Month: February 2018

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Hydrothermal activity creates dangerous ice cave in Hofsjökull volcano

Hydrothermal activity has formed a ice cave in Hofsjökull glacier (volcano details here). According to an announcement by Icelandic Met Office this ice cave is dangerous due to sulphur (SO2) pollution and that it goes above 60ppm. That can result in loss of breathing, loss of vision and damage to eyes and lungs. People should only enter this ice cave with gas monitoring hardware on them. One seven year old girl passed out due to sulphur poising some weeks ago in a trip to this newly formed ice cave. There is also a high risk of collapse from the roof of the ice cave as ice appears to be loose above it and can collapse down without warning at any time.

There is also a risk of hydrothermal activity increasing and that is going to result in more sulphur (SO2) gas in the cave and other dangerous gases coming up. This appears to the same location that had increased activity 15 years ago that also formed an ice cave. The reason for this increase in hydrothermal activity is unclear since no earthquake activity has been recorded in Hofsjökull volcano for the past 10 years. This means earthquake activity above background levels, one or three earthquakes are recorded each year in random part of the caldera or parts of Hofsjökull volcano outside of the caldera area. Höfsjökull volcano is on its own rifting zone (information here, related paper here) (marked as SRZ on some documents) along with Kerlingarfjöll volcano (it is now under GVP as Hreppar. I don’t know why that is).

Icelandic News

Veðurstofa varar við íshelli í Hofsjökli (Rúv.is, Picture, Icelandic)

Donations

Please see comment that I am going to leave on this subject.

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Small earthquake swarm on SISZ 6 km north-east of Selfoss town

Today (13-February-2018) at around 08:00 UTC a earthquake swarm started in SISZ just 6 km north-east of Selfoss town. This earthquake swarm is currently ongoing. Largest earthquake so far had the magnitude of 2,8 and was felt in Selfoss and nearby farm.


Earthquake swarm in SISZ today. The red dots show the location of the earthquake swarm. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Last earthquake swarm in this area was in 21-October-2017 in this exact same location (article here). No damage has been reported following this earthquake and in Iceland no damage is to be expected from a magnitude 2,8 earthquake.

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Magnitude 3,4 earthquake on Reykjanes peninsula

Today (12-February-2018) at 01:14 UTC a magnitude 3,4 earthquake took place on Reykjanes peninsula. I am not sure if this earthquake was felt by any people in nearby villages and towns.


The earthquake at Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake was followed by several smaller earthquakes and largest aftershock had a magnitude of 1,6. More earthquake activity in this area is always a possibility.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Thanks for the support. 🙂

I got a small loan from a family member to help me to pay the electric bill since I did not get donations in time in order to pay it. I did get one large donation and I am thankful for it since it helps me to buy food for a large portion of what remains of February.

Please note that from June-2018 all donations have be moved to my Icelandic bank account and my Icelandic Paypal account. Since I will be moving back to Iceland in June-2018 and I don’t have any plan on move away from Iceland after that (I’ll just tourist abroad more for a longer period of time instead).

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Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano

Today (09-Februar-2018) at 05:07 UTC a magnitude 3,6 earthquake took place in Öræfajökull volcano. This is now the strongest earthquake in Öræfajökull volcano since this earthquake activity started in 2017. With earlier earthquake only having the magnitude of 3,4 (article here) on 3-October-2017. This increase in magnitude is something to worry about.


The earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Only one earthquake has happened after this earthquake so far and that only had the magnitude of 1,7. I am expecting more earthquake activity in next few hours and days.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. I am few days away from not being able to pay my electric bill. I am still missing close to 114€ / 852DKK for that to happen. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull and Esjufjöll volcanoes

I am writing about both Öræfajökull and Esjufjöll volcanoes in this article.

Öræfajökull volcano

Earthquake activity continues in Öræfajökull volcano. As before most earthquakes are smaller than magnitude 1,0. Earthquake activity is mostly in the caldera but reaches a little outside of it at times. Míla webcamera for Öræfajökull volcano can be found here.

