Volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland
The weather forecast for Iceland on 30-December-2015 is looking really bad. The worst weather is going to be in eastern Iceland and possibly in western Iceland. It is not known where the worst wind is going to be exactly, but it is going to be real bad weather in eastern Iceland. UK Met Office has named this storm Frank, news about it can be found here (BBC Weather). The main risk is strong wind and rain.
This storm is also going to create a major problems in Faroe Islands and in the general area around Iceland.
The storm system low in hPa. Images are from this blog here (in Icelandic).
The storm system. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
The storm system.Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
I’m going to update this article as needed if everything goes bad when the storm arrives in Iceland on 30-December-2015.
Update 1
There was a storm in east Iceland yesterday. Creating a flood and snow-mud slides. One of those mud slides took out one SIL station.
The SIL station at Aðalból is now off-line due to mud-flood in that area. The image above shows when the mud-slide hits the SIL station and damages or destroys it. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
Image of the mud-slide can be found here. Washington Post has news article about this storm and it can be read here.
New wind forecast for Iceland on 30-December-2015. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
Flight delays should be expect according to FlightRadar24.
Update 2
Eastern part of Iceland got hit bad in this weather. North Iceland (eastern and western) are next going to be hit with this weather, it is not going to be as bad as in eastern Iceland. Mudslides also fell, damaging roads and creating other issues. Flooding was also a major problem in eastern Iceland. Some road damage has happened, but I don’t know the extent of at the moment. The lowest air pressure measured was 930 hPa according to Iceland Met Office.
News with images and videos of the storm in eastern Iceland (in Icelandic)
Aurskriður féllu í Fljótsdal (Rúv.is)
Malbikið flettist af veginum í Eskifirði (Rúv.is, images)
Ótrúlegar myndir frá Eskifirði (Rúv.is, videos)
Svipmyndir frá Eskifirði morguninn eftir storminn (Vísir.is, images)
Sjóhús svo gott sem farið: „Aldrei kynnst öðru eins“ (Vísir.is, images, video)
I don’t know when the weather is going to be fully over, but the worst appears to be over currently. I’m going to update this article as more information comes in.
Other
I’ve opened up the possibility for people to register again. If it stays spam-bot free it is going to be a permanent feature. This didn’t work out due to manual spam registration. If anyone wants to use the registered user function please contact me over email so I can manually register a user name (password is going to be a random). There isn’t anything I can do about spam registration on my website, since they are done by people that get paid $1 for every registration that is made. All spam users are going to be deleted once they get active.
Article updated at 17:55 UTC.
Article updated at 16:03 UTC on 30-December-2015.
Donations: Please remember to support my work with donations or by using the Amazon banners. Thanks for the support.
Last night (26-December-2015) two magnitude 3,3 earthquakes took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake activity was followed by a change in activity on 2 – 4Hz band, I’m not sure why that is, it might signal a inflow of magma at depth into shallow parts of the crust. This is however only guess on my part, this change in signal and it’s origin.
The change in the SIL station can be seen between 25 and 26-December-2015 on the blue line. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
It is my view that the risk of eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano is increasing fast and Bárðarbunga volcano might erupt without warning at any time. Iceland Met Office holds a different view and that is there is no major risk of eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano at the moment, even if magma continues to flow into Bárðarbunga volcano.
The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
The magnitude 3,3 earthquake in north-east part of Bárðarbunga volcano caldera had the depth of 0,1 km. The magnitude 3,3 earthquake in south-east part of the caldera had the depth of 2,5 km. At 08:20 UTC this morning a magnitude 1,0 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano, that earthquake had the dept of 20,3 km and that suggest the magma inflow might be more than current ideas and models suggest (this earthquake is on the edge of the volcano, not far from Tungnafellsjökull volcano). I don’t know what is going to happen next in Bárðarbunga volcano. Since nobody knows for sure what is going to happen next in Bárðarbunga volcano.
