote my own software to log the geophone data. Just a few C programs written in a few hours to suit my needs. One that logs the raw data, and another program to convert it to SAC format. Since I don’t use a GPS, I have no software for that, though, and use system time instead. I’ll happily share this software and welcome anyone to expand the functionality.

        My setup is very stable. In the past two years of more I think I’ve only lost a couple of minutes of data due to a manual reboot. It’s on an UPS to deal with power outages.

      3. Would love to add the WinSDR libraries, but I’ve got work 😉 and three small kids, so don’t hold your breath. Programming projects that used to take days in my study years now take years.

    1. I did look into it awhile ago. It does not fit my web page. I also do not fully understand the concept behind this, same is for other micro-payment ideas out there.

      1. Too bad. Now it’s going off-topic, but well… Many German blogs and some newspapers using it and earning up to 1.000 € per month, but that is an exception.

  7. @all:
    Flatöy is just a technical malfunction, the same as at Krisuvik. It is just a distraction 🙂

    What is though real is the weird pattern that I am seeing going Askja
    http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/ask.gif

    via Krafla:
    http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/kvo.gif

    all the way up to Theistareykjarbunga:
    http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/dim.gif
    Grjothals shows it clearest, although it is weaker there, but it is a very noisefree station, so anything showing there is real.
    http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/gha.gif

    What is it? I have no clue at all. It looks like a harmonic tremor. But it can’t be since three main volcanos are doing it at the same time.
    The only thing I can think of that is not just some weird weather phenomena (which doesn’t look like that) or waves (that do not look like that either), is that what we are seeing is filling of one of the regional fissures either from Askja trending north all the way to the coast (yes, she runs all that way), or that it is Theistarekjaybung going the other way. Problem with Theistareykjarbunga is that the known stop of her fissure swarm stops to the southeast of Krafla and south of Fremrinamur. At least the known fissure swarm stops there, so she wouldn’t be able to (known at least) reach to Askja.

    If it is volcano related it is very interesting, and equally troubling.
    Caveat, this is just pure speculation on my part.

    1. After thinking a bit on it, it can’t be weather or waves.
      Grjothals is not affected by that at all. Non of the storms the last 10 days show on the plot, and as far as I know, nothing weather related has ever shown on that one. That is why I love it as a reference and reallity check.
      http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/gha.gif

      I am though suspicious about what we are seeing. If it is not something else it is just to far-reaching to be anything good. It is just to much.

      1. What could it be, though? And at the same time that I have u here, Carl, whats going on at (kvo).. ? Been looking at it for days, is that a normal pattern there?

      8. You beat me too it; these stations have been showing some odd anomalies that dont look exactly like expected harmonics, and I have been wondering about fissures opening too.

        Re:Fla station – there have been some odd tremor patterns up there too, not just here but at other stations if you go back a few weeks; so my question is, is there any we could determine if the rate of outward plate movement could be increased (higher than normal) at the moment, producing stresses along fissure areas resulting in greatest widening at the fissures / fracture zones that are most ‘fragile’ all along the eastern side of Iceland? Or could it be an East/ West thing i.e across Iceland – because there has been news reports of fissures developing in the west too?

        Even if the answer is yes, then it hasnt produced a fissure style eruption as yet anywhere, and maybe this movement will have removed some of the stress and strain??

      9. JulesP:
        Iceland is entering a phase of increased rifting. Normally during one of those periods (270ish year cycle) you have one rifting at Krafla and one in the Dead zone.

        So the answer is that it has already caused one rifting eruption, Kraflafires. So that should have removed the strain north of the hotspot, but not south.

      10. So, a new rifting period is starting, and also a new eruption period is starting? It’s busy on the market square, eh?!

    2. What were those “slow eqs” called in west coast of North America? We had links to some articles here a while ago. If this activity is the first sign of a new rifting episode about to begin?

      1. I think you are right Jack. If we had access to the Landsvirkjun borehole strainmeter system I bet it would show like hell. Because a strainmeter is the absolute best way to measure them.

      1. In general I agree with you, the cycle is important.
        But, as any volcano it might do something surprising.
        Also, whoever knows what the IDDP can do to the innards of her, they are after all pumping water down to a strata adjacent to the magma-reservoir. I do not say that pumping water can cause anything, but it is a great unknown.

        My point was only that the activity was centred at Krafla, not that it was going to erupt 🙂

      2. Katla is said to erupt every 80 years on average, and there have been proper eruptions with only ~20 years between…

      4. And one should also always remember that statistics is just showing proof for what has been, and that as soon as one use said statistics for making prognostication there is always a margin of error.
        So, a prognostication for Krafla is that it would erupt about every 300 years, plus minus 280 years… Better than that is not going to be able to do for Krafla. If one then uses a bit of common sense you will se that she erupts with a rifting episode every 400 years +50/-200 years. The trend is towards the riftings comming closer together as time moves towards today.
        During the second last eruption she erupted between 1724 and 1746, with a 17 year long jiatus between the two last eruptions in that rifting cycle. I would not be so surprised by a 27 year hiatus. It is not an extension by that much on a geological scale.

