I wish everyone a happy and good Christmas. I hope that you enjoy the Christmas festival and time spent with your family and friends.
Earthquake activity in Esjufjöll and Kverkfjöll volcanoes
Earthquake activity started again in Esjufjöll volcano today (20-Desember-2013). The largest earthquake had the magnitude of 2,9 and had the depth of 5,0 km. So far only two earthquakes have been recorded, but it is not uncommon that earthquake activity in Esjufjöll volcano starts slow before it picks up. Earthquake activity remains low in Esjufjöll volcano, but there is now more earthquake activity in Esjufjöll volcano for the past few years then in past several decades (perhaps, recording is missing in the past)
Kverkfjöll volcano
Earthquake activity continued in Kverkfjöll volcano today. None of the earthquake did reach the magnitude of 3,0. The largest earthquake had the magnitude of 2,0 and the depth of 5,3 km.
Earthquake activity in Esjufjöll volcano and Kverkfjöll volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
I am expecting more earthquake activity in Kverkfjöll volcano. But I expect it to remain small as it currently is at least I do not expect any earthquake above the magnitude of 3,0 to take place as is.
Fossil of a tree found in road tunnel work
A long time a volcano erupted in Iceland. This volcano spewed out basalt lava field (Hawaii style). This lava did flow over a forest that was nearby and killing all the trees in it. Few weeks ago and several million years later and few kilometres down the remains of this forest was found. Since one of the tree did fossilize in the lava. As the tree was engulfed in the lava it did turn to charcoal that was later removed by water and leaving the empty imprint of the tree in the bedrock.
The remains of the tree are now clearly visible in the road construction tunnel. The hole after the tree is full of water and part of it has been removed by the tunnel digging. Picture of it along with news can be found in the link below.
Fossil of a tree found in tunnel construction
Far eftir trjábol í Vaðlaheiðargöngum (Rúv.is, Icelandic, Picture)
Magnitude 3,1 earthquake in Kverkfjöll volcano
Today (19-Desember-2013) at 09:30 UTC a magnitude 3,1 earthquake took place in Kverkfjöll volcano. The depth of this earthquake was 5,0 km. No aftershocks have been recorded following this earthquake.
The magnitude 3,1 earthquake in Kverkfjöll volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
This is the first activity in Kverkfjöll volcano for some time now. But overall activity has been slowly increasing in Kverkfjöll volcano for the past few years. So far however there is nothing to suggest that volcano eruption is going to take place in near future.
Update 1: Three aftershocks took place in Kverkfjöllum volcano. The largest one had the magnitude of 1,7. The other two earthquakes had the magnitude of 1,3 and 1,5. With the depth of 6,5 km to 3,4 km.
The aftershocks in Kverkfjöll volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
It is possible that more aftershocks are going to take place in Kverkfjöll volcano in next few hours to days.
Blog post updated at 16:37 UTC.
Quiet period continues in Iceland
Donation note: Please donate to help me continue this website. Please check this site for details on how to donate. Thanks for the support. 🙂
A new quiet period has started in Iceland, it is an extension of an quiet period that has been ongoing in Iceland for the past few months and is currently with no end in sight. I don’t know what is driving this quiet period at the moment, since quiet period are a bit of mystery and might always be that.
Quiet in Iceland. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
For the past two weeks just around 120 earthquakes have been recording during each week (7 days) and for Iceland that is really low amount of earthquakes. This type of quiet period has been ongoing for most of the year 2013. I just hope that new year 2014 is not going to be quite so quiet as 2013 was.
Earthquake swarm in Hengill volcano
A earthquake swarm of minor earthquakes took place in Hengill volcano today. This earthquake swarm was due to Orkuveita Reykjavíkur was pumping down water in the area.
The earthquake swarm in Hengill volcano this evening. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
The largest earthquake had the magnitude of 1,4. Other earthquakes were smaller.
Continued earthquake activity north of Kolbeinsey Island
During the week the earthquake activity continued north of Kolbeinsey Island. Two more earthquakes appeared, they had the magnitude of 3,0 and 3,1 according to EMSC. I do not have any image of that activity since I was travelling the days it was on Icelandic Meteorological Office website.
Webicorder images still do not update
Something failed in my hardware few days ago so no webicorder images are updating at the moment. I do not know what did go wrong or what did fail and it is going to be few weeks until I know why. According to electronic usage readings from my home something powered down or was powered down (I know what normal usage should be based on what electronics where turned on when I left). I am not sure what was turned off or did go offline and I won’t find out until I get back home. Until then my webicorder images are not going to be updated. International webicorders are updating (mostly) normal now and all large earthquake activity in the world is going to appear on that website. I do not run any of the images shown there so they are unaffected by this failure.
Donations
Like so many projects on the internet. I depend on donations to keep my working ongoing here. They allow me to work on this full time. Since I am not allowed to use the “Donate” button from Paypal. People have send me the donation directly via “Send Money” option on Paypal website. Thanks for the support.
