Posted on by Jón Frímann

Harmonic tremor pulse in Hamarinn volcano

The harmonic tremor in Katla volcano seems to be over. It lasted only short duration after the earthquakes it seems. At least I cannot read anything else out of the data from the SIL station around Katla volcano.

But the harmonic tremor in Hamarinn volcano (part of Bárðarbunga volcano system) seems to be ongoing, as before there is little to no earthquake activity following this harmonic tremor activity. I have no idea why that is. But following this harmonic tremor there was one earthquake with the size ML1.9. But with extremely poor location and size measurement. So the size and depth are subject to a change.


The earthquake in Hamarinn volcano at 16:35 UTC on 7 November, 2011. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.


Harmonic tremor in Hamarinn volcano at 16:44 UTC on 7 November, 2011. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Currently the harmonic tremor pulse in Hamarinn volcano is ongoing. So far the harmonic tremor pulse has not reached the level that suggests a eruption is about to start in Hamarinn volcano, as did happen in July this summer (year 2011). But it worth keeping watch on this event in Hamarinn volcano. As more might be coming from that volcano. But its eruption pattern is undocumented so far, as there have been few to none eruptions in Harminn volcano in the 20th century in Iceland.

Update 1: The weather in this area is quite bad from what I can tell. But so far it does not seems to have any effect on the SIL stations. At least I do not see any weather pattern above the normal so far.

Update 2: There seems to have been a minor eruption in Hamarinn volcano. The harmonic tremor looks like that now. But that is almost the same tremor signal that was in July this summer when a minor eruption took place in Hamarinn volcano.


A clear sign in my opinion that a minor eruption took place in Hamarinn volcano. This activity might continue as it did in July. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.


The harmonic tremor sign can also been seen from Grímsfjall SIL station. Not as clear, as this is a small event. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

A glacier flood should be expected from this event in the next few hours. At least I am assuming that given the glacier cover in the area. It is also a risk that this eruption is going to continue for the next few hours and drop off between as it did in July.

Blog post updated at 16:55 UTC on 7 November, 2011.
Blog post updated at 17:06 UTC on 7 November, 2011.

294 Replies to “Harmonic tremor pulse in Hamarinn volcano”

    1. Thanks Maria, I hope it handles the pressure I have watched its total views go from 100 to 1100 in just under an hour, the minute you linked to it the number viewing surged from 250’s to well over 300 😆

      A big well done to the camera owner, thank you.

      Busy day in Iceland too, Hamarinn and Katla harmonic tremor pulses…

      2. The videochannel is with ustream, that site is specially designed to withstand huge amounts of viewers. Good choice!

  2. @Peter Cobold: Could you calculate this perhaps again?
    Yr. data:” Very rough guesstimate of heat flow into geysir:
    If bottom sea water is 10C , geysir at 35C, diameter 1m ?? , length of erupted column 1000m ?? and period between burps 10 minutes??, then heat transfer rate in conduit is.”
    But diameter 200m (source: una canaria)
    and height: between 20 – 25 m. (http://www.canarias7.es/articulo.cfm?id=237242)
    But they don’t say, how often this happens.

    2. Problem is just that Peter is convinced that it is a Geyser, so he set the base-value considerably lower I think.

      Let us be serious. A volcanic vent for an eruption of this site would be around 10sqm. Lava temp should be at least 1200 degrees. That would cause a convective up current. Then we have a depth of about 50 metres.
      Then we are stuck with about 30 cubics of lava per second plus 1200 degree gasses. Far from astounding really.

      1. Of courseits a geysir – its periodocity for one ( visually and on tremor plot) and the distinct grey circles of warm water with evidence of soem small upwelling. Ther’s some gas – but released with the water. Bob is not foamimg with gas continuously as a giant fumarole would. Bob’s a sideshow, will make no dent on that cubic kilometre of magam that is claimed ( in newspaper article) to be under Hierro.

      2. I think you might be the first one to say that a Geyser can produce magma, an eruptive cone, fill in an underwater canyon, produce pyroclasts, pumice and other rather eruptive thingamabits.
        To be honest, I have never heard of a Geyser producing any of the above eruptive behaviours.

        I do agree that Bob is a sideshow, at least most likely. The other option is that Bob will be going for several years.
        But 1000 meter deep Geyser does not even function with the admiralty chart. Before Bobs eruption started it was 180 metres deep, and Margalefs data was last given at 80 metres, and now it is probably getting close to real surtseyan behaviour. If it had been more vigorous (muscular eruption) we would allready see detonations. It is just a slow normal eruption from a fissure eruption.

      4. Okay, then I understand a bit better what you are hyptothetizing. Let’s call it a Boyser.
        A bit more likely, but I still go for the standard 101 Surtseyan fissure volcano eruption. This since I have a big problem seeing a Boyser creating a 100 metre+ cone, filling in a valley with magma.
        But, since we seem to live in interesting time, I would say that we are really close to see if you are right.