        But, we have still just been talking about behaviour on a scale statistically deduced from normal behaviour. There is nothing saying that she might not change behaviour again. Some of Kraflas features have been formed outside of the main line of activity. The inner caldera formation and the transverse Graben are only 2 examples of non rifting behaviour, and things like that can bite one in the buttocks at any time.

  8. Just noticed when cross-checking two El Hierro pages that depths can vary quite significantly depending on the source:
    For example EQ at 5:10 this morning was 2,8 at depth 17 km according Instituto Geográfico Nacional
    and the same eq was 2,6 at depth 12 km according European-Mediterranean Seismological Centre.

    There were several other cases also.

    http://www.01.ign.es/ign/layoutIn/volcaDetalleTerremotos.do?evid=1100312&zona=2
    http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=237344

    Are those depths really so much just estimates or what can be the reason?
    Is the situation same in Iceland?

    1. It depends on if they are automated estimates, or if they have been checked. But yes, they can vary a lot since the automated systems can get fooled easily, and some quakes can be hell to calculate even for a human. IMO (who has the worlds best staff) recalculated a Katla quake 5 times in 24 hours before they just gave up… But normally they are very close when they do it by hand.

      1. I think the prob here with +M3s is that they might crack the way free for the hot juice toward surface.

      3. I get the impression that this chamber is stuffed with magma, desperately trying to find a way out, either upwards, or downwards, like those trends seem to show.

      5. Could be a sign of high pressure pushing up but not yet cracking the way open. El Hierro has not had known major eruptions in the near past, so this could mean a major one is waiting on the queue.

      6. I tend to agree with you.
        I would guess that we will see more signs in the upcoming weeks.
        If Lurkings plots and video shows what I think it does, El Hierro has a rather nasty and very large magma-reservoir indeed.
        I guess a VEI4+ eruption, that is really heavy on the lava production.
        I hope they will evacuate well in time before any eruption starts. But it seems like they are ontop of that one.

      8. Nah, that one will be when the Icelake that has formed in the Himalaya break open.

        Seriously, I am bad at doom and gloom. Yes, I know that large things can happen, and I think we are close to one happening in Iceland. But, it will not in any way be the end of civilization.
        There is only one thing that can make us go pooty permanently, and that should if the worlds leaders got their heads together not be a problem either really.
        I am of course talking about a large enough meteorite hitting the planet. But that can be avoided with large enough funding. The planet would be so much better if the worlds defense budgets went that way instead of killing people, or spying on their own citizens.

      9. Offcourse Carl, but I don’t think that will happen within the next years, and definetivly not in 2012 😛 I hate conspiracy thoeries.. I think they have a good imagination, and if the used their brain right, they would get somewhere in this world. But they are too scared off things like that happening, so they believe everything that gets served to them, that can sound a tiny bit scary, and they put their minds together and come up with the biggest amount of bullshit ever… and scare the people that don’t really know whats going on in the world. I’m Sorry 😛 Just got carried away there:P

  10. Regarding the odd reading of the northern SILs:

    The answer was so much simpler after thinking a bit. It is Krafla that is the culprit.
    It is close enough to show on the SILs for both Theistareykjarbunga, Fremrinamur and Askja.
    We have during the last 3 weeks seen some quakes and some activity up there that looked like harmonic tremoring. The ones before was apparantly true harmonic tremoring since the normal activities of Kraflavirkjun does not show on the SILs north of the transverse Graben. There was also a largish quake at the site of the Kraflafires a couple of weeks ago.
    I also checked if this might be related to the IDDP project, but it seems like it is not related, either then or today.
    This leeds me to suspect that what we saw was activity in the fissure swarm at Krafla on a larger scale than we have seen during the last few weeks, and that it reverberated north and south along the rift-zone.
    Will this lead to any more activity? I do not know, time will tell.

    This SIL shows the actual point of the start of the activity, it is though a slightly noisy SIL, so compare it with the noise-free Grjothals below.
    http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/kvo.gif

    http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/gha.gif

    1. Well, at least we agree about that 😛

      Er det noen måte jeg kan kontakte deg på personlig? Tar det på Norsk, da en del av disse her driver å drar opp dette med blonde nordiske damer osv 😛 Vil gjerne lære litt mer om vulkaner, og det er så tungvindt her, da man må spørre hele tiden, og det tar så lang tid å få svar på alt man lurer på 😛

      Og du virker velinformert 🙂 Ja, de kommer sikkert til å oversette dette med gt.

