Earthquakes explained in a simple manner. Based on San Andreas fault setting.
Merry Christmas
I wish everyone a merry Christmas. I hope that everyone enjoy and have good Christmas season.
Magnitude 3.3 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano during the night
At 02:55 UTC today (18.12.2012) there was a magnitude 3.3 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano system. Earthquakes are common in this area so this activity is no surprise. Origins of this earthquakes are due to tectonic movements in the area. Not magma related changes.
Green star marks the magnitude 3.3 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano system. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
Aftershocks have followed this earthquake. So far the largest one got the magnitude 2.2. More earthquake activity can be expected in this area. But that is normal and not unexpected.
Earthquake swarm in Katla volcano caldera
Yesterday (14.12.2012) from 20:50 UTC until 22:52 UTC there was an minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano caldera. The largest earthquake in this swarm was a magnitude 2,2 earthquake. With the depth of 0,1 km. So it was a shallow earthquake. This is not uncommon for this part of Katla volcano. This earthquake activity has its origin in hydrothermal activity or changes in hydrothermal systems in this area of Katla volcano caldera.
Earthquake swarm in Katla volcano. This area has had earthquakes swarms before. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
I do not expect anything special to result from this earthquake swarm. Since it is highly unlikely that Katla volcano is going to erupt in December. It is also a when it comes to earthquakes. Katla volcano has a lot of them during the year and earthquake swarm as this one should be expected to happen every once in a while.
Blog post updated at 10:42 UTC on 15.12.2012.
Earthquake swarm north of Kolbeinsey Island
During the night (on 15.12.2012) there was a swarm of earthquakes far north of Kolbeinsey Island. The distance from Kolbeinsey Island is about 100 to 200 km. What exactly is taking place at this location is impossible to know for now. Since this is far from Iceland and the SIL network. Last eruption is believed to have taken place around this area back in the year 1999, or at least there was an large dike intrusion at that time. What did happen exactly is not known.
The earthquake activity north of Kolbeinsey Island at midnight (00:00 UTC) 15.12.2012. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
Earthquake activity at 09:00 UTC this morning (15.12.2012). More earthquakes have taken place since midnight. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
There is a chance of more earthquakes in this area. It can also be expected that not all earthquake activity in this area is being detected by the SIL network. Due to distance, weather and ocean activity.
Dike intrusion in Askja volcano
Today (14.12.2012) around 12:00 UTC Askja volcano had dike intrusion. This dike intrusion was not in the main volcano it self. But a good distance away from it. But this is in a area that has erupted before in distant past in a fissure style eruption (just lava, no volcano ash). What is the case now I am not sure at the moment. But this dike intrusion was at the depth of 25 to 22 km. So it has long way to go before any eruption takes place. This dike intrusion did also not show any sign of moving upwards according to Rúv News of this event.
Earthquake map from IMO showing the dike intrusion clearly. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
What this means in the long term is impossible to know at this point. But this is one event in a long series of events that started in March 2010. This is going to end with a eruption. Large or small is impossible to know until it happens. What is also impossible to know is when and where such eruption might take place. As is always the case with active volcanoes. There is at least no reason to panic about this. Not now, not ever.
Donations: I am still needing donations to cover my cost of buying 3G hardware for upcoming geophone stations Böðvarshólar (total cost around 1300 DKK, or 29900 ISK). I have got some donations already. But they just cover the cost of UPS and USB card for Skeiðflöt geophone station. But I was fixing technical problems with it. Thanks for the support.
Icelandic News about this
Á annan tug skjálfta austur af Öskju (Rúv.is)
Blog post updated at 23:29 UTC on 14.12.2012
Interesting earthquake swarm in TFZ
Today (12.12.2012) there was a interesting earthquake swarm in south part of TFZ (close to a place called Ásbyrgi). This earthquake swarm did consist mostly of minor earthquakes. With magnitudes of from ML0.2 and up to magnitude ML2.6. This earthquake swarm is tectonic in nature. I do not believe it is volcanic in nature. But this earthquake swarm is inside Krafla volcano fissure swarm or TFZ-NVZ two volcanoes. I am not sure in this case here.
The earthquake swarm is in the corner of this image. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
This earthquake swarm might not mean anything special as is. But earthquake activity in this area has been some for the past few years. But it has so far never resulted in any major events so far in this area.
