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A notice from my host provider about maintenance

There is going to maintenance on the network that my web site is hosted on the 14th of November 2010. Here is the message that I got from my hosting provider.

Scheduled Date and Time:
Sunday, November 14, 2010. Begins at 3 AM EST and will last through 4 AM EST

Maintenance Type:
Our network admins will be performing an internal network infrastructure upgrade that will greatly enhance our internal routing capacity which in turn will directly benefit your account(s).

Estimated Downtime:
While we will do everything possible to expedite the maintenance to reduce issues, the downtime associated with this process should only consist of 5 – 10 minutes of downtime during the specified maintenance window.

There might be some downtime on this web site when this maintenance takes place.

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Advertising policy

I have decided to place advertisements on this blog. I am just going to go with Google Adsense and Amazon ads. I am going to keep the ads as few I can. Since I generally don’t like ads that much. But like everyone else I need to eat and buy useless stuff from the internet. This will also help be building my own seismometer network in Iceland. For that I need money and I apparently can get money from letting Google and Amazon display ads on my blog.

I have also dedicated to put ads on my earthquake helicorders web pages. But that is going to require a little more thinking on how to do it smoothly and without annoying the users of my earthquake monitoring web pages. That is also going to help me to build a earthquake monitoring network in Iceland with time.

There is also going to be a option for donating money to me and my work if people want. But I am unsure when I finish setting that option up. But there are few weeks until that happens at least.

I am thinking this a similar format as Universe Today uses (but less annoying) and also Spaceweather.com uses today.

With this blog post on this matter I wanted to give my readers a heads up on what is coming in regards to changes to my blog and my earthquake monitoring web pages. I am going to start applying this next weekend I hope. I am unsure at this time how long time it is going to take me to fully implement this, it depends on the problem that I might challenge me on the way to implement this.

Text updated at 16:37 UTC.
Text updated at 19:01 UTC

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Uncertainty level for Grímsfjall volcano cancelled

According to Icelandic news it seems that Almannavaranir (Iceland Civil Authority) have cancelled the uncertainty level for Grímsfjall volcano. But the uncertainty level was put in place following the glacier flood from Grímsvötn glacier lake.

The announcement from Iceland Civil Authority in Icelandic. Please use Google Translate.

Óvissustigi aflýst vegna Grímsvatna (Icelandic)

Icelandic News. Please use Google translate.

Óvissustigi aflýst vegna Grímsvatna (Vísir.is)

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Earthquakes in Iceland, a short overview

I have seen a lot of people worrying about earthquakes and earthquake swarms that take place in Iceland on regular basic. Those worries are not needed as Iceland gets about one to two earthquake swarms on average over the course of one week. Most of the earthquakes that take place in Iceland are tectonic in nature. There are also volcano related earthquakes. But they can be spotted by there location in connection with the volcano in question (Katla, Grímsfjall, etc..).

The reasons for the earthquake swarms in Iceland is geological and is because Iceland sits on a rift zone. This can be shown clearly on this picture here.


Click on picture to get better resolution.

This map clearly shows all the zones in Iceland. In this areas most of Iceland earthquakes happens. But also a big part of Iceland earthquakes happen in areas like SISZ and TFZ.

On the normal week there are about 150 to 400 earthquakes in Iceland over the week. Most of them are in the size ML0.0 and up to ML2.8. Most week have one or two earthquakes that are ML3.0 to ML3.8 in size. On a quiet week there are about 50 to 100 earthquakes, most of them less then ML2.5 in size. When there is a busty week in Iceland the earthquakes numbers can easily go over 2000 and sometimes well over 5000 earthquakes. When that happens IMO doesn’t even bother in classifying and locating all the earthquakes that take place. But they are saved anyway in IMO database.

Picture taken from this blog: Earthquake in Iceland (2008); This blog has more images about the tectonic process in Iceland.

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Glacier flood subsides, harmonic tremors drops down

According to the news the glacier flood from Grímsvötn is subsiding and is expected to be over in the next two to three days. At the same time the harmonic tremor that started at 3rd of November 2010 is also subsiding. No clear reason is for the harmonic tremors.

Currently there is nothing that indicates that a eruption is about to start in Grímsfjalli. But that can change with a short notice, as Grímsfjall sometimes does not give a long warning before it starts erupting.

Icelandic News. Please use Google Translate.

Farginu létt af eldstöðinni (Vísir.is)
Hlaup í rénun (Rúv.is)

English news.

Flood waning, Iceland volcano eruption less likely (washingtonpost.com) – Thanks to Erik for this news.