      1. Ja de kommer säkert att översätta det med GT.
        Det är enkelt att kontakta mig. Klicka bara på min namnlink, ta sedan företagsnamnet och lägg till info (at) företagsnamnet (punkt) com
        Den mailen går direkt till mig, sedan kan vi ta det därifrån.

        To those to lazy to giggle, we where talking about the price of herring-oil at the herring-oil market in Bergen counted in barrels.

        Vore det inte tråkigare om de inte uppskattade blonda damer?

      2. Hahaha, Yes, and I think its WAY too expensive..

        Jo, men nå er jeg ikke blond da 😛 Ikke nå lengre i hvertfall 😛

        Men da gjør jeg det 😛

      11. I did send some email awhile ago. It did bounce back. I am sorry if I forgot this. Sometimes things get a little mad in my work.

        So if this was a request that I forgot. I am sorry for it.

      15. Carl, My e-mail to you was “deferred” (the word was taken directly from the report I received), i.e. not yet sent to you.

    1. I would say that Hamarinn is having a bit of an indigestion again.
      Hamarinn is a volcano in the Bardarbunga volcanic system and is due east of the Skrokkalda SIL. It has been acting up for quite some time now with harmonic tremoring, and even a suspected small-scale eruption. All signs of Bardarbunga reawakening again.

    2. It is a tremor spike. They where common last year before the minor eruption. Nobody at IMO knew what they where back then. Now it seems to be a signal of a eruption that might happen at any time without a warning.

      But when is always hard to know.

  12. So Jon, there has to be something else but just hairstyles thats happening now?! Is there nothing u can post a blogpost about? 😛 Getting sooo into this volcano things, and I see now that there is a lot that I don’t understand, but that u understand 🙂

      1. Nothing has happened there for 3 hours either, so I guess I’m ok to take a trip out 😛 It won’t happen anything more just because I’m sitting here in anyway 😛

      2. @Philip:

        Hekla’s magma “chamber” is 14 km down according to some sources. Other sources say there’s another one at 8 km… Anyhow, a typical eruption at Hekla starts with an earthquake or two (literally), then one that can be felt by humans on the ground, and finally the final “kaboom” with the eruption column rising to several kms.

        The only “problem” with Hekla is that for all of this it takes at maximum one hour! So, even in the case Hekla’s chamber is at 14 km, it does not quarantee anything about the chances for an eruption even tonight! Hekla is special, I know…

        I”d say, El Hierro is pretty sure driving fast (on geological time scales) on the speeding lane towards an eruption. On more human time scales, it can still take weeks or months, but it can also happen very soon. How soon? I wish I knew. The best approach right now is to wait for earthquakes rising up towards surface, as it tells about magma rising.

      3. Yepp, and it gets worse for Hekla…
        When we started to look at what the researchers say about here magma-reservoir we found 14 different depths from some 20 sources.
        The most compelling evidence though seem to be that she has one deep at 10-14 km and one more shallow around 2-4 km and then a partially filled fissure dyje inside the mountain itself.
        But, Hekla is an absolutly unique volcano of a type that is totally unique to Hekla. Comparing Hekla to any other volcano is just crazy.
        El Hierro will probably behave somewhere around a normal main line volcano, ie. more and more quakes, increasing harmonic tremor, GPS-inflation, ground deformation, and then it will go poof when it feels like it.

      6. Nah, it did not travell all that way, it travells from the 2-4 chamber up via the partially filled fissure inside the volcano that is rather cooled down. That is why it is so explosive in the beginning, ie. clearing away old gunk from the throat. Then you have semi-new magmas for a while untill the deep new magma has come up.
        The innards of Hekla is probably a lot like Etnas, hellishly complicated.
        But 2-4 kilometres in about 30 minutes is fast!

    2. I want to have this blog post up for a little bit longer time now. But there currently is not a lot happening in Iceland.

      I am also collecting data on activity in El Hierro at the moment.

      1. How about just presenting and discussing single volcanic systems in Iceland and their caracteristics in times when there is not so much activity? – As there seem to be also numerous interested folk not knowing so much about Iceland and its volcanoes. There is that whole lot of around 35 volcanic systems aligned on different rift and volcanic zones!

  13. Just to clarify my understanding (quote from Carl): “So, a prognostication for Krafla is that it would erupt about every 300 years, plus minus 280 years… Better than that is not going to be able to do for Krafla. If one then uses a bit of common sense you will se that she erupts with a rifting episode every 400 years +50/-200 years. The trend is towards the riftings comming closer together as time moves towards today.”

