I wish everyone a happy new year 2015. I hope that the new year is going to be good.
Bárðarbunga volcano update for 29-December-2014
I’m sorry for this late update. I went on to do other things, they took longer then I expected.
The eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano continues as before. Due to the holiday season and bad weather it has been difficult to monitor the eruption in exact details. What I do know is that the lava field is now close or larger than 83 km² in size. The earthquake activity remains, there are however fewer earthquakes taking place now than week ago and that is not all down to bad weather or off-line SIL stations. The drop in earthquake activity appears to be real. If it is going to increase again remains to be seen.
The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
GPS data suggest that no change has taken place and there is ongoing drift in the crust next to Bárðarbunga volcano. Ice on the GPS antenna has been a big problem in last few days and that might not change while winter lasts in Iceland (depending on weather). The eruption is ongoing, there are however larger fluctuation taking place (that is what appears to be happening), sometimes the eruption appears to drop so much that it is not visible, just before it increases again. This would in line what was reported in November, the question is that change increasing or not. At the moment I am not sure on this detail, but I am waiting reports on this to be published (that might take a while).
I don’t think there are any more news on Bárðarbunga volcano at the moment. Next update is going to be on 2-January-2015.
Minor earthquake swarm close to Kolbeinsey Island
Yesterday (Sunday 28-Desember-2014) a minor earthquake swarm took place close to Kolbeinsey Island (part of Kolbeinsey ridge). Due to distance it is difficult to know how many earthquakes took place since only largest earthquakes are recorded by the SIL network.
The earthquake activity north of Iceland, both close and far from Kolbeinsey Island. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
The largest earthquake had the magnitude of 4,4. Second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 3,8 according to Icelandic Met Office. Few other earthquakes took place, they had smaller magnitude and have poor location due to distance from the SIL network. Since nearest SIL station is some 50 – 80 km distance from the location of the earthquake swarm.
Earthquake swarm north of Geysir continues
Earthquake swarm north of Geysir volcano (this is a minor volcano) continues, with breaks. Largest earthquake in last few days had the magnitude of 3,2 and was felt on nearby farms.
Earthquake activity north of Geysir volcano in the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
New earthquake swarms more west than current one have also been appearing, so far the earthquake activity has not lasted more than few hours before stopping again. Earthquake activity is common in this area, larger earthquake swarms do happen in this area every few years.
Bárðarbunga volcano update 27-December-2014
Bárðarbunga volcano continues to erupt in Holuhraun as before. The eruption is around the same phase as before. There was some change detected at the eruption vent in Holuhraun, it is remains unclear at the moment what change is.
The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the past 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Earthquake activity has dropped for the past few days, with few earthquakes that have been reaching magnitude 3,0 and above. Largest earthquake in the past few days has had the magnitude of 5,0. It is unclear why this is happening at the moment, earthquake activity might pick up again, it also might increase again. There is also a change that end of the eruption in Holuhraun is getting close, at least the phase that is connected to earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano.
Continued earthquake activity in Tungafellsjökull volcano
Earthquake activity continues in Tungafellsjökull volcano. So far the earthquakes that are happening are smaller ones, with rare magnitude 3,0 or larger earthquake taking place every once in a while. At the moment the earthquake activity in Tungafellsjökull volcano is increasing and it is bit unclear why that is. The risk of eruption in Tungafellsjökull volcano appears to remains, even if that would just be a minor eruption. If an eruption takes place in Tungafellsjökull volcano, it would be the first documented eruption in the past 12,000 years to take place (at least).
New years update schedule
Next article about Bárðarbunga volcano eruption are going to be on the following days.
29-December-2014
2-January-2015
After that I am going to return to normal schedule on reporting on Bárðarbunga volcano eruption.
Merry Christmas 2014
I wish everyone a merry Christmas 2014 and I hope that everyone have a good holiday.
Minor earthquake swarm north of Geysir
For the past few days there has been a minor earthquake swarm north of Geysir (a minor volcano in this area). The earthquake swarm has not been inside the volcano, it has been just outside it. The earthquakes have all been tectonic in nature so far.
Minor earthquake swarm north of Geysir. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
All of the earthquakes that have taken place are minor in magnitude. With the largest only having magnitude 2,5. Others earthquakes being smaller in magnitude. So far only 25 earthquakes have taken place. The earthquake swarm seems to be ongoing, it however has slowed down in last few hours and it might end soon.
Bárðarbunga volcano update 22-December-2014
This is a short update of Bárðarbunga volcano eruption.
- The eruption has now lasted almost four months. Making this the longest eruption in Iceland for many, many years. This might be the longest eruption in Iceland since 19th century.
- The lava field in Holuhraun is now larger then 80 km² in size. The lava now flows underground in lava tubes inside the lava field. It breaks out on the edges at times and sometimes up on the surface.
