Month: March 2017

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Minor earthquake activity in Hofsjökull volcano

On the 30th of March-2017 there was some minor earthquake activity in Hofsjökull volcano. This was a minor earthquake activity, with the largest earthquake having the magnitude of 1,3 at depth of 4,5 km. The deepest earthquake had magnitude of 1,0 and depth of 10,1 km.


Earthquake activity in Hofsjökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I’m not expecting anything more to happen in Hofsjökull volcano. This volcano does not have any known eruption during the last 12.000 years that I know of. I don’t know what the latest research into activity in Hofsjökull volcano says, I was also unable to find any information about possible time frame when last eruption took place in Hofsjökull volcano. As it currently stands, I don’t expect anything more to happen besides maybe one or two extra earthquake appearing in Hofsjökull volcano.

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Strong earthquake swarm 80 km north of Kolbeinsey Island

During the night of 26-March-2017 there was an strong earthquake swarm about 80 km north of Kolbeinsey Island. This is around 250 km from the coast in north Iceland. It is not clear what is happening in this location, since this area has been seeing higher than usual earthquake activity in recent months. This is the largest earthquake swarm so far to take place.


The earthquake swarm as it appears on Icelandic Met Office maps. Green stars are earthquakes with magnitude above 3,0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquakes in this swarm had the following magnitudes. Magnitude 4,6 (EMSC Information here), magnitude 5,0 (EMSC information here), magnitude 4,8 (EMSC information here). The largest earthquakes where not felt due to distance from the coast. It is not possible due to distance to see if there is an eruption taking place at this location. All harmonic tremor get lost due to distance from nearest SIL station. A really large eruption might slightly appear on tremor plot on Icelandic Met Office website, at the moment that has not happened.


The magnitude 5,0 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.


The magnitude 5,0 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Heklubyggð. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.

It is difficult to know if an earthquake activity is continuing in this area or not. Since the distance from nearest SIL stations does not allow for micro-earthquakes to be detected properly or at all.

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Slight increase in earthquake activity in Grímsvötn (Grímsfjall) volcano

Over the past few months there has been a slight increase in earthquake activity in Grímsvötn (Grímsfjall) volcano. This increase in activity strongly suggests that Grímsvötn are now in later stages of getting ready for an eruption.


Earthquake activity in Grímsvötn (Grímsfjall) volcano. Close to centre in Vatnajökull glacier. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Last eruption in Grímsvötn volcano was in 2011 and that was a VEI=4 eruption and the largest one in at least 140 years. I don’t expect next eruption in Grímsvötn to be a big one, but there is no way to know that for sure until an eruption happens. When that happens is impossible to know for sure. When next eruption happens is something that is not possible to know. All that can be estimated that a new eruption in Grímsvötn volcano is not far into the future.


This graph gives a good idea the time interval betweens eruptions (last eruptions since 2000). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Since 2000 the time between eruptions is around 2200 days on average. That number of days is about to happen soon in Grímsvötn volcano.

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Earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano 21-March-2017

Yesterday (21-March-2017) there was an earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano. Largest earthquakes where magnitude 3,1 and 3,0. Other earthquakes that happened where smaller in magnitude.


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

There isn’t much to say about this earthquake activity (for those how do not know, please check older articles on Bárðarbunga volcano). This activity is happening due to continued inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano since the eruption ended in February-27 in 2015, inflation started in September that same year. Earthquake activity had started to drop in February, it now appears to be increasing again. When or if that results in a eruption soon is impossible to know.

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Earthquake swarm close to Herðubreið

All of last week there has been a minor earthquake swarm close to Herðubreið volcano crater. Yesterday (17-March-2017) the earthquake swarm increased from several earthquakes an hour and up to around several dozen earthquakes an hour. Largest earthquake so far had the magnitude of 2,9 but earlier report suggested it had a magnitude of 3,3 it was then downgraded. Since midnight (18-March-2017) around 200 earthquakes have happened. Currently the earthquake swarm is ongoing and this article might get outdated quickly.


The earthquake swarm close to Herðbreið volcano crater (red dots). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I don’t expect an eruption in this area, since currently there isn’t anything suggesting that magma might be responsible for this activity. This part of Iceland is also outside all major volcano areas, but it might possibly leak magma for some unknown reason. Last eruption in this area took place during the last glacier period in Iceland, when exactly is something I don’t know, but it ended 11.700 years ago. Eruption in this area would also create a larger earthquake activity then is currently happening, due the fact the crust in this area is cold and would require a magma to break it before it reached the surface.

This article is going to be updated if needed.

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Earthquake swarm in Tungnafellsjökull volcano

A small earthquake swarm took place in Tungnafellsjökull volcano during the night of 18-March-2017. All earthquakes that happened where minor in magnitude with many earthquakes having depth from 3 to 13 km.


The earthquake activity in Tungnafellsjökull volcano (yellow dots, north of Bárðarbunga volcano). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is not clear why this earthquake activity happened in Tugnafellsjökull volcano. This might be a dyke intrusion at depth or it might also just be a stress adjustment in the crust due to the inflation happening in Bárðarbunga volcano. It is not known at the moment if this is due to magma or stress adjustment in the crust. This is the first earthquake activity in Tungnafellsjökull volcano after considerable period of quiet.