    So if I try to estimate some oncoming eruption it should be something like “previous eruption cycle +- 90%, excluding everything that doesn’t fit into that” 🙂

    1. Nah, previous eruption cykle average +50/-350 is the correct number, excluding everything that does not fit into common behaviour for Krafla. 🙂

      Statistic prognostication is normally very hard to do for volcanos since they have erratic behaviour. Krafla is by far not the worst examply.

      But there is one example that is stunningly good for statistic prognostication. And that is the dead zone of Elgja/Laki/veidivötn that erupts like clockwork every 270 +/ 50 years. But that is probably due to the unique rifting features in the region being very steady and exakt. After 270 years the pressure is just to big, it rips apart underground, magma is sucked into the ripdyke that forms and there you go… Like a suction-pump if you wish for an analogy.

      Problem is that you need so large numbers for statistics to become believable. For instance, if you count entire icelands eruptions for the last 2000 years, take into account rifting cycles and hotspot cycle you get very close to reallity in your prognoses.

      Still, you need to use statistics all the time, but one should remember exactly how inexact the statistical tool is in every case.

      1. Another way to put it. Any volcano can do what the heck it wishes at any time 🙂
        There is absolutly nothing that would prohibit Grimsvötn to never ever erupt again. It is just very unlikely… 🙂

    2. The more samples (measurements) that you have the more accurate the estimate. It’s based off of the Central Limit Theorem from statistics. Generally, about 31 samples is where you can reasonably assume that an estimate based of them will be close enough to be representative of the total population of data.

      For guestimates on the activity of a volcano, you have a few problem. First, do you have all the data? With Katla, you have a lot of documented events going back to human occupation of Iceland, but there is still a measure of uncertainty since the data comes from multiple sources that have variable accuracies. (Historical, Tephrachronology, etc. with some dates being give or take several years) Then, you have to decide how big an event you are trying to make a guess on. That decides what data you are going to throw out because they aren’t as big a deal as half a mountain going poof. That cuts down on your usable sample data pretty fast.

      There there is the slight problem of volcanoes doing what they want, when they want. They don’t care about Poisson distributions (I tried those) Normal distributions (tried those too).

      And… there is always the every present Black Swan. Its there, lurking. Always lurking. As soon as you take your eye off of the possibility of the unexpected, you are vulnerable to it. Black Swans are those events that sit in the fringes of data, hardly noticed, and usually throw out as outliers. Allegedly, a Mandlebrot distribution can account for them, but I don’t have any idea of how to calculate that.

      Okay… a quick summary since I went off on a tangent.

      There are not enough known fissure events outside of the calderas in order to make semi-reliable guestimates. (I prefer the guestimate term since it more accurately describes the problem)

      1. This unusually warm authumn weather in the UK makes you wonder what is going on underneath the UK. Hopefully, someone is checking.

        El Hierro is about as far from major fault lines as is the UK.

    2. I do not like the activity at Vatnsfell that the flatulence at Bardarbunga/Hamarinn caused.
      I am afraid that the “Dead zone” is starting to show signs of unrest now as it is closing in on the 270 year mark on the rifting cycle. The big question is which of the 3 fissure swarms will be the culprit this time.
      Caveat: We are talking about something that might happen somewhere during the next hundred years.

  16. 1100594 29/09/2011 13:16:15 27.6625 -18.0634 14 2.6 4 SW FRONTERA.IHI [+]
    1100593 29/09/2011 13:13:11 27.6799 -18.0962 20 2.6 4 SW FRONTERA.IHI [+]
    1100590 29/09/2011 13:09:23 27.6619 -18.0691 17 2.5 4 SW FRONTERA.IH People say in facebook that last earthquakes are not so strong but go much more time! What this means?

    1. The power of an earthquake is the function of amplitude (size of the wave from bottom to top) and duration (how long the quake lasts.

      If you have a wave that goes from -1 to +1 you have an amplitude of 2. If you then have a wave length of 1Hz (one wave per second) and it lasts for 30 seconds you have a combined amplitudetime energy of 60 powerunits.
      If you then have then have another quake that has the amplitude of -5 and +5 at 1 Hz that lasts for 2 seconds it will then have a amplitudetime energy of 20.
      So a long quake with small motions going will then build up in combined energy.
      I hope this made it clearer.

      1. Ok thank’s… and in terms of energy involved or evolution of situation can you say anything more?

      2. I would not build a house ontop of or on the flanks of El Hierro, that is all I can say. It hink she going towards an eruption at VEI-4, but with a larger than average lava effusion component. But it is just guessing.
        I am only good at Hekla actually… And starting to get good at the Dead zone.