- Earthquake activity remains the same in Bárðarbunga volcano. Bad weather has decreased the sensitivity on the nearby SIL sensors. Some remain offline due the weather and heavy snow in the area.
- Subsidence has slowed, the amount of larger earthquakes has also dropped at the same time. It has not stopped, just slowed down for the moment.
- There are no signs about the eruption ending any time soon. The eruption could go on for years, at least many months in it’s current phase.
Other news about Bárðarbunga volcano eruption
- Scientists are getting bored of the meetings about the Bárðarbunga volcano. So far around 80 or so meetings have taken place since the eruption started.
- Scientists are going to continue monitoring and keeping going to meetings, even if they are a bit bored on them.
- Police is keep watch in Drekagil location. At the moment there are just two police people at that location now. Since no scientists have been able to go to Holuhraun in the past two or three weeks due to bad weather.
Tungafellsjökull volcano update
- Latest news report suggest that dyke intrusion is taking place in Tungafellsjökull volcano.
- If an eruption takes place in Tungafellsjökull volcano it is guessed that is not going to be any larger than the eruption in Fimmvörðuháls in Eyjafjallajökull volcano during it’s eruption phase in 2010.
- Earthquake activity is expected to continue in Tungafellsjökull volcano while Bárðarbunga volcano is active.
Earthquake map for the last 48 hours
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and Tungafellsjökull volcano for the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Other than this there is nothing else to report at the moment.
Icelandic News about Bárðarbunga volcano
Lögreglumenn eru einir í Drekagili (Rúv.is, Icelandic, video)
Vísindamenn þreyttir á fundum vegna Bárðarbungu (Vísir.is, Icelandic)
Nornahraun nær yfir 80 ferkílómetra lands (Vísir.is, Icelandic)
Christmas update schedule
Next updates about current phase of the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano are going to be on 27-December-2014 and 29-December-2014.
Other
I have made the decision on moving my Paypal to Iceland. Since I won’t be moving back to Denmark and there is no point in keeping my Paypal account in that country. I am going to move the PayPal account tomorrow (23-December-2014) once everything has clear from it. This means that there won’t be any donation button for the next few days while I move it to Iceland. Since it takes few days to get validated by PayPal. It is going to be possible to donate directly to my Danish bank account until I close it down late 2015 or early 2016. More details are going to be posted on that later.
As always, thanks for the support. 🙂
Article updated on 11:51 UTC on 23-December-2014.
Bárðarbunga volcano update 19-December-2014
Bárðarbunga volcano earthquake activity continues as before. No earthquake has reached the magnitude of 5,0 or greater since Monday 15-December-2014. Earthquake activity in the range of magnitude 3,0 and above remains high at the moment. There has been drop in earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the past few weeks, this has been followed by slower rate of subsidence according to latest measurements.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
The lava field in Holuhraun continues to getting larger, it is now at the edge of being 80 km² in size. I don’t know the volume at the moment, since weather has prevented observation of it for the past few weeks and the lava field has considerable thickness in it (of few dozen meters at the most). The eruption continues at the same rate as before, there has been some reduction according to latest information, I don’t know how much reduction there has been at the moment. Lava is now flowing in lava tubes trough the lava field and breaking out at the edges and sometimes the surface.
Other things – pictures
If people remember this image that Icelandic Met Office posted few days ago.
I was there, I also got a bite of the cakes (they where good). I had made a surprise visit to the Icelandic Met Office that day. Since I just had the time to go there.
This was my angle. This image is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see CC licence for more details.
I do have many more pictures, but the internet is slow and it takes a while for them to upload them and I am just not going do that while the internet connection is this bad.
Donations: Please remember to support my work with donations or by using Amazon store for your region or country. Thanks for the support.
Bárðarbunga volcano update for 16-December-2014
This is a short update on Bárðarbunga volcano. Due to weather I won’t be able to do full regular updates on Bárðarbunga volcano today. Since bad weather prevented me from getting the computer table that I need to use.
Yesterday (Monday 15-December-2014) an magnitude 5,4 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Earthquake activity dropped in Bárðarbunga volcano following this earthquake. It has however been picking up again in the last few hours.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and Tungafellsjökull volcano for the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano remains around the same. There have been fewer earthquakes detected due to bad weather happening in Iceland, since wind and ocean noise lower the detection threshold of earthquakes, making it difficult to impossible to record smaller earthquakes. Observations of Holuhraun are impossible at the moment due to bad weather. I haven’t been able to check the web-cameras since my laptop can’t handle it.
Tungafellsjökull volcano earthquake activity has been increasing for the past 48 hours. Largest earthquake in this latest earthquake swarm activity had the magnitude of 3,2. There are no signs of any other unrest in Tungafellsjökull at this moment.
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