No updates on webicorder images due to internet connection failure
At the moment the webicorders are not updating due to a hardware failure in my apartment in Denmark. I am not sure what has failed, but it appears as my wan router has failed. How it has failed I do not yet know and I won’t know until in January-2014 when I get back home. I am trying to work on a fix remotely, but it is unlikely to work. I am also hoping that my wan router might reboot it self and start working again. But I find that might not happen or work.
If this fixes it self it would be great, but the chances are it is not going to happen. Until then the webicorder images that I run are not going to be updated. There is little that I can do about it at the moment.
Earthquake swarm activity north of Kolbeinsey island
Donation note: I want to thank people for the donations I have received over the year. But donations allow me to continue my work here and keep writing about volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland. If not for donations I would not be able to do anything. That includes writing on this website. So I am always thankful for donations. Since they allow me to continue my work here. Donations also allow me to maintain my geophone network in Iceland is expensive and last hardware updates was exactly that. So if you can donate, it is most welcomed. Information on how to donate can be found here. Thanks for the support.
During the night a magnitude 4,1 earthquake was recorded around 240 km north of Kolbeinsey island. This is automatic location and magnitude. So it is subject to change.
Earthquake activity north of Kolbeinsey island (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
I don’t know yet if I detected it on my Böðvarshólars geophone (website here). Since I have not had the change to review the data from that geophone yet. I am not sure what is taking place at that location. This might be earthquake swarm activity before and eruption starts there, but due to remote location and ocean depth it is currently impossible to know for sure at this point.
Quiet in Iceland at the moment
It is quiet in Iceland at the moment. There are so few earthquakes in fact that yesterday (or two days ago) no earthquake was recorded in Icelandic Meteorological Office SIL system for good 10 hours (or something like it) according to geologist that I spoke with yesterday. I am not sure why this happens in Iceland, but it does and not just Iceland. This type of quiet period happens all over the Atlantic rift zone. The weather in Iceland has also not been good, a lot of storms this year and that has been dropping chances of proper detection of earthquakes. This mostly applies to small earthquakes. I don’t know for how long this quiet period is going to last. As for the year 2013, it is one of the most quiet years that I can remember. I have been watching activity in Iceland for since the year 1994, or when I was 14 years old.
Thanks to donations I was able to buy backup power for Böðvarshólar geophone station (website here). This backup power is not meant to keep the station alive for hours, but just for 8 to 10 minutes if the power goes out. It is also meant to keep the electricity the station gets stable and without any problems. Electricity problems can and often do shorten the hardware lifespan, this is I hope going to prevent such issues and problems.
Blog post updated at 19:50 UTC.
Donations and changes to the geophone network
I need donations in December as any other month. I am not going into details since I have explained them before and they can all be found here already. I do know one thing, mentally it is really wearing me out to always have money problems over the past few months and this problem is going to continue for the next year as thing currently stand. I hope that this problem is going to be resolved one way or an other, but that is not looking good as is. In December I am having the continued money issue as before and it does not look good currently money wise. As things stand now I won’t be able to afford anything in December and that is a lot worse status now then I was having last year. Since I need to cover many types of cost as anyone else. I also want to point out that geology is a field of patience, since often nothing can happen for a long time (as we see it). If you are bored waiting for something to happen you can pass the time by reading my short stories that I put on-line here. It is at least an way to pass the time when nothing is happening in Iceland. I update my short story website regularly when I finish new stories.
I have found a new website that allows me to add an donation button to this website. I am currently in verification process with that website and I hope to finish it in next few days. Once that progress is finished the new donation button is going to be added to this blog. If you want to donate to me regularly then it can be done by using the subscription button. I have not found this service in the same manner anywhere else then on Paypal. I am going to use Payza for one time donations. If you want to send one time donations to my Paypal account then you have to use my email address as explained here.
I also need donations to buy new hardware. This is just for repairs and to strengthen my geophone network in readability.
1: I need a new hard drive for Skeiðflöt geophone station (more details on this station below). A new hard drive costs 11700 ISK or 70,29€ (521,39 DKK).
2: I need to buy a backup power for Böðvarshólar geophone station. It costs 8950 ISK or 53,77€ (398,84 DKK). I did delay buying this due to lack of money at present time. I hope to buy the backup power in January-2014 at the latest if I can afford it. I am going to buy this backup power in December if I get donations for it.
The hard drive in Skeiðflöt geophone station is failing and has been doing so since earlier this year. I need to replace it before the hard drive fails completely. I have ordered a new one already and that is one of the reason why I don’t have any money at the moment. I need to add backup power for Böðvarshólar geophone station to deal with power fluctuation in the area, mostly during bad weather and general power issues.
Changes to geophone network
In December the geophone station at Skeiðflöt is stopping operation for good. The reason being is that the person how is hosting it for me is having personal changes and cannot host it for me any-more. This is the downside of having geophone station located in someone house. The hardware is going to be relocated to north Iceland and a new station is going to start operation. That geophone station has the name Bjarghús. I expect Bjarghús geophone station to be up and running around 20-December-2013 at the latest.
Thanks for the support.