      3. GCmiguel Gc Se confirma lo de los misteriosos ruidos en aguas de la Restinga. Según noticia publicada en el informativo de RTVC.
        há alguns segundos There are the confirmation of strange noises in the whater in La Restinga.

      5. I couldn’t place my text here beneath what Luisport said, but the Spanish information is indicating that there are repeated strange noices of some duration coming from the sea and this is confirming what I am wondering about now, if it wouldn’t become a Surtseyan eruption at El Hierro as the earthquakes have been concentrating more and more to the south of the island. Maybe there is a submarine eruption going on right now there.

  17. About rifting eruptions:

    As we know there is a cycle of rifting eruptions in Iceland that runs on a cirka 270 year cycle.
    This is caused by increased rifting in iceland that correspond with the rifting eruptions.
    In northern Iceland Krafla has all of the rifting eruptions, they are not especially dangerous, see Kraflafires. South of Vatnajökull you have the riftings at the Dead zone. I just went back and checked, and at all instances the rifting periods seem to start with an eruption at Krafla, then no rifting eruption for 20 to 100 years, and then off goes the Dead zone. The cycle is pretty much consistent.

  18. and more >2.0, but always ~same deep
    1100598 29/09/2011 13:33:04 27.6770 -18.0848 18 2.5 mbLg SW
    1100596 29/09/2011 13:32:53 27.6785 -18.0604 14 2.2 mbLg SW
    1100597 29/09/2011 13:25:01 27.6865 -18.0622 18 2.2 mbLg SW
    1100595 29/09/2011 13:18:31 27.6795 -18.0632 16 2.5 mbLg SW

    1. Sooner or later the rock above will break under the pressure and the magma will start it’s way upwards.. I think we don’t have to wait a long time for it.. looks like a large amount of magma has gathered and there is still new magma adding to it –> increasing pressure –> Uhoh 😛

      1. yes and now this: Ernesto Llebry Bastardo enrrique esta es una pregunta de urgencia en un diario digital an puesto una noticia que dice que estan avisando a los equipos de emergencia por la inminente eruccion de un bolcan a doce km de la costa del hierro por favor dinos si es verdad gracias amigo Traduction: Ernesto Bastardo Llebry Enrrique this is a question of urgency in an online newspaper as a news story that says the teams are warning of the imminent emergence of a volcano eruption twelve miles off the coast of El Hierro please tell us if it is true thanks friend

      3. Gonna be something other than a volcano. The quakes are still about 12 to 15 km deep an though more scattered than in the last few days, are not making the trip to the surface.

  20. I have an idea for plotting.

    1. Plot on number of Icelandic eruptions per decade.
    2. FFT on #1.
    3. Plot on total erupted volume (tephra, lava, etc.) per dedcade.
    4. FFT on #3.

    Plot #2 should reveal the eruptive period of 120-180 years clearly if there is one. Plot #4 should reveal the rifting period of 250-300 years, if there is one.

    I guess the one who presented the “big plot of Icelandic eruptions for the last >10 ka” could do it, as he already has all the data needed.

    2. “I guess the one who presented the “big plot of Icelandic eruptions for the last >10 ka” could do it, as he already has all the data needed.”

      Yeah, who was that and where is the data source. That’s worth gnawing on.

  21. Ernesto Llebry Bastardo enrrique esta es una pregunta de urgencia en un diario digital an puesto una noticia que dice que estan avisando a los equipos de emergencia por la inminente eruccion de un bolcan a doce km de la costa del hierro por favor dinos si es verdad gracias amigo Traduction: Ernesto Bastardo Llebry Enrrique this is a question of urgency in an online newspaper as a news story that says the teams are warning of the imminent emergence of a volcano eruption twelve miles off the coast of El Hierro please tell us if it is true thanks friend

    1. Addendum – unfortunately there is no equivalent for above El Hierro which is why I went to look – the closest alternate monitoring zone is above Etna

    2. The SO2 seems to be especially concentrated above Hvalfjörður and Borgarfjörður areas. Maybe it was “just” industrial pollution from the heavy industry at Grundartangi /Hvalfjörður.

    3. The spike was caused by the seismic swarms beneath Hengill I believe. IF there would be a natural cause it could possibly be large geothermal emissions of gas?

  26. Something is moving in Katla, take a look at what you think GOD and SNB is unlikely to be the wind
    No news in Iron remarkable, M3.8 earthquake 15 km depth in the south and the sea
    regards

    1. SNB seems to have spiked little before GOD , both spikes are visible on several other stations too, maybe someone tells us what it means, if nothing…

      1. Dunno but i have a feeling the spike at Snaebyli was a technical error and the Godabunga spike is probably due to high winds since it is blowing over 20m/s according to IMO and Jon wrote a storm was passing tonight as well.