Esjufjöll volcano

After a long time with no earthquake activity. Earthquake activity suddenly appeared in Esjufjöll volcano. As with Öræfajökull volcano, earthquakes do not happen in Esjufjöll volcano unless it is connected to magma movements. I don’t know anything useful about Esjufjöll since no eruptions are documented in the last 12.000 years. There might have been a small eruption in the year 1927 that lasted for 4 days, but I don’t have any useful information about that eruption if it happened. If an eruption does happen in Esjufjöll a glacier flood would go down to Jökulsárlón (this webcamera here).


Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull and Esjufjöll volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Current lack of money is making me a bit stressful due to the electric bill and that I currently lack the money to pay it. I only need 925 DKK (124€). I had to buy some food in last few days that explains the increase from 94€ earlier. Thanks for the support. 🙂

The regular donation button has been moved to my PayPal account in Iceland from PayPal in Denmark. I post updates on this on the donation site (link in the banner). The main PayPal donation button is going to changed to Iceland in June. After that it is going to stay like that since I don’t have any plans on moving away from Iceland after I move back to Iceland in July.

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Earthquake swarm on TFZ continues

The earthquake swarm on Tjörnes Fracture Zone that started on 28-January-2018 continues and on Sunday 4-February-2018 a magnitude 3,1 earthquake took place. Currently the earthquake activity is ongoing.


The earthquake activity in TFZ during the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is difficult to know for how long this earthquake swarm is going to continue. It might be several more days and up to few weeks more.

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Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano

Earthquake activity continues in Öræfajökull volcano and it remains at yellow status [website can be found here]. Like before the earthquake activity is small in magnitude.


The earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano (orange dots to the south). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There is now a pattern to this earthquake activity. Just and while it happens there are changes in the tremor plot on SIL stations around Öræfajökull volcano. It is possible that this is earthquake activity showing it self on the SIL stations. Other explanations are also possible.


The two spikes after 01/02 line showed up during a earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I don’t know for sure at the moment why this happens or why it shows up as it currently does.

Bad weather is currently blocking detection of small earthquakes in Iceland. A storm is going to pass over Iceland today and a second storm is going to pass over Iceland on Sunday.

Donations

Please remember to support my work since February-2018 is going to be really broke for me. Currently I don’t have enough money to pay the electric bills and I am missing close to 700 DKK (94€) so that I can pay it and then there is the whole month left for other things. In this case I need to buy food. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Moving to Iceland

I have managed to move up my plan on moving to Iceland. I can move in July rather than October. It saves me a bit on the tax payments in Denmark as soon as I move to Iceland my tax obligations in Denmark stop (from the day the move of legal home takes place). This is just a case of me not being able to afford on living in Denmark and there is nothing I can do about it. Since people with minor disabilities from a other country don’t get a job in Denmark (I am also uneducated and that doesn’t help).

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Ongoing earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Yesterday (31-January-2018) an earthquake swarm continued in Tjörnes Fracture Zone east of Grímsey Island. More than 100 earthquakes happened in the main earthquake swarm yesterday but none of them reached magnitude above 3,0. Strongest magnitude recorded was 2,6 (at 03:46 UTC). Largest earthquake recorded yesterday had a magnitude of 3,2 (at 20:20 UTC) in the earlier earthquake swarm that happened on 28-January-2018. This earthquake is possibly not connected to the earthquake swarm south of it.


The earthquake swarm east of Grímsey Island. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake swarm might signal that a large earthquake might happen in this area in coming months. Since earthquakes with magnitudes above Mw5,0 happen regularly in this part of TFZ. Last ones happened 2-April-2013. I wrote about that earthquake here and here (with images). It is not possible to know such a earthquake might happen.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. February-2018 is going to really difficult for me due to bills and tax bills from the Danish tax. This month is going to be like most of the months in 2017 and I sadly have to repeat that for the next 9 months (mostly). Thanks for the support. 🙂

Moving back to Iceland

Due to the endless tax problems for me in Denmark I have made the chose to move back to Iceland in October-2018. I plan on going to school from January-2019 and be in it until I get an apartment in Hvammstangi, Iceland. I just hope that the wait isn’t too long for an apartment for me. What I plan for living in a other country is that I will be doing part time living in a other country in the future. My chose of country for that is Germany rather than Spain. When that happens I do not know, it is at least not going to happen for several years after I move back to Iceland.