        I have though put out weirder theories than a Boyser, for instance the vortex theory of Icelandic tectonically driven hotspot pluming. It was based on fluid dynamic math, I pulled all the whistles and stops on that one. It was a beautifull theory, untill Dr Behncke threw a spanner into my equation wheel the size of the planets mantle. I still think part of it is right though. And we also have my third order harmonic theory of quake propagation. So, I do really like far-fetched theorizing 🙂
        Sooner or later one of us probably going to hit it nail on. While waiting for the nail to hit we will have to continue to BBQ some hats 🙂

  3. A lot of interesting details: Here e.g. they say that the proportion of iron in the water is 2.000.000x of normal conditions, so that the eruption functions as “superfertilizer”.

    “Esta línea de investigación coincide con los datos aportados por los científicos del buque del Instituto Español (IEO) Ramón Margalef, ya que estos determinan que “la concentración de hierro disuelto en las aguas superficiales recogidas en las inmediaciones del volcán quince minutos después de la erupción de ayer, sobre las 18:00 horas, es cuatro millones de veces más alto que en condiciones normales, ha pasado de 0.05 a 2300 nano-molar. Este proceso natural supone un aporte de hierro biodisponible de extraordinaria magnitud para los organismos autótrofos, por lo que estamos ante un gigantesco fenómeno de fertilización oceánica”.
    (http://www.canarias7.es/articulo.cfm?id=237242)

    This explains the island’s name!

      2. Thanks for that information Xana. I also was fooled the the name and the red colour of various places on the island into thinking iron was abundant there. Nice to have corrections at times.

  6. Much gnashing of teeth over what is in the coconuts. (floaters at Bob’s Jacuzzi)

    Traquita or Riolita (Trachyte or Rhyolite)

    As I have mentioned, they a pretty close chemically, and it all has to do with how the fractioning goes on in the reservoirs. Rhyolite has a higher viscosity and holds gas (bubble) better, and depending on conditions, can release them catastrophically.

    My issue is not with what they actually are, but with being dismissive about concerns. They really aren’t that far apart from each other.

    After getting distracted looking for caves last night, I went back to rummaging through data. While we don’t have a chemical breakdown of Bob’s floaters, we do have the work of J.C. Carracedo. He and his cohorts in research put out a paper titled “Geology and Volcanology of La Palma and El Hierro, Western Canaries.”

    Buried within this paper are the chemical breakdowns of lava from the three major parts of El Hierro’s history. Specifically, Tinor, El Golfo, and the Rifting stages. (in that order is how they occurred, we are still in the rifting volcanism stage)

    For comparison, I found a paper about some of the lava on nearby Tenerife. Since it’s in the same island family, it’s a good reference.

    For a look at what an actual rhyolite looks like, I used data from a paper about the Bruneau-Jarbidge eruption. Its a mid-continent event and about as unrelated as you can get, but when you talk about explosive rhyolite, you do not get a sample much better than that.

    So, here they are in all their glory (note, it’s a TAS diagrama and not really that sexy):

    http://i42.tinypic.com/2v8ip6x.png

    As you can see, both the El Golfo and Rifting magmas are more evolved than the original Tinor magma. They have a ways to go yet, but they are on their way.

    It’s likley (in my untrained opinion) that the Traquita categorization is probably correct. But it still depends on how fractioning goes down in in the reservoir(s).

  8. There was a very large thunderstorm happening here in south Iceland between 15 and 16pm. Something that is very rare in Iceland. There is also an extreme gale ongoing and heavy rain.
    I think there is no harmonic tremor, not in Katla, not in Hamarinn. I think it is only the effect of this very bad weather. But that is only my opinion.

    1. If it were only weather you would see all 3 lines rising, not just the two

    2. Yep, I agree. It looks like really bad weather. The tremors are nothing like real harmonic tremor we’ve seen before at Hamarinn. (http://icelandgeology.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/skr.13.july_.2011.12.59.utc_.gif)

      There is a spike created by an earthquake. This is combined with a steep increase of tremor due to weather condition, which makes it loop like harmonics. But it’s simply a product of 2 types of signals.

      Example of the combined tremors:
      http://i40.tinypic.com/2j518wz.png

  10. There was just now an interesting film in German 3sat television about a research ship called Meteor working at the Azores with white and black smokers and other submarine volcanic features as well as testing successfully new radar equipment (would be sth. for researching Bob!). Regrettfully, I have just a link to the German version of the film (but it could exist in other languages, too, as it is about an international research team speaking English amongst each other): http://www.3sat.de/mediathek/mediathek.php?obj=27801 .

      1. Try: “Direkt im Player.” (link under the screen) I hope, it’ll work. It worked for me.

  11. Interesting videy. The ROV was a really cute and simple one, I understand that they do no want to go closer than 1km. At 1 km at one spot it looked like carbonated water with bubbles all over, and at another 1km it was like soup.

    But the most interesting thing was that at the 2km mark there was markedly more small fish that at 6 and 4 km.

    1. I am not an expert at lip-reading, but that fish at the 2km mark appears to be mouthing the name ”Bob”
      Obviously he has access to this blog !

    2. My assumption would be that big fish would need more oxygen in the water than the small fish/fry. Also the big fish would normally be eating the small fish/fry. Kill off the big fish via oxygen depleation and theres nothing to keep the smaller fish numbers down.

      Well… other than a further depleation of oxygen in the water and/or food.