    1. Jules this is odd! here is the harmonic tremor at Snae
      http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/snb.gif

      At first I thought it occurred at the same time as those in Vatnsfell and Skrokkalda but these two came first.
      http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/vat.gif
      http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/skr.gif
      The really strange this is that non of the other SIL stations around Katla are showing this. I would have expected Slysaalda to show something if it was Katla but here is nothing at that time. A small harmonic tremor just before maybe this morning.
      http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/sly.gif

      Maybe Snaebyli picked up the tremors because of it’s situation in that valley. Is there a rifting fault there? Is it part of the dead Zone rather than Myrdalsjokull>

      1. The SNB SIL station looks like it had a technical hiccup. maybe some work was done on it. See the small break in the chart? Looks like they did something and when they reconnected it it was jolted abit.

      2. Daniel I am not convinced of this. There was a break on the 26th Sept but this looks like a harmonic tremor IMHO……But I could be very wrong 🙂

      4. Well SNB is probably too far away to pick up Hamarinn if it was moving. The tremors would be alot larger at SKR or VAT SIL if that was the case. And also since the seismic energy would have to get through the more ductile area of the dead zone it would vanish before reaching SNB.

      5. Unscientific and totally speculative – In the absence of any data, a possible explanation might be a hot spot ‘surge’ that spans this geographical spread; an increase in pressure from within the mantle i.e something going on at a lower level within the earths crust? If something like this were to occur it could cause similar effects to be visible at multiple stations in a ripple effect – just guessing very wildly based on nothing at all.

      6. Daniel’s speculation is as scientific as yours, Jules.

        Since nobody really can measure, what’s really going on down there, all guesses are scientifically valid speculation as long as they are based on known physical laws and facts. Actually Daniel’s proposal is easier to test in reality than yours.

        Katla is activating, with possible symptoms towards a fissure eruption (possibly on the NE side). Hamarinn is preparing for an eruption, with 12 cm of inflation during the last 8 years. Hamarinn is part of the Bardarbunga system, a known, long fissure system.

        I would not be surprised at all, if we saw a fissure eruption either in the Katla or Bardarbunga systems within the next 25-50 years.

  29. Large tremorspike at GOD at the moment if im not completely off. Looks a bit like a jökulhlaup is on its way (similar pattern as last time)

    2. The Instituto Geographico has this script to count the earthquakes in El Hierro: http://www.02.ign.es/ign/resources/volcanologia/histograma_HIERRO_2011.jpg. It’s in Spanish, “eventos .. en catálogo sísmico” meaning “single earthquakes acc. to list”, black is total number per day, green is under 1. on (I’d think Richter) scale, yellow between 1 and 1.5, orange between 1.5 and 2 and the red ones are bigger than two. They have been recording over 8.000 single earthquakes by now since july, at the peak there were around 450 per day (august 21st) and they are now a bit reduced in number but as has been said before, nearly all of them over 2.

      2. No problem, little bit OT: which helicorder location is your priority? SISZ or Katla? And why especially the SISZ?

      3. I want to get both up and running as fast as possible. As recording earthquakes in Krísuvík is also important.

        Buying two geophones at the same times also saves me customs duties and stuff like that.

      4. I agree with Jón, SISz is a very good choice. I actually think the SISZ in some ways are more interesting than Katla since it is less well instrumented. I also wish, but understand why not, Jón would place one at the Dead zone.
        Of course I must admit that the Dead zone helicorder would be personaly the most interesting. Who knows one day there might be one if all goes well (with a lot of other gizmos).

  33. I am trying to make a counter for earthquakes in Spain. But no luck with the script that I use to count earthquakes in Iceland.

    This is the code if anyone know how to fix the issue.


    #earthquake count shell V0.0.1
    #!/bin/bash

    URL="http://www.01.ign.es/ign/resources/volcanologia/boletin_HIERRO.txt"
    TODAYSDATE=`date +%Y-%m-%d`

    COUNT=`lynx -dump ${URL} | grep ${TODAYSDATE} | grep -vi updated | wc -l`
    echo ${COUNT}
    echo ${COUNT}
    #echo ${COUNT}
    echo "uptime"
    echo "hostname"

    exit 0

    I use mrtg to count earthquakes on my internal server. I have not yet figured out how to publish this on the internet.