Update 1
The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano has now created a half-circle of earthquakes in the caldera. Over the past 24 hours there has been slight increase in activity in Bárðarbunga volcano after the magnitude 3,3 earthquakes. There has also been some odd harmonic tremor spikes around Bárðarbunga volcano, the problem is that at the moment there is bad weather taking place at this location in Vatnajökull glacier area. So this might just be wind. I have to wait until the weather gets better in order to see if anything changes.
The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano at 27-December-2015. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
I don’t know if any more activity is going to take place. This might die down, it is difficult to be sure about what happens next.
Article updated on 27-December-2015 at 17:56 UTC.
I wish my readers a Merry Christmas and I hope they enjoy the holidays.
Last night (20-December-2015) a earthquake activity took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Largest earthquake in this short earthquake swarm had the magnitude of 3,5 and the second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 3,1. This earthquake activity is shallow and above above 10 km depth and it appears to be result of magma activity in north-eastern part of Bárðarbunga volcano caldera. The earthquakes that took place appear to be long period volcano earthquakes (details can be found here, under b-type earthquake).
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
There clearly is something going on in Bárðarbunga volcano, it is already known that inflation is taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano after the eruption in Holuhraun ended in February-2015. Along with increase in dyke intrusions this clearly suggest that magma pressure is increasing inside Bárðarbunga volcano. What worries me is not the risk of large eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano. The risk in my view is at the moment risk of small eruption taking place, if a small eruption takes place under a glacier it is going to mean glacier flood. Size depends on the eruption size, duration and other factors. Currently there are no signs of imminent eruption, but that might change without warning. The north-eastern part of the Bárðarbunga volcano caldera is in my view weakened structure due to all the earthquake activity for the past 15 (about) months.
Donations
Please remember to support my work with donations if possible or by using the amazon banners. Thanks for the support. 🙂
From 20:10 to 20:14 UTC a minor dyke intrusion took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This dyke intrusion was small, only lasting those few moments and the largest earthquake had the magnitude of 2,5. Other earthquakes are smaller. Depth was from 15,6 km to 23,2 km. Based on the location, this is clearly a dyke intrusion into Bárðarbunga volcano. It is too small to start an eruption, but suggest that magma processes in Bárðarbunga volcano are starting to increase again.
The dyke intrusion in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
There is also a change in the SIL station Vonarskarð. What is creating remains unknown. This might be a change in hydrothermal systems under the glacier, but is impossible to know for sure at this point in time. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
I don’t know if any more earthquake activity is going to take place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Since it is impossible to know what magma does next inside a volcano. At the moment I’m not expecting a eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano.
The earthquake swarm in Prestahnúkur volcano is ongoing with breaks. The fault that is moving is around 5 to 15 km long at the moment (based on the map). The largest earthquake so far has had the magnitude 3,5 and was felt in nearby towns and farms, the second largest earthquake had the magnitude 3,0. Other earthquakes have been smaller so far.
The earthquake activity today (14-December-2015). Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
I expect this earthquake activity to continue in the next few days to weeks.
The earthquake activity in this area since 1991 (grey circles). New activity are the red circles. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
The image above is from Week 50 earthquake information website. It can be found here.
Other matters
I’ve been a bit down in the past few days, since I’m living in Iceland and I don’t like it. I don’t belong in Iceland, not sure why that is, it just is. I don’t like the culture (Icelanders are copying U.S culture to some degree, not everything, but many aspects of it), I don’t like the snow and the cold weather. I also don’t like the isolations that follows living in Iceland.
Moving to Denmark
If anyone wants to support my move back to Denmark that can be done with the PayPal button or directly, information about how to do so can be found here.
At the moment I’ve collected money for almost everything. The transfer cost and the first month in rent for the apartment. What is missing is the money for the insurance for the apartment, but I can get a good rent loan for that in Denmark. The insurance amount I have to pay is 9000 DKK (1,206.13€). All that I’m currently waiting for is the Danish Tax (Skat), I’ve been having problem with them for the past few months and that issue has not been resolved yet and that issue is keeping me in Iceland at the moment. Regardless of that, I’ve started preparing my move back to Denmark so that I can move quickly once my last problem has been resolved.