      1. More serious is the rise in temperature and alkalinity of the seawater, this and the levels of toxins will destroy fish stocks in the area, adding yet more hardship in the months to come for the embattled fishermen and residents of La Restringa.
        ”Bob” and her siblings also release nutrients, so i hope, that after these events end, the area will soon recover.

  12. they switched the hierro camera off. I was observing, what I thought, heat sources above the water. ( the web cam is so bad that there isn’t a good IR filter on it, so you can see infrared radiation from a heat source, fe very hot water/steam) . Maybe they will replace is by a HD cam?

  14. Is it just me or is there a new level forming under El Golfo?
    Would be nice with a new quake plot to see what is happening… 🙂
    Feels like the bottom feeding dyke is ready, and now something is starting to build up into something.

    2. The accumulated energy plot will level off later this week at 2.5^12 Joules, and all will go quiet, for another 200 years. Its just crustal strain that has been relieved since July – upper crust shifts first (hence GPS) , transfers the strain to the deeper crust second, whose EqS are declining having dissipated the strain.

      1. Peter, sounds like time for a bet here, will you do the Búrfell all natural hat BBQ if it doesn’t happen? Also goes for any Bob surfacing of course… 🙂

      3. Nah, all it takes i that it stops next week, and then it needs to be quiet. So, if it is still quiet coming july it would be time to make a hat out of meat and go BBQ infront of Búrfell cam.
        If you are “lucky” Katla erupts before that (and before Hekla) and then I would there BBQing too.

    3. I was looking at those one SW of Frontera. I continue to have a feeling that starteda month or more ago that there will be an eruption in the centre of the island, maybe up on the ridge. Absolutely no real evidence for it though, just a feeling.

  15. Since the tremor pulse was observed both at Katla and Hamarinn at the same time, could it be that it was really the Veidivötn/Eldgja/Laki fissure system?!

      2. Yes, the weather was really extreme at times, in the afternoon. Now its still a strong gale but not heavy rain/thunder like it was.

    2. Ok, got to believe you, guys…

      Been lurking last days, or actually suffering the symptoms of a real life.

  19. http://www.diarioelhierro.com/

    “ESPECIAL CRISIS SÍSMICA – 7/11/2011 (17:09 horas)

    El volcán de El Hierro como atractivo turístico
    El Cabildo de El Hierro promociona sus volcanes en una feria turística en Londres.”

    “Special seismic crisis …

    The volcano of El Hierro as tourist attraction.
    El Cabildo de El Hierro is promoting its volcanoes at a tourist industry fair at London.” (my translation)

    – No comment.

    1. I will give it to him. He has tenacity, I have been expecting that one for some time.
      I kind of understood his type when he (yes he really did!) announced an International Underwater Photographic Competition when the eruption started. He will go far, but will he be alive?

      So he went to London instead of staying on the island… Ay Caramba!

      1. The Cabildo insular isn’t a person, it’s the government of each island. In Spain only in Canary Islands they use this type of executive power. There are several elected administrative powers in the Canaries and Spain, in addition to their own autonomic government of Canary Islands, each island has a executive government which they call Cabildo.

        Currently the president of El Hierro Cabildo is Alpidio Armas, recently named after the fall in a censure motion (motion of no confidence) of the former President, Belén Allende Riera.

        So, the fact that the island’s government is promoting volcanic tourism in London doesn’t mean that they President is also there.

      2. Thank you for clearing up both El Presidentes first name, Alpidio was a bit better than what I thought was his first name. Secondly the thing with the Cabildo not being his title.
        I thought he was Cabilde, and the organ was Gubierno. Now I wont that mistake again 🙂
        I thought there would an election soon? Guess that Alpidio might be short in office then.

        Regarding volcano tourism, it isn’t such a bad idea. Many people would like to go and watch, and Bob will most likely be a fairly “safe” event, even if Bob shifts onland and becomes a Baldrick instead.

    2. Why not? Pleasant winter weather, decent daylight hours. Once the eruption resolves into a Surtsey or fissure I rather fancy going myself.
      Perhaps we should all go?

      1. If it is still going come Christmas I am going… I am tired of the weather, first rain in Sweden, then rain in England, then rain in Sweden, then rain in… GAAAAH!

      2. If you decide to go to El Hierro, please dont eat this rotten fish what you have in sweden, not that we truly have to evacuate the entire island then

      1. Believe what?
        Tourist volcanism? Not so far fetching, it works pretty well for Iceland really. I am actually surprised you aren’t swamped by us volcanophiliacs really.

      2. One thing is a tourist who doesn´t knows anything about volcanoes, and another is a volcanologist! Imagine a tourist trying to get some lava with a bottle to take like a souvenir to his girlfriend!

      3. That’s why you throw your hammer into a tin can full of water.

        When the girlfriend gets around to the chemical analysis, the rapid quenching goes a long way towards a proper analysis.

        Plus the tin can is harder to break.