  36. Hi,

    you can try this:

    #!/bin/bash

    URL=”http://www.01.ign.es/ign/resources/volcanologia/boletin_HIERRO.txt”
    TODAYSDATE=`date +%Y/%m/%d`

    #COUNT=`lynx -dump ${URL} | grep ${TODAYSDATE} | grep -vi updated | wc -l`
    COUNT=`wget -O – ${URL} | grep ${TODAYSDATE} | grep -vi updated | wc -l`
    echo ${COUNT}
    echo ${COUNT}
    #echo ${COUNT}
    echo “uptime”
    echo “hostname”

    exit 0

    I’m not having lynx installed, so i am using wget (should be better anyway).
    The Problem was only the a change in the date format. Is now “2011/09/29”.
    To use lynx uncomment the ‘lync’-line by removing the ‘#’ and comment the wget-line by adding a ‘#’.

    margir kveðjur
    Leif

      2. But it now works for “http://www.01.ign.es/ign/resources/volcanologia/boletin_HIERRO.txt” again, or not ?

        For the other url you can use this script, if you only need the counts.
        But the script may stop working if the website changes just a little bit.

        Getting more information is possible but more difficult and i’m doing a 2 week holiday trip from tomorrow.


        #!/bin/bash

        URL="http://www.01.ign.es/ign/layoutIn/sismoListadoTerremotos.do?zona=1&cantidad_dias=10"
        TODAYSDATE=`date +%d/%m/%Y`
        MATCH="filaNegra.{3}${TODAYSDATE}"

        #COUNT=`lynx -dump ${URL} | grep -c -P "filaNegra.{3}29/09/2011"`
        COUNT=`wget -q -O - "${URL}" | grep -c -P "filaNegra.{3}29/09/2011"`
        echo ${COUNT}
        #echo ${COUNT}
        #echo ${COUNT}
        echo "uptime"
        echo "hostname"

        exit 0

      3. Sorry, should be so:


        #!/bin/bash

        URL="http://www.01.ign.es/ign/layoutIn/sismoListadoTerremotos.do?zona=1&cantidad_dias=10"
        TODAYSDATE=`date +%d/%m/%Y`
        MATCH="filaNegra.{3}${TODAYSDATE}"

        #COUNT=`lynx -dump ${URL} | grep -c -P "${MATCH}"`
        COUNT=`wget -q -O - "${URL}" | grep -c -P "${MATCH}"`
        echo ${COUNT}
        #echo ${COUNT}
        #echo ${COUNT}
        echo "uptime"
        echo "hostname"

        exit 0

      4. Best to parse the HTML and pull the table into plaintext; then you can operate on it however you like. I wrote a very simple python script for it, using the Beautiful Soup (html/xml parser) python library. I’m sure Gentoo has a package for it (I use Ubuntu and was able to get it from ‘apt-get install python-beautifulsoup’ ).

        It’s not perfect, some characters are not parsed properly from the HTML codes (example &aacute instead of á) but that would be easily fixed.

        sample output :
        Evento Fecha Hora (GMT)* Latitud Longitud Prof. (Km) Int. Máx. Mag. Tipo Mag. (**) Localización Info
        1100715 29/09/2011 20:56:30 27.6262 -18.0616 15 2.2 mbLg SW FRONTERA.IHI [+]
        1100703 29/09/2011 20:48:42 27.6367 -18.0815 16 3.2 mbLg SW FRONTERA.IHI [+]
        1100690 29/09/2011 20:44:30 34.8987 -4.5849 38 3.0 mbLg NW ZERKAT.MAC [+]
        1100716 29/09/2011 20:21:05 27.6282 -18.0571 15 2.5 mbLg SW FRONTERA.IHI [+]
        1100714 29/09/2011 20:11:01 27.6767 -18.0674 13 1.5 mbLg SW FRONTERA.IHI [+]

        script:

        import urllib
        import BeautifulSoup

        rawhtml = urllib.urlopen(“http://www.01.ign.es/ign/layoutIn/sismoListadoTerremotos.do?zona=1&cantidad_dias=10″).read()
        parsedhtml = BeautifulSoup(”.join(rawhtml))

        qtable = parsedhtml.find(‘table’)
        rows = qtable.findAll(‘tr’)
        for tr in rows:
        cols = tr.findAll(‘td’)
        for td in cols:
        text = ”.join(td.find(text=True)).replace(‘ ‘,’ ‘).strip()
        print text+”\t”,
        print

      8. It could replace the wget or lynx bit, save it as a script “quake.py” or some such. You would also need to call it with python or put the first line as the python interpreter instead of bash shell #!/usr/bin/python
        or wherever you may have it.

    1. The recognized it?

      What, some UN lackey came out of his drunken money spending stupor long enough to read a name?

      I feel for Iceland and the new layers of bureaucratic bullshit and restrictions on what it can do with it’s own land that has just been handed down by those criminals.

      It’s never a good day when you loose bits and pieces of your sovereignty.

  41. Rafa Muñoz With your permission I copy a link to a forum and someone has put it, I hope as it says, would be a show without damage to any person: http://foro.tiempo.com/seguimiento-especial-crisis -seismic-in-the-iron-t135081.48.html “According to a last minute gap has been discovered offshore in the calm sea, several hundred meters deep, which may erupt the volcano, but below the water. ”
    ha 6 minutes.

