Month: September 2018

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Minor earthquake swarms in Öræfajökull volcano

An earthquake swarm started in Öræfajökull volcano yesterday (26-September-2018). Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 1,2. Other earthquakes had a magnitude of 0,0 and up to 0,5.


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

This earthquake activity is because of magma is moving inside Öræfajökull volcano. This movement is mostly slow and often stops at times. This is going to continue for a long while longer in current phase. There is no risk of eruption in Öræfajökull volcano at the moment.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. At the moment I am trying to save up for Raspberry Shake sensor to replace my current hardware that Böðvarshólar geophone station. The computer I used has already failed and I am currently using temporarily set-up (it often fails). I’ve gotten some donations but not enough to buy the Raspberry Shake sensor I need. Please see pinned article for more details. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Social Media

I have made the decision to open up my social media a little more. This is only the social media that I use to post pictures to. I can be followed on Twitter using the twitter buttons on the side on this website. If you only want geology information please use Iceland geology twitter. I retweet a lot of stuff on my regular twitter.

My Instagram can be found here (username jonfr500)
My Snapchat is jonfr500

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Magnitude 3,0 earthquake in Öræfajökull volcano

This evening (21-September-2018) at 21:15 UTC a magnitude 3,0 earthquake happened in Öræfajökull volcano. This was followed by a swarm of earthquakes and largest earthquake after the magnitude 3,0 earthquake had a magnitude of 1,4 so far.


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

I expect the largest earthquake to have been felt in nearby farms that are close to Öræfajökull volcano (some are in it roots). In recent weeks the magnitude of earthquakes in Öræfajökull volcano has slowly been moving upwards. This change is not by much at the moment.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. It helps me a lot. I am also trying to buy new Raspberry Shake sensors. Please see pinned article for more details. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Magnitude 4,2 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (14-September-2018) at 10:40 UTC an magnitude 4,2 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Second largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 2,9. Other earthquakes that happened were smaller in magnitude.


Green star is the magnitude 4,2 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is normal for Bárðarbunga volcano as it continues to inflate after the eruption 2014 – 2015. At the moment the rate of this magnitude earthquake seems to be around 1 earthquake each month. It seems that rate of earthquakes is continuing to drop and soon it is going to be one to two earthquakes a year like this in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donation. I also remind on the sticked article about donating so I can get new earthquake recording hardware. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Earthquake swarm on Reykjanes peninsula (Bláfjöll area) [updated]

Earthquake swarm started today (13-September-2018) in Bláfjöll area. This earthquake swarm continued today with only minor earthquakes. At 20:17 UTC an earthquake with magnitude 4,1 happened in Bláfjöll area. This earthquake was felt over a wide area.


Earthquake swarm in Bláfjöll area. Green star is the magnitude 4,1 earthquake. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake swarm appears to be ongoing. There is a possibility that more earthquakes with magnitude above 3,0 might happen in next few hours to days.

Update 14-September-2018

Icelandic Met Office has updated the earthquakes in this area. Two earthquakes happened yesterday. One with magnitude 4,1 and one with magnitude 4,2. There are only few seconds between the earthquakes.


The new image of the earthquake activity in Bláfjöll area. Green stars are the two earthquakes that were felt. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. I am also trying to get enough donations so I can buy new Raspberry shake seismometers since my current hardware is out of date and is now difficult to maintain. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Article updated on 14-September-2018 at 13:21 UTC.

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Katla volcano releases massive amount of CO2 daily

According to new study into CO2 release of Katla volcano the amount released by the volcano is massive. According to the news on Rúv the daily amount released of CO2 is 20 kiloton (1 kiloton = 1000 tons). What is not known today is if this high release of CO2 is constant or if it fluctuates during the year. More reaches is needed into that possible.

I don’t know how much magma is needed for this amount of CO2 release from Katla volcano. What I do know is that it is not little amount of magma inside Katla volcano. Largest documented eruption in Katla volcano had a VEI size of 5. The Eldgjá eruption in 934 was more lava than volcano ash and that was the largest eruption in Katla volcano for a long time. It is not possible to predict an eruption in Katla volcano or any other volcano with good precision.

This makes Katla volcano the 3rd largest CO2 releasing volcano in the world.

Rúv News in Icelandic

Kvikusöfnun í Kötlu (Rúv.is, Icelandic)


Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. I am also trying to buy new hardware and I need donations for that so I can continue providing webicorders with close to real time information about earthquake activity in Iceland. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Donations needed for new hardware

This article is a sticky one. Comments close after 15 days.

The current situation is that my hardware is in need for upgrade and replacement. The fact is that I can’t afford this at the moment on my own. That is why I am asking for donations at the moment so I can upgrade my computer to more modern one and upgrade my earthquake monitoring network to a modern style network.

Main earthquake computer

Current main earthquake computer is no longer functioning due to failure on the motherboard. I need to get a new one and I’ve decided that it is best to just buy a new computer with everything + a new monitor. The computer I want to get costs 114.950 ISK (~884,98€), with some minor modification to it that are going to cost extra. The monitor I want to buy costs 24.950 ISK (~192,09€). This is going to be a Windows 10 Pro computer. I do plan on setting up a Linux computer in the future for earthquake monitoring since I am switching to Raspberry shake seismometers (some months after I finish moving to Spain) and most of the software for those seismometers run on Linux rather than Windows.

Earthquake monitoring network

Due to how old the hardware I am using in my earthquake monitoring network. It has now stopped functioning for most part. Heklubyggð is down due to network problems and is going to quit sometimes in next few months (no date has been set). I don’t know if the network problems are going to be resolved before I have to take Heklubyggð permanently offline. I am currently trying to solve issues with the geophone at Böðvarshólar. That has not been going as well as I hoped. Something happened yesterday and the PC seems to have stopped working as it was supposed to do. I am not sure what the problem is.

Upgrade to Raspberry shake

The hardware that I am now using for my earthquake recording has reached its End Of Life [EOL] some time ago. That is the reason I need to move to Raspberry shake sensor(s). I want to install 3 sensor in Iceland. For the moment however I just want to upgrade the station at Böðvarshólar so I can have some functional monitoring of earthquake activity.

The station I need to buy is this one here along with extra hardware to use with it.

Turnkey IoT All Weather Home Earthquake Monitor | RS 3D – price is 1259,99 USD (1.087,34€)
GPS Antenna – 179USD (154,59€)
External USB connection for All Weather enclosure – 81,99 – 169,99 USD.

Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Strong earthquake swarm 88 – 90 km north of Kolbeinsey Island yesterday (8-September-2018)

Yesterday (8-September-2018) there was a strong earthquake swarm 88 to 90 km north of Kolbeinsey Island. Due to distance from the SIL network it is impossible to know how large and strong this earthquake swarm actually was. Largest earthquake reported by Icelandic Met Office had a magnitude of 3,3. Total of ten earthquakes with magnitude 3,0 or larger happened during this earthquake swarm.


Earthquake activity north of Kolbeinsey Island (green stars). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Total around 30 earthquakes were detected but it can be assumed that total number of earthquakes might have been higher. At the distance from the SIL network smaller earthquakes are not detected. It is not possible to know for sure what is happening at this location due to distance from the coast and the SIL network.

Donations

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