  20. From Earthquake report’s observers

    http://earthquake-report.com/2011/09/25/el-hierro-canary-islands-spain-volcanic-risk-alert-increased-to-yellow/

    Important Update 07/11 – 19:58 UTC :
    Raymond Matabosch : There are tiny red lights on the water … probably when the underwater explosions are strongest. I counted them at least six times in almost two hours. During daylight we would probably have see vapors with ejections of ash and pyroclasts that accompany these little redness …
    Original text : Il y a de toutes petites rougeurs sur le plan d’eau… probablement lors de certaines explosions sous-marines les plus fortes. J’ai compté au moins six fois en presque deux heures. S’il faisait jour il est probable ont pourrait voir des vapeurs avec des éjections de cendres et de pyroclastes qui accompagnent ces petites rougeurs…

    Update 07/11 – 19:41 UTC :
    Raymond Matabosch : It needs to be confirmed, but I have the impression that a faint red light is glowing from time to time in the Las Calmas sea. The ground is almost continuously trembling, underground explosions seem to succeed in a very short time ..
    Original text : ça demande à être confirmé mais j’aperçois, de temps à autre, de petites lueurs qui rougeoient sur le plan d’eau de Las Calmas… Par contre le sol est en permanent tremblotement, les explosions souterraines semblent se succéder dans des temps très brefs…

    2. That were the “lights” I saw on the webcam just before it went of line. Please operators of that webcam, Go online. I know its dark but in the dark you can see small things.

    3. Open letter to Cabilde Armas:
      You seem to like the idea of volcano tourists, how do you expect to get them if you do not have a running teaser?
      Hork up some cash for a PR camera in full HD with a microphone so that people can get really interested.

      1. I don’t find the original post (AVCAN?). Copy from another blog:

        Update 07/11 – 18:09 UTC :
        – Joke Volta sends a message that the size of the jacuzzi is constantly changing at the moment (she can see the jacuzzi now from her garden at El Pinar)

        – The webcam they have installed at El Pinar is of NO use as only big eruptions may be seen with it. We need uregntly an HD webcam which can eventually be directed by Raymond or somebody of AVCAN, in other words skilled people.

      3. Thanks! I don’t like to post something without knowing from where it comes.

        Good night!

    1. I have been wondering about those for the last hours.
      But after reading Matabosches reports from the cliff over La Restinga and him reporting red lights flicking on and off at Bob, I think I dare say that those are Surteyan explosions. Pressure builds up, and then Ka-Bloy, then pressure builds up again, Ka-Bloy… And so on.

  22. Unusual/strange things being reported at AVCAN in the last minutes:

    Ramon Margalef near La Restinga and a helicopter of Marine Rescue with base in Tenerife flying to the ship and circling around it.

    Another one from Victor Barrera in El Mocanal (I think):
    Por último un detalle de todo el día, tengo una perra y un par de gatos, hoy desde el amanecer están muy nerviosos, lo que normalmente es una convivencia pacífica, se vuelve en ocasiones agresiva. Nunca los he visto así. Duermen todos juntos y hoy les resulta imposible hasta verse.

    As the last thing, here’s a detail of the entire day. I have a dog (female) and a couple of cats. Today since the sunrise they have been very nervous. What is normally a peaceful coexistance is becoming aggresive. I have never seen them like this. Normally they sleep together, but today they can not even see each other.

    Too many earthquakes and constant trembling making animals nervous?

      1. Me? Far far away, thankfully (in the middle of the continental sheet). 🙂
        But this guy in El Mocanal is quite close.

      2. Sorry, I confused that translator for the translatee 🙂
        Yes, I would say many animals would become edgy if they where in constant tremoring and quakeing.

      3. I’m now reading on infrasound that accompanies vulcano eruptions, make people afraid and anxious and nauseaous, and it’s the reson why animals move out of harms way when a tsunami comes rolling on, and pick up an eartquake just before it hits

      4. Xana, just to picky. Infrasound is a heavilly contested area.
        There has been some tests that make people sick, and other tests where people do not even notice it. And every time you have non-repeatable result people start making odd theories. My personal favourite is that fat people have a larger volume to start “quivering” with. It is quite possible that it is not so good in long-term, but the short term effects are debateable.
        Animals have better hearing, but low-frequency sounds are below even dogs. High-frequency works for animals though.
        And, tsunamis travel faster than the speed of sound, so there is no animal on the planet that will react to that one, unless you like psychic squid 🙂
        I rather think that the shaking and trembling will make people scared, and that the adrenalin saturation will people quezy.
        But, I might be boring here…

    2. Last time I saw a helo make an emergency run out to a ship, someone had injured them selves with a tool.

      Other occasions is when you drop someone over the side… inadvertently.

      1. Carl, what happens to some animals in earthquakes (and tsunamis) is that they feel the arrival of the P wave.
        There was a popular video on youtube with a dog reacting first than humans to a earthquake, at the time I did some calculations and I realized what the dog felt was the P wave.

    3. Animals are very useful to us with Volcanoes and Earthquakes.

      The bird the Canary is sensitive to gas, do the people of the Canaries use these birds for dangerous volcanic gas detection?

      5. For your info; the Canary Islands got their name from the ‘canis’. They was originally named ‘canariae insulae’ which means ‘islands of dogs’. This is a result of the abundance of dogs found when the first colonists arrived.

        The birds were named after the archipelago, not the other way around. So in fact these birds are dog-birds!

      7. Try La Gomera! This island is still packed with dogs. If that sleeping mistress onces turns back to life dog poo will be all over the place!

