Month: October 2016

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano (Week 40)

Today (5-October-2016) a minor earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 3,8 and the second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 3,0. Other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.

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The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The reason for this earthquake activity is inflation in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is pushing the crust that fell down in the eruption of 2014 – 2015 in Bárðarbunga volcano (Holuhraun area) up again and that friction creates earthquakes. New magma is flowing into shallower magma chamber (at depth of ~10 km) from more depth under the volcano (20+ km depth). This started in September-2015 and is going to continue for many more months, maybe until next eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano.

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Images of earthquakes in Katla volcano and GPS data

Here are few images of the last earthquakes in the large earthquake swarm that took place in Katla volcano 28 – 30-September-2016. The alert status for Katla volcano has been downgraded from Yellow to Green.

Earthquake information from Heklubyggð geophone

I was only able to record few earthquakes from the swarm in Katla volcano. Along with the largest earthquakes that happened. Most of the earthquakes where hybrid earthquakes or Volcano tectonic earthquakes, few low frequency earthquakes took place, but I recorded them really poorly due to weather and strong wind at the time in south Iceland. More information about earthquake volcano types can be found here (USGS) and here (alaska.edu). There are no P and S wave markers in this images. I didn’t have the time to process this earthquakes properly yet.

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The first earthquake appears to be hybrid earthquake. The second earthquake appears to be a volcano tectonic earthquake. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC Licence page for more details.

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This appears to be a volcano tectonic earthquake. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC Licence page for more details.

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The first earthquake appears to be volcano tectonic earthquake, the second earthquake appears to be two earthquakes happening at once. Making analyse of what type this is difficult. The last earthquake appears to be a hybrid earthquake. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC Licence page for more details.

The largest earthquakes all appear to be volcano tectonic earthquakes. Other earthquakes where difficult to record due to high wind noise at that time.

GPS information

I finally found the GPS information website for Katla volcano. There isn’t much change on most of GPS station around and on Katla volcano. The most change is happening in Austmannsbunga (AUST) inside the caldera. Other GPS stations do now show this change, suggesting that it might be highly localised change not appearing on other GPS station for now. This doesn’t look like a error or a fault in the measurements. The GPS website for Katla volcano can be found here.

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Katla volcano update at 17:12 UTC

This is going to be the last update on Katla volcano until something more happens.

Currently everything is quiet in Katla volcano. Only two earthquakes happened during the night, the larger one had the magnitude of 2,0 the smaller earthquake had the magnitude of 0,5. There is a good chance that smaller earthquakes have been taking place without being detected due to a bad weather in the area at the moment. Conductivity remains high in Múlakvísl around 180 µS/cm, it is lower today then yesterday, possibly due to heavy rain in south Iceland.

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The earthquake activity in Katla volcano during the past 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Quiet period in Katla volcano can last up to a week (in my experience). What exactly happens next is impossible to know, but it is clear that Katla volcano is getting real close to erupting. When that might happen is impossible to know as before. All that can be done is to wait and see.

Storm warning for Iceland Sunday and Monday

There is a storm warning for Iceland for Sunday and Monday. Wind gusts can go up to 40m/sec with constant wind at 20m/sec and heavy rain. Please check vedur.is for more information.

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Katla volcano update at 20:44 UTC

This article is going to be updated as needed.

Since yesterday (30-September-2016) Katla volcano has been quiet. For the last 24 hours no major earthquakes (above magnitude 3,0) has happened. Only few minor earthquakes have happened in this period and almost all of them where less then magnitude 2,0 earthquakes. Only two earthquakes had the magnitude above 2,0 and none above 3,0.

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The earthquake map of Katla volcano for the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Conductivity in Múlakvísl glacier rivers continues to be high and the glacier river has unusual low amounts of water in it. When this is written the value has dropped down to 104 µS/cm from the high of 221 µS/cm. The folk tale for this are is that sometimes Múlakvísl glacier river goes dry just before an eruption. I don’t know if that phoneme gets confirmed or not when a eruption starts in Katla volcano.

The reason for this earthquake activity in Katla volcano is due to magma trying to push it self to the surface from depth. If experience is anything to go by it is clear that current activity is not over, even if there is a drop in activity at the moment. I’ve seen this type of drop in activity before, few hours before the eruption (the first one) in Eyjafjallajökull 2010 and in Bárðarbunga volcano 2014. The lack of earthquake can have many reasons behind it. The magma might now be flowing without a resistance, the pressure has equalised for the next few hours (if that time is not running out already) or something else. Currently all that can be done is to wait and see what happens next.

Streaming web cameras of Katla volcano

Here are two streaming web cameras for Katla volcano.

Rúv live web camera of Katla volcano.
Live from Iceland web camera of Katla volcano.

Storm warning for Iceland Sunday to Monday

On Sunday and Monday there is going to have strong storm in Iceland with wind gusts up to 40m/s in south Iceland to start with. Heavy rain is going to follow this storm according to the weather forecast at the moment.

Article updated at 22:16 UTC. Links to live cameras of Katla added.