Month: January 2011

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A new deep earthquake in Esjufjöll volcano

A new deep earthquake did just happen earlier tonight. The SIL system at IMO did give the earthquake the size ML1.7 with the depth of 22,5 km. In my experience this normally means that a earthquake swarm is about to start in Esjufjöll volcano. But this is not always the case, so we just have to wait and see what happens. But since earthquakes did start in Esjufjöll volcano last autumn (2010) with a earthquake swarm of about 70 earthquakes.

The activity has continues since then. But the earthquakes have completely stopped in-between earthquake swarms. This behaviour appears to be not uncommon in volcanoes in Iceland and elsewhere around the world. The earthquake yesterday in Esjufjöll volcano was size ML1.9 with the depth of 5.4 km. It is clear that a magma is creating this earthquakes, but there are few tectonics earthquakes in this area (but they do happen).

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A new earthquake swarm in Krísuvík volcano

A new earthquake swarm appears to have started yesterday in the Krísuvík volcano. This earthquake swarm is a small one, in the number of earthquakes and the size of them. The largest earthquakes according to the automatic SIL system are around ML1.8 in size. The depth is constant around 2 to 5 km or so. This earthquake swarm is just the latest of earthquake swarm that have been taking place in Krísuvík volcano over the past few weeks. As the earthquake activity has been more or less continues for the past few months in Krísuvík volcano.

The current GPS plot shows some inflation taking place at Krísuvík volcano. But so far it is small and does not indicate that a eruption is immanent in Krísuvík volcano. But if the inflow of magma changes suddenly this might change when Krísuvík volcano might start erupting.

Thanks to Carl le Strange on müsli for the tip on the GPS plot.

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Update on new years activity and Eyjafjallajökull volcano

Here is the update for the new years activity in Iceland. During the new year there was a ML3.0 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano system (local name is Kistufell). Where location of the earthquake swarm took place is known for a high level of earthquake activity in the past. So a earthquake swarm in that area is not a surprise and doesn’t mean anything special.

There has not been any more news on the rumble or the explosions in Eyjafjallajökull volcano since yesterday. It might well be that the event that was creating this noise is over. But I am far from sure on that due to lack of information. Due to cloud cover I am unable to see what is going at the top of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano with a web camera. What ever was going on in Eyjafjallajökull volcano it is clear that it was a powerful blast. One idea that I have had that this where a gas explosions of some type. But yesterday there where no reports of ash clouds or anything like that in the news. The weather forecast for the Eyjafjallajökull volcano area is not good for the next day or two. But currently the wind forecast is for a storm in the area of Eyjafjallajökull volcano and other mountains in south-east of Iceland.

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A explosions heard from Eyjafjallajökull volcano

This time around, it appears my break is going to a shorter then I planned. According to the newspaper named DV (a short of tabloid in Iceland) there have been a lot of explosion heard from Eyjafjallajökull volcano. According to the news this started around 19:00 UTC, when exactly is unclear at present time.

This was reported by a local farmer in the area, how describe this as the same noise before it started to erupt there Eyjafjallajökull volcano started to erupt in April 2010. But according to Icelandic Met Office and the University of Iceland nothing special has appears on seismometers around Eyjafjallajökull volcano. But it is good to know that in the first eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano on Fimmvörðuháls it took few hours for the harmonic tremor to appear following that eruption. For now all that can be done is to wait and see what happens next. This might be a start of a new eruption, or this simply might be nothing for the moment.

Update 1: This has been confirmed by more news media in Iceland. This also appears to have been going on all day. But the explosions today might have been at lower noise level during the day then happened tonight (this is unclear at the moment however). But also according to the news this explosions have been heard to Hvolsvöllur in the right wind direction (or a good weather?). This explosive booms have also been heard by other people in the area around Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

The news on this activity. Use Google Translate at own risk.

Drunur í Eyjafjallajökli: „Eins drunur og þegar byrjaði að gjósa síðast“ (DV.is)
Drynur enn í Eyjafjallajökli (mbl.is)

Text updated at 21:40 UTC on 2. January 2011.
Text updated at 23:45 UTC on 2. January 2011.
Text updated at 01:29 UTC on 3. January 2011.