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Glacier flood from Grímsvötn has peaked, harmonic tremors continue

According to news the glacier flood from Grímsvötn has peaked and is already dropping down. So far there has not been any volcano eruption. But harmonic tremor is still ongoing in Grímsfjall volcano and does not show any signs of stopping. But this harmonic tremor appears to be a bit fluctuating for some unknown reason.

Icelandic News. Please use Google translate.

Hlaupið að minnka (Rúv.is)
Vísindamenn í könnunarflugi (Vísir.is – Has video)
Hlaupið hefur náð hámarki (mbl.is – Has video)

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No signs of a eruption at Grímsfjall volcano, harmonic tremors continue

Since 02:30 UTC on the 3rd of November 2010 there has been constant harmonic tremor in Grímsfjall volcano. It is currently unclear why harmonic tremors are happening at Grímsfjall volcano. But there have been some ideas that this might be because a small eruption has started at Grímsfjall volcano.

According to news from few moments ago (around 14:00 UTC) there are no signs of a eruption at Grímsfjall volcano at present time. But harmonic tremors continue at this moment like they have been doing since 02:30 UTC last night.

The possible reason why the scientists don’t see any signs of a eruption is because none are visible on the glacier at the moment. But until something appears on surface what is going on in Grímsfjall it is going to remain unclear what is going on at the volcano.

Icelandic News. Please use Google Translate.

Hlaup og órói í Grímsfjalli (Rúv.is)
Engin merki um gos (Rúv.is)
Gos gæti verið hafið (Vísir.is)
Könnunarflug yfir Grímsvötn: Engin merki um gos (Vísir.is)
Vísindamenn fljúga yfir Grímsvötn (mbl.is)
Engin ummerki um eldsumbrot (mbl.is)

International news.

New eruption could be looming in Iceland, experts warn (AFP)

Updated at 14:59 UTC on the 3rd of November 2010. News link added.
Updated at 15:22 UTC on the 3rd of November 2010. News link added.

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Uncertainty level declared for Grímsfjall volcano

Icelandic civil protection (Almannavarnir) have declared a uncertainty level over Grímsfjall volcano due to glacier flood coming from them. This level is the lowest level of warning that Almannavarnir have in case when there is a risk of dangerous events taking place.

At current time no eruption has started in Grímsfjall volcano. Note that this volcano is often called Grímsvötn in Iceland. But it is the same location with two names.

Almannavarnir announcement. Please use Google Translate.

Óvissustig vegna Grímsvatna (Icelandic)

Icelandic news. Please use Google Translate.

Almannavarnir lýsa yfir óvissustigi (Rúv.is)
Óvissustig vegna Grímsvatna (mbl.is)

Text updated at 19:47 UTC on the 1st of November 2010.

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Good chance of Grímsfjall eruption following the glacier flood

According to Icelandic news there is a good chance of a eruption in Grímsfjall. Following the glacier flood from Grímsvötn glacier lake. That is at least the opinion of Páll Einarsson, a geologist at University of Iceland. This is not going to be a big eruption in Grímsfjall in Páll opinion. But it is most likely going to be similar in size to the eruption in Grímsfjall in the year 2004. But no damage did happen from that eruption and it did not erupt international flight paths (just domestic ones). In the news Páll also says that the pressure inside Grímsfjall magma chamber appears to be slightly higher then in the year 2004. But otherwise the situation in Grímsfjall is almost identical to the one in the year 2004.

Icelandic News. Please use Google Translate where possible.

Miklar líkur á gosi (Rúv.is)
Rúv evening news on 31st of October 2010. Note: This link is going to die after two weeks as Rúv deletes older news streams from there web pages after that time.
Líkur á eldgosi í Grímsvötnum (mbl.is)
Meiri líkur en minni á gosi í Grímsvötnum (DV.is)

Text updated 2nd November 2010 at 20:11 UTC.

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Glacier flood has started from Gímsvötnum

Few hours ago a glacier flood started from Grímsvötnum. But it was only confirmed few moments ago. The flood noise can be seen on following SIL stations around Vatnajökull.

Grímsfjall (increased noise)
Kalafell (increased noise)

This glacier flood is expected to reach it’s peak in about 4 to 5 days. If this is a repeat of the year 2004 events a eruption should start in Grímsfjalli in about 1 to 4 days from now. But if that plays out exacly like the year 2004 eruption remains to be seen. GVP has the eruption history of Grímsfjall here.

This glacier flood starts on the exact day as it did in the year 2004.

Icelandic news. Please use Google Translate.

Hlaup er hafið í Grímsvötnum (Rúv.is)
Hlaup í Grímsvötnum hafið (mbl.is)
Hlaup hafið í Grímsvötnum (Vísir.is)