  44. U Oh! It’s Friday, you know what that means? After Friday prayers there will be an increase in seismic activity about 14:00 GMT

    You can set your watch by it 🙂

    1. Oh no, it’s again the volcanic party night. Now they’ll even have a Spanish guest.

      Was anyone from Azores invited? I hope they are not offended, if not.

    2. Ahem Propensity, Katla is a heathen, not a muslim 🙂
      She is preparing to eat Särimner and drink a kegg of Mead. Then she is going to pick a fight since she has evolved from a cleaning-maid into a Valkyria.

      Scandinavians do only pray to the Porcelain Godess on Fridays after having been gloriously drunk. 🙂

  45. OT to a degree. Please note – this is not a ‘doom and gloom’ thing; I have simply being trying to understand possible causes of peridiodicity e.g why Iceland enters a 270yr ish period of increased volcanism, and found this very interesting review paper on the subject of periodicity in relation to mass extinction events that reviews current theories. It does also look very briefly at a couple of theories for volcanic periodicity which are terrestrial based, and also sound highly plausible to me and do not require an extra-terrestrial influence or event.

    Worth a read IMHO
    http://downloads.palass.org/palaeobiology/171-190_section2.pdf

  48. 231 AVCAN NOTE – EARTHQUAKE SWARM-VOLCANIC – IRON ISLAND – SEPTEMBER 30, 2011-12:00 h peninsular – Seismic activity has continued to moderate, slightly lower yesterday and concentrated in marine versus Julan, with a moving south from yesterday evening. The magnitude between 3.7 and 1.0. New earthquakes 95. Depth between 13 and 17km (and one to 12 and other two to 18 and 27km). Before yesterday 158. Yesterday 149. Today they are 62 and in total 8736 earthquakes located by the IGN from 9:00 h on July 19, 2011 and detected (Enrique). Today 30, the recent seismic activity is kept off the Julan but remains highly concentrated, which runs south entrance of more magmatic material in the same area since September 20. You see something of … more diffuse activity yesterday to the SE and north. Today many events are missing below 1.5 I guess the anger IGN setting. In purple are the three earthquakes greater than or equal to 3.0 of the September 30, 2011, today, to give an idea of where the greatest concentration seismic activity in the SEP 28TH EARTHQUAKE. – Blue (15) 8 EARTHQUAKE DAY 29 SEP. – Orange (149) EARTHQUAKE DAY 30 SEP. – Green (62) In the evolution of the depths you can see the trend change since yesterday at noon, where they stopped and began to climb down, still well below the time between 13 and 17 km. In the graph of energies released accumulated, it shows a decrease of the energy released, but continuous intrusion, what worries me, because yesterday released energy in a linear fashion may be that is building up energy for the next threshold, so that is not disposable we could have some stronger quake 4.2 – 4.5 or stronger today if today we have no earthquakes above 3.3, so if tomorrow we without it, may be more intense (4.5-5.0). If there is an earthquake of 4.2 or higher, the red traffic light must pass, since a quake of this magnitude can trigger mechanism and that the magma began to move toward the surface for a possible eruption in less than 24-120h. But we will have to confirm with the subsequent seismicity or you will see the tremors. Hopefully not so and that the system is relaxed, because that on the other possibility., We shall see. I leave the details of the last 4 days.

  49. Hmmm… I take it the 5.3 near Bogarnes is an error? It only seems to show on the asb tremor plot, and that looks suspiciously like someone dropped their thermos flask on the sensor…

    1. I don’t believe that the quake was this strong. It should show up on Jóns Helicorder in Hvammstangi, but it isn’t there.

  50. Hahaha, u sure? Never seen an earthquake bigger then3.something on IMO since I started following this, so I didn’t understand to begin with here now 😛

    And btw, look at the dept.. It has to be something, right?

    1. I’m not sure of anything to do with these things… I just stick my neck out occasionally and then duck. 😉

      As for the depth, though, it may mean nothing – quality is only 40%, so it will all probably change… I reckon error, but we’ll see what everyone else thinks.

      2. That’s a good question… don’t know. I assumed it was calculated from those seismos, but I’m not honestly sure.

      1. I might remind everyone it is Friday! On Friday nights (Fria’s day) Katla and friends have great fun teasing us before, after or during their Friday night parties when the fizzy sodas, sparkling wines and beers are drunk in the halls of the Icelandic mountains. Stand by your PCs and helicorders Folks 🙂
        Oh! How I wish I could join in. This looks such fun!
        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXfCS2sEjok&feature=related

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