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Strong earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

During the night (13.March-2017) a magnitude 3,7 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake happens just few days after a strong earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga (March 8th). There was no other noticeable earthquake activity following the magnitude 3,7 earthquake. Few minor earthquakes took place after the main earthquake.


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

It seems that magnitudes in the earthquakes that are taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano is increasing. The reason for this is inflation in Bárðarbunga volcano, it remains to be seen if this ends in a eruption.

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Strong earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano during the night

During the night of 08-March-2017 a strong earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 4,1 and the second largest earthquake swarm had the magnitude of 3,9. Other earthquakes in this swarm where smaller in magnitude.


Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano (green stars). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake activity happens in Bárðarbunga volcano mainly due to magma being injected into the main volcano at depth. This goes into magma chambers somewhere in the volcano, current data suggests that the magma chamber that erupted in in August 2014 to February 2015 is currently inflating. The rate of this type of earthquake activity has gone down in Bárðarbunga volcano, this used to be a weekly activity but now only happens every 2 to 4 weeks at the moment. This slowdown in activity is likely to continue if nothing else happens (new eruption or dyke activity).

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Please remember to support my work. I’m currently dealing with money issues and I have been for a long time. That generally means that once I’ve paid all the bills I don’t have much left (if anything at times). I’m working on a solution but progress is slow. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Possible dyke intrusion in Þórðarhyrna volcano

Tonight (05.03.2017) an possible dyke intrusion has taken place in Þórðarhyrna volcano. It’s a small volcano south-west of Grímsfjall volcano and on Global Volcanism Program website it is counted with Grímsfjall volcano eruptions. Last eruption in Þórðarhyrna took place in 1902 at the same time there was an eruption in Grímsfjall volcano (size VEI=4). Before that eruption, the earlier eruption in Þórðarhyrna took place in the year (August 15th) 1887 and lasted for two years (ended in 1889).


Possible dyke intrusion in Þórðarhyrna volcano (south-west of Grímsfjall volcano). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2,5 and the second largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2,4. Other earthquakes where smaller. It is not possible to know how this is going to evolve since there is a lack of data on Þórðarhyrna volcano due the fact no eruption has happened since the year 1902. That means for now, it is just more wait and see what happens next.

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RSS feed

If people want to keep up with articles in real time (in case of an eruption), it is possible to do so with an RSS feed that WordPress supports. Both for new articles and new comments as they appear. Its an alternative with the email list I currently support.

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Strong earthquake swarm on Reykjanes Ridge yesterday (02.03.2017)

Yesterday (02.March.2017) there was an strong earthquake swarm on Reykjanes Ridge. This earthquake swarm took place around 540 km away from the coast of Iceland. The largest earthquake had the magnitude of 4,9 (EMSC information here), the second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 4,4 (EMSC information here). It is unclear what started this earthquake activity, nothing suggests that an eruption started and at this distance nobody would notice. The depth in this area is such that a ship might not get any surface clues about what is happening deep in the ocean.


The magnitude 4,4 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.


The magnitude 4,4 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Heklubyggð. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.


The magnitude 4,9 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.


The magnitude 4,9 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Heklubyggð. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.

More earthquakes might appear on SIL network or my geophone if they are strong enough. It is difficult to know for sure due to distance from monitoring networks.

Donations

I pad all the bills this month and I’m broke. If people like my work they can support it by sending me donations.

I have started to stack up the bills for April (due how the system works here in Denmark, I have found it to be good idea to this if I’m unsure about anything) and from the looks of it appears that April is not going to be easy billing month due to a cable bill I have [3.733,73 DKK], stupid decision to get it, since most channels just show reruns and more reruns, but I was just after two news channels that I have now figured out to get with a 40 cm satellite dish indoors (yay, knowing inverse square law of radio waves).

I have cancelled my cable subscription now with an email. Like with the internet bill in February, they are charging me for a six month period. I also think that next three month internet bill is in April (around 900 DKK for next three months according to my estimate). The only good news is that I have been saving up a little for this cable bill since I already knew it was going to be a big one, the sad part is that March bills upset that plan a little bit, thanks to a donation I can increase my saving up a little for that bill, making it slightly easier to pay the cable bill in April. It might however upset my plan for an upgrading a IPTV box (this upgrade has to happen, the old system closes down at the end of April) I have for Icelandic channels (in case of an eruption I have it, not because of good programming). I have to send it to the company I bought it from to upgrade it and that costs in total around 600 DKK in the mail both ways.

This, along with my heavy debt payment plans make keeping all this afloat a bit of challenge at the moment. The money situation is going to be little easier from June when the debt payments I have get lowered down a bit. Until that I guess I’ll have to ask for more donation and support. It might appear that my money problems have been going on forever, they have been going on since 2012 and I fully expect them to end in 2018. Adjustment takes a little time and I’m working hard on solving this issues I’m dealing with.

Thanks for the support. 🙂