      8. Also, El Hierro was considered to be the end of the world before Columbus produced the worst piece of navigation in the history of mankind (Modern version: Duh, lets go to Pluto… What is this place? Hm, lets call the natives Plutonians. Nice canals… Atomio Columbus becomes the first human on mars…)

      9. “”…….I saw three ships a-sailin’
        They were all heading my way
        I asked the captain what his name was
        And how come he didn’t drive a truck
        He said his name was Columbus
        I just said, “Good luck. “””””””

      10. Hehe those things keep me wondering about how people in the future will laugh at us. By then it will be clear that we are naïve thinking God is in heaven and the center of the earth consists of magma. They know better! God is in the center of the earth and suffers from flatulence!

  23. One thing I was thinking, Raymond Matabosch should soon hear the explosions.
    After all, it is only about a kilometre to La Restinga area, and sound travells really well over an ocean. Even if he is outside the safey zone, it should very soon be quite audible around there.
    We are after all talking about explosions that put out 130dB or more.

  24. 2011-11-07 20:18:54.331min ago 27.78 N 18.05 W 20 3.1 CANARY ISLANDS, SPAIN REGION lastest one…

  25. Note that in the quiet gap, 21-31 mins, the 1Hz tremor goes. If that reflects stem bubbles forming and collapsing then the reason for absence of ‘spikes ‘ would be that water/magma interaction was least during those minutes. The difficulty now is that there may well more than one hydrothermal conduit – a new Bob closer to Restinga was reprted today – and the tremor is reported from them all.

    2. I would go for it building up explosions inside the crater of Bob as Magma gushes forth, explodes with the water, then pressure builds up for another gassy blob of lava, and the cycle repeats.
      The deep 0,8Hz powertremoring is most likely lava, steam and water would most likely give a higher frequency as main component.

      1. I hope they move a little further away first. Seems they are very close to little Bob (position is still about the same).

    1. all station around got this sudden decrease. But prior there were 3 picks…maybe a cork?

      1. The odd PSD *WAS* due to missing data from the later part of the period. It’s gone now. This always happens if you expand the latest part of the day’s plot, to differing extents depending how much of the hour’s data is missing.

      1. I was unclear.
        No, there has been no rescaling now. I think that they have set it to lowest gain possible allready.
        This is just that the pressure is well released for the time being.

    1. I guess Alpidio is going to be a bit mad about that his tourist volcano is named after Robert de Bracamonte and not him…
      Fitting example though, I never knew that there was such a person who was given the Canaries by the spanish king. Well, one learns a new thing each day.

      2. Aaaaahh now I see what you mean! Bob made it to Wikipedia!!
        “As of 7 november 2011 a confirmed surtseyan type of eruption phase has started at the fissure volcano of Bob.[citation needed] The volcano is named after Robert de Bracamonte who was given the Canarian Islands as a legate by Henry III of Castille. The eruption is currently ongoing.”

      7. That post was prophetic, we also had the news-clip of Alpidio Armas when he proudly anounced the photographic diving competition. Also, clipping was first mentioned by you a little bit down. Lady Bunyon gave Bob a herritage. Ah, those where the days.

    3. Dunno about him, but I made the suggestion of “Bob” a while back on here. Mainly out of a perverse desire to screw with the news media… that or some multisyllabic Icelandic moniker that would make the eyes of the bobbleheads glaze over as they developed a slight twitch and slowly began to spasm.

      You guys have delivered in style! 😀

    4. Goggling brings up he was a Norman French admiral in Castillian service who was the governor of the Canary islands in 14th century. Can mostly find stuff in French though:
      http://books.google.com/books?id=0Nb4RZ8FjjcC&pg=PA119&lpg=PA119&dq=%22Robert+de+Bracamonte%22&source=bl&ots=e4hVpZqY6g&sig=hHk6pflVRjj8s5ylST5L5F4biP8&hl=en&ei=I1i4TselNc-bOt3ohIMC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CCcQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=%22Robert%20de%20Bracamonte%22&f=false
      http://www.jandiasub.com/Un-peu-d-h-histoire.htm
      http://books.google.com/books?id=v158U6ML98QC&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=%22Robert+de+Bracamonte%22&source=bl&ots=fjPbi-WfAG&sig=7PddnH7hkuSa_kU-gavxZNc5gWo&hl=en&ei=I1i4TselNc-bOt3ohIMC&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=%22Robert%20de%20Bracamonte%22&f=false

      1. “…Norman French…”

        Vikings… always poking people with sharp pointy things.

      2. Guys, thanks a lot for this interestin and didactic lessons of History. That day I didn´t go to school

    1. I sat up reading more of the Carracedo paper last night. It seemed to me that upon the collapse of Tinor, the volcanic center shifted to the El Golfo area.

      From your plots it seems the center of strength of the quakes is still right under where El Golfo’s center was at.

      1. I have an add-on theory to that.
        I think that El Golfo has been responsible for all subsequent eruptions. Think of a central Volcano like Katla, but with the sub-arial part of Katla gone towards Vestmannaeyar. But down there Katlas reservoirs and feeder are still intact and feeding Elgja sometimes, and sometimes feeding its own sub-aquatic center.
        That is what I think is happening.