Advertisements and donations
Donations keep this website going. Since it has already outgrown smaller and cheaper hosting options for me. I have to pay $135 in hosting cost a month and so far I’m running at loss. When it comes to advertisements I’m not going to be returning to Google Adsense since getting into that is close to impossible at the moment due to TOS and other changes Google (now Alphabet) has done over the years. Leaving small websites like mine high and dry when it comes to income. I’m going to continue to use Amazon. I hope that no major changes in their TOS and such agreements forces me to quit using them. The rules are getting narrower by the year and aligned in such a way that they fit high traffic website better. Rather then small traffic websites like I currently have.
Thanks all for understanding.
Yesterday (10-December-2015) a earthquake swarm started in south-west Langjökull (Prestahnúkur volcano [Wikipedia page here]). Currently the earthquake swarm is ongoing. This is a slow earthquake swarm so far, not creating many earthquake over period of one hour. Largest earthquake so far had the magnitude of 3,2. Other earthquakes have been smaller, but many earthquakes are over 2,5 in magnitude. The largest earthquake was felt in nearby town of Hvanneyri and possibly other farms close to the location where the earthquake swarm is taking place.
The earthquake swarm in south Langjökull volcano (Prestahnúkur). The earthquake swarm is located in one spot. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
This earthquake activity is appearing on my geophones when it comes to earthquakes over magnitude 1,9. Every 10 to 20 years this area has earthquake swarms that creates earthquakes with magnitude 4,0 and above. Last such earthquake swarm was something over 10 years ago if my memory is correct. At the moment there is nothing suggesting that eruption might happen at this volcano any time soon. Last eruption took place 3500BCE (GVP information).
On 7-December-2015 a minor earthquake swarm took place in Krafla volcano. The strongest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 3,2. I don’t know if it was felt in nearby town. It was followed by few minor earthquakes, both before and after.
The earthquake swarm in Krafla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
I don’t expect any more earthquake activity in Krafla volcano. At least not outside normal background activity.
Weather warning for Iceland on 07 and 08 December-2015.
If you are a tourist and if you know a tourist in Iceland at the moment. Please follow the following advice given by the Iceland Met Office.
After 15:00 UTC it is advised against all travel tomorrow, even in emergency. If you have an emergency during the storm contact 112 for advice and help. Problems with power and communication problems can and should be expected tomorrow during the duration of the storm.
I’m expecting both of my geophone to stop working at some time during this storm, due to power loss, loss of 3G signal or WiMax signal (Heklubyggð) or some other issues that might appear during this storm. Nothing can be done about this and I just hope for the best during this weather.
Wind forecast for tomorrow at 22:00 UTC. This is highly dangerous weather.
Please read the following news in English about the coming weather in Iceland on Monday.
Hurricane-force winds tomorrow (Rúv.is)
Violent storm with total white out to hit Iceland on Monday (mbl.is)
Hurricane force winds predicted for tomorrow (mbl.is)
Please check Iceland Met Office website and Facebook page for more details about this weather.
Update 1
English
The National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police in association with the District Commissioners in Iceland declares an uncertainty phase due to weather forecast from the meteorological office of a violent storm with hurrican force winds in all areas of Iceland
Travel advisory for all areas is in effect. Travellers are advised to avoid travelling in the South of Iceland from 1200 and in other areas from 1700. Uncertainty phase/level is characterized by an event which has already started and could lead to a threat to people, communities or the environment. At this stage the collaboration and coordination between the Civil Protection Authorities and stakeholders begins. Monitoring, assessment, research and evaluation of the situation is increased. The event is defined and a hazard assessment is conducted regularly..
(Almannavarnir Facebook page)
Update 2
Two of Vegagerðin wind stations that monitor wind did go down.
This is under Eyjafjöllum. Copyright of this image belongs to Vegagerðin in Iceland.
South of Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Vegagerðin in Iceland.
Article updated at 17:48 UTC.
Article updated at 11:18 UTC on 07-December-2015
Article updated at 06:17 UTC on 08-December-2015