TFZ earthquake swarm update on 06.12.2012
The earthquake swarm on TFZ continues to this day. It has been ongoing for more then one month already. The largest earthquake in the past few days has been a earthquake with the magnitude of ML2.7. Most other earthquakes that have been taking place are in the magnitude range of ML0.0 and up to ML2.7. Activity in this area happens with high and lows. With latest high being just few days ago. This continued earthquake activity shows that this area continues to be at risk of large earthquake.
Earthquake activity in TFZ yesterday (05.12.2012). It continues in the same area as Mb5.6 earthquake that took place on 21. October 2012. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
Earthquake activity in TFZ today (06.12.2012). Not many new earthquake have taken place since yesterday (05.12.2012. Picture above). But there is regular activity in this area and that makes the earthquake swarm continuous. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
Currently there are no signs that this earthquake swarm is about to end. Even if there is a drop in activity for a day or two. It continues as it has been doing since 21st October 2012. I am going to post updates on this earthquake swarm regularly. If anything major happens. I am going to post update soon as I can do so.
Bills, money problems and a headache (problems with my economics)
This December has gone down for me as the worst one for a long time now. As many of you already know. I am living on social welfare from Iceland (now this is important). Living on social welfare from Iceland means that my income is in Icelandic krona. It also means that I am subject to its exchange rate as I am living in Denmark (Danish krona). My total income in Danish krone depends entirely on the exchange that I am dealing with during the start of the month. For this December it has been awful. The exchange rate is around 22,55 ISK = 1 DKK at the moment with VISA. It got best in July, when it was 19,50 ISK = 1 DKK. This is a status that is unacceptable to me. But there is little that I can do to change it at the moment. My total income after taxes in Iceland is 153.000 ISK (6.793 DKK, €912), in December this number is 173.000 ISK (7.682 DKK, €1.031). This is not a lot when I have to pay for the rent, the bills and my current debt (that I am working on to get rid of soon as I can).
The reason why I am on social welfare is that I have aspergers syndrome. So I do not mix that well with normal, regular job. Even if I am fully able to work physically. My mind can be at different place at times. Communications and understanding can also be a challenge for at times. I do my best on this subject matters in normal life. But it might not work in a buy workplace where everything needs to just work between people smoothly. I have tried to work in such a place many years ago. It did not work and I got fired after just two weeks. I have been in temporary summers job in Iceland. But that job was cutting grass and lawns for people. But that was just during the summer and there was and never has been any career in doing that.
Writing as a job
I have since some years ago decided that my job should be in writing. The reason why I did start this blog is because I wanted to have something to do. Writing about volcanoes, earthquakes and such is something that I like doing. But the truth of the matter is that when you are writing about volcanoes it is clear that nothing is going on 98% of the time. The 2% of the time that something is going on happens every few months to years. This sadly means drop in traffic on my blog. That means less income from Google Adsense and Infolinks at the same time. The reason why I decided to have ads on this blog is to lessen my dependence of donations. I am going to keep the donation option going. Since that is what many other sites that I read do. Instead of getting rid of ads. You get a free e-book from me. Forever! Everything that I write and publish I send to you over e-mail when it is ready. You get a pdf file, since I can’t offer any other format. But it is drm-free (as all of my books are always going to be). So you can covert it to your needed format.
This brings me to my next point. I am almost finished with a short story that I started writing over 1 year ago (it takes time to write short stores and books). When it is ready. I am going to grab all those email address that I have from paypal donations and send the people how have donated to me a copy of that short story. I am going to do this every time I publish a new story or a book.
Donations help
Donations really do help me. Since the make it easier for me to pay my bills and buy food during the month. That is all there is too it. This blog is a one man project so far. So I do all the work my self. Check data, earthquakes, work on images and so on. That sometimes takes a lot of time. Work that is worth it and needed for this blog to properly explain what is going on when it comes to volcanoes in Iceland. The donations that I have got this month have helped pay for the backup power and hardware maintenance for Skeiðflöt geophone station. But I am still 1300 DKK short because of the cost of buying 3G hardware for Böðvarshólar geophone station that starts later this month. After Hvammstangi geophone station goes offline.
I thank you all for the support. I just hope that I can make it trough December without too many budget problems that I have already have. Now I just hope that I can buy the Christmas present that I want to give to my grandpa (DVB-T tuner, as Iceland is going all digital in the year 2013).
Hvammstangi geophone has been fixed
It turns out that the fault with Hvammstangi geophone station was a software issue. Not a hardware issue. I have now fixed this after instructions from the manufacturer of the hardware. This was a software bug. If this had been a hardware issue. It would have been a lot harder to fix. The Hvammstangi geophone station is now running normally. Any earthquake activity in TFZ appears best on this geophone station.