      2. Most EQs since 19/7 have occured in SW FRONTERA, NW FRONTERA AND W FRONTERA.. This does imply that the magma reservoir(s) are under there. The first EQ of the sequence seemed to be under Malpaso; followed be activity to the NWof there.

        However, the stronger EQs seem to be to the N and S of the centre, implying that magam is trying to escape laterally along the rift line or that the rock is more prone to fracturing there.

  31. Carl le Strange says:
    November 7, 2011 at 19:06

    “Is it just me or is there a new level forming under El Golfo?
    Would be nice with a new quake plot to see what is happening… 🙂
    Feels like the bottom feeding dyke is ready, and now something is starting to build up into something.”

    November Quakes View East

    http://i43.tinypic.com/262y7bt.png

    View North

    http://i39.tinypic.com/4ue73d.png

    Survey Says…. probably not.

    1. Seems to a slight slight propensity towards younger quakes, but I think Survey Says… Let’s look next week…
      Was a good idea, but no fat lady singing yet.

      1. But the really bizarre part of that plot, still no feeder pipe to Bob can be seen in the quakes.

        It’s either ultra stable or ultra gooey.

      3. I am actually starting to believe that it is an old fissure turned into a tube that has been active before that lead up to one of the cones south of La Restinga. And that as the last eruption ended the magma flowed back and left it empty and ready. That would explain the silent opening really. There is volcano in Iceland (forgot the name) that you can climb down into and follow the old vent down into the chamber (it is really a chamber!), and then onwards down the feeder tube. Apparantly the magma was very rapidly sucked back as pressure fell.
        Simple explanation.

      1. No… Carl is looking for another layer in the El Hierro sandwich.

        We have the “dike emplacement” above that small group, we have the small group that is on the bottom periphery of where that group was distributed at back in days up to August… and then the deep set. (the big wad in the plot)

        A 4th layer would be quite interesting, or indicative of the definite onset of recharge.

      3. Yes, my idea is that a very deep dyke (for a lack of a better word), or fissure-rift has formed, and that is either allready connected to the deep feeding system leading up to the magma-reservoir, or that such a feeder is forming.
        My theory is that there is a large “blob” of magma nestling under El Golfo area, and that the slow arrival of the blob was what started the quakeing as it “squashed” against the crust.
        The basic idea is that the deep rift will feed the reservoir directly, so that Bob has a slow but steady supply of magma that is really large. Thus could the eruption putter on for years.
        I think that is what happened as El Golfo was created, remember that it grew over time to such a size that it slid out into the English Channel.
        If I am right we would be in for the long-haul.

      6. My 2nd question and yr. answer were crossing each other.

        Thank you, I remember now you describing this hypothesis.

        – I think, I’ll go now counting sheep …

        Good night.

      8. could the quiet gap be ‘underplating’ ? – and more resistant to compression-melting?

      2. I wonder if there is not a deep magma-reservoir down there, and that it works as a dead zone. and that the rest are just tubes leading up and laterally to La Restinga Bob from there.

      3. My view is that there is a magma reservoir(s) under the island and under El Golfo. Take a look at the Carracedo paper again – the relevant bits about El Hierro are towards the end.

        Whatever is feeding Bob is relatively silent so pre-existing cracks in porous sedimentary rock, which allow de-gassing.

  32. I found the dog on the earthquake video:

    http://youtu.be/r2G12ro07RE

    At :36 (camera time) is when the dog begins to feel/hear something, he seemed puzzled looking to the ground
    http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/8243/29760947.gif

    At: 38 the dog start running
    http://img411.imageshack.us/img411/452/41186548.gif

    At: 40 the first movement in the room, 3 seconds before the big quake
    http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/4508/80496594.gif

    At: 43 the big quake arrives, man also running
    http://img130.imageshack.us/img130/7095/29099280.gif

    Earthquake was this one:
    http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsww/Quakes/nc71338066.php

    I simulated the Earthquake on this location of the video (Eureka Califórnia)

    ———-
    # Station Coordinates : 40.8013687 -124.160736
    # Earthquake Latitude and Longitude: 40.6520004 -124.692001
    # Earthquake Depth (km): 29.2999992
    # Earthquake Time: 0 27 39
    # Earthquake Magnitude: 6.5
    # Compute travel times for all branches

    Delta Azimuth (degrees clockwise from north)
    (deg) eq-to-station station-to-eq
    0.43 69.5 249.9

    travel arrival time
    # code time(s) dy hr mn sec
    1 Pb 9.28 0 0 27 48
    2 sPg 14.99 0 0 27 53
    3 Sb 16.07 0 0 27 55
    ———-

    A P arrived 9.28 seconds after the quake a S arrived 16.07 seconds later. That is, a difference between both 6 / 7 seconds. What led me to think the dog felt the P wave and the human no.

      2. Fantastic!! The dog really knows that something is going to happen, and that there is a good reason to leave the place.

        What I know from the quakes around here is that some human beings always are awake before the quake starts. Maybe they have a little bit of the dogs abilities.

      4. BTW, that “captcha” bug, if you hork a capcha, click on the “Reply” for the post you were responding to and the forum software will take you back to a ‘responding to this thread’ sort of status. When you put the de-horked capcha response in it will be attached to the correct post.

    4. Vince, I love it! This matches perfectly.
      Yet… another question: what is the frequency of the P-wave (herz)?

      1. That really depends. P-waves are like a lot an EMP. Just a pressure wave. What ever frequency components show up depend on the rebound of the fault and other dynamics that make up how it is produced.

        Back on the 4th of November, there was a rather large quake (4.4) that was picked up by station MACI over on another island in the Canaries. I’ve posted the trace of it and the 4.3 the preceded it by a day or so.

        Here is the spectral display of it. (had to juggle a couple of programs to get this) I’ve placed the cursor at about where the quake actually starts.

        http://i43.tinypic.com/2qv4m6o.png

  34. @Carl: Did you catch a cold in all this rain, Swedish and British mixed up? Best to have a hot cup of tea in a /German: Warmhalteflasche – Wordreference translation: “Warm bottle stop” …. 🙂

    1. I am sipping tea right now, I just wish that I had any whiskey or cognac at home to spike it with. I think I will take a couple of pills and go to bed and try to shleep it off.

      2. England will kill me, or my neighbours stories about Anzio bridges (todays tidbit). I think I will pack up and go back to sweden again, or just somewhere really warm.

      4. I wonder what an Elderbarry would be in Swedish, and also I think there is an acute lack of Elderberry bushes in Belgravia.
        Although I am pretty certain that my neighbours from the unpronouncable embassy have interesting bushes. At least they seem to become very happy when they smoke it.
        I think I will go for Gin & Tonic and a hot-bottle.

    2. Ermmm are you telling us there’s a tropical storm forming in the Med? The UK Met Office hasn’t put a weather warning out on it – and they usually start putting weather warnings out on light drizzle with possible rainbows…..

      1. Yeah… and based on their prognostication, Heathrow wasn’t ready for the severity of last years winter…

        Wouldn’t be the first time that a government office forgot to check on something or to make sure that it’s plugged in or has batteries.

      2. Sorry – just being ultra-cynical there. I often joke about the Met Office’s weather warnings…severe drizzle being one of my favourite send-ups… 🙂

      4. Have you guys read Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide – the one about the guy who’s a weather god but doesn’t know it himself? And he gets “worshipped” by all the clouds in the region? He starts cataloging all the types of rain he gets, and I think it was about 20 types of drizzle in there. Priceless!
        Douglas Adams <3 <3 <3

      5. Is there anything other then severe drizzle here? Okay then, light drizzle, medium drizzle, soul-crushing drizzle lightly served with heavy fog. And of course my personal favourite. Four-dimensional drizzle with just the kind of wind that will turn your umbrella inside out, complete with shoe-murdering puddles and a heavyset fog with an odd smell of treacle tart to it.

      6. Well, I guess that beats rain drops that will beat you senseless by the time you get from the car to the house. I have some occasions where I couldn’t see 10 feet in front of me.

      7. That is manly rain, if it can knock me out I can live with it. I am quite fine with any weather that is so bad that it becomes a competition for your life. A snow storm that picks you up, slams you down and cowers you in a fot of snow just as a greeting is my kind of weather.
        No, drizzle is slow, depressing and soul-quenching, and it never ever end…

    2. That was supposed to be a response to Una Canaria remark: “I can´t believe it.”
      (I mean the “rotten fish” part.) 🙂
      Take the chance to tell Carl and Peter I enjoy geyser and vortex theories very much, no matter if they have any support on evidence. This whole stuff, from plate tectonics to mantle plumes, sounds a bit crazy to believe, and therefore, fascinating.
      Keep them coming!
      Well, lets move on, still many comments to catch up with…

      1. Biologists like me look for correlations and patterns, whereas volcanologists seem to expect chaotic, indeterminate behaviour. One day I’ll hit lucky with an outrageous suggestion – just need a well organised volcano.

  37. Nice to see Bob is going up in the world 🙂

    Just noting quakes under W Frontera are covering a range of 9km in depths from 25 to 16 today.

    Goodnight all

    1. Today W Frontera quakes are at 18 and 10km depths so far this morning – swiss cheese style? Quakes under El Golfo appear to have a longer and broader spread today, too.

  38. Lurking, I´m still thinking in your answer (date 00:49) and I have concluded that I need to take more medication couse I´m not be able to believe what you have writed!!!

      3. Wasn’t me… 🙂
        We already talked about this guy here. No question, he’s a madman. But if he has no wife and kids, and doesn’t expect for someone to come if he burns… Naaah, I’m just joking. Bad example. But in general, I admit that geologists are “special”. A bit like Jack Russell Terriers…

    1. Note the date please:
      07.09.2011 | 07:39

      Iceland’s Volcano Katla under Close Observation

  42. Can’t remember the name of the volcano but something is going to happen, sooner then i think Carl expects. The harmonic pulse waves seem to be increasing with frequency. I have been watching it for a couple of weeks now.

    Hekla, Katla, i think an unknown/ long forgotten sleeping beauty will go first.

    Or maybe just maybe a new volcano might be born.

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

    1. That is Krafla, it might well go actually.
      The volcano I was talking about was Theistareykjarbunga, that one will take many years before it is ready. My guess is more then 20 years before it even starts to shake.

  43. kvo station is just few km. from Krafla geothermal power station with 30+ deep boreholes, among them is IDDP-1 http://iddp.is/
    The noise at kvo is probably from some boiling phases in those i would guess.

    1. Wagabond, Kraflavirkjun is south of the transverse Graben intersecting the volcano. The Graben deflects all noise so what is heard north is not heard south of it and so on.
      That is why the SIL of Reynihlid is so close. Here is the plot for Kraflavirkjun.
      http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/ren.gif

      Compare and you will see the difference. Also notice the daily noise from the power plant.

      1. Carl.

        The kvo Krókóttuvötn is only 5 km due west from IDDP-1 but ren is 12-15 km SSW from it but closer to Bjarnarflag/Namaskarð

        The daily noise at REN is traffic. The power station is running the same 24/7

      2. Hey Wagabond, I stand corrected, but, the KVO is on the other side of the Graben, so it does not pick up noise from the IDDP, nor the daily operations of Kraflavirkjun.

  44. Big tremor spike all over north and west Iceland – maybe focussed near Bardarbunga? I can’t make out whether it’s just an earthquake (but nothing showing on the automated system) or a brief harmonic tremor…

    1. Are you sure it’s just N & W Iceland?

      E.G. http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/nyl.gif

      Which appears to be on the south coast next to Ejafjellajökull, if I managed to use google maps correctly. If it’s wind, we’ll be able to rule that out later today as it’s forecast to drop significantly, this doesn’t look like any wind I’ve seen before though.

  45. The one I meant is much more discrete, Antony – looks almost like an earthquake spike (see ask, for example). Nylenda is just being affected by wind, I think – either that, or it’s drowned out the tremor.

  47. Sorry, but the comments have been a chat. Carl, you know much, but please keep it down. you have written 1/4 of all comments and 2/4 of like only three more guys. With all this comments its hard to navigate. Don´t start crying now. Please

    1. Funny that. I found it quite informative.

      Plus it kills time while I wait for something to plot.

      BTW, you wouldn’t happen to have a like to the chemical analysis of the floaters would you? (The IGN or university ones)

    2. Carl don’t you dare ease back on the comments based on this, and the same goes for the rest of you prolific posters – if we want some other names writing stuff we just have to write stuff ourselves and the number of posters increase.

      I’ve got a couple of questions while I’m here but I’ll put them in the next post to give them each a clean thread to reply to.

    3. I find Carl soothing.

      I especially liked: “Four-dimensional drizzle with just the kind of wind that will turn your umbrella inside out, complete with shoe-murdering puddles and a heavyset fog with an odd smell of treacle tart to it.”

      Now, that’s chit chat. Well done. Not boring.

      2. I also loved that part you quoted Betty, I will never find the depressing English drizzle so bad anymore, I just will think of the ‘shoe murdering puddles’ and laugh to myself. Reminds me a little of Agatha Christies Poirot.
        I also love a bit of amusing chat during the quiet times of waiting so Carl is welcome to spout as much silliness as he wishes in my view as things always go serious when there are important things to discuss.

    4. Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow… Or something like that – Oscar Wilde had a clue on this I would say… Sheepsheep hooray.
      Of course somehow you’re right, but sometimes life is so much better with a little bit of “wrong” and disorder.
      I don’t want to start any arguing with you. Sure you have a point, and are ritht to some extend. But as you shared you’re view of the multitude of comments, I thought I might communicate mine. It’s no right/wrong thing, ok? For you it’s too much, for me it’s not. Nothing to discuss. 2 different opinions, that can easily cohabitate. Look, I even put in a smile to underline the “harmless” nature of my comment. 🙂

    5. Hjalmar, unless you are a whizard you will never be able to make me cry.
      You would need to turn into a stunningly beautifull woman with Tizianred hair, be wearing a red dress, making me 16 again, and dancing with me to Chris de Burghs Lady in Red, before breaking my heart.

      I would probably have been a much better person if I had cried more often.

  48. Question 1

    I’ve now got fairly used to the tremor and blue yellow and red intensity for various frequencys on the plot for El Hierro

    At the top of this page there is a graph from Jon showing a ‘harmonic’ and I can see some spikes on it but I don’t know how to look at those graphs.

    If the line on those graphs goes higher would that match to being a ‘redder’ section at that frequency if we were using the same graphic display system they use at El Hierro?

  49. Question 2
    The katla dalek – what’s the best web cam for seeing it, (barbecue venue camera)

      2. This one wants an additional plugin, which I installed, but it still doesn’t work for some weird reason. However, the other day someone published an alternative link showing this same thing that didn’t require a plugin – does anyone remembe rhte link?

      4. The RÚV camera was working a minute ago.
        And for the Míla cam: Based on the image I would guess its located pretty exactly west of Hekla. But I can ask a guy at Míla who should know this in detail on the weekend.

  50. Question 3
    Plotting – what do we want Lurking to try plotting next – how about

    a) the various earthquake swarms at the fracking projects – perhaps dead areas will appear in those revealing ductile dangerous area ?

    b) world domination

    c) something innovative to do with El Hierro
    could those explosions in the El Hierro plot be isolated and ‘targetted’ using that ellipse error calculation?

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