In the beginning of the new year I changed the name of this blog to include the area that I now cover with this blog. I added Spain and Canary Islands to it. But many people have been asking since I started this blog if I covered events that take place in Europe, as well as Iceland. I have not done so yet. But that might be about to change, if I get a positive feedback from this blog post. I would also change the forum to cover the whole of Europe. How exactly (there are many countries in Europe) I am not sure yet. But I am working in ideas how to deal with it already.
If I expand this blog to whole of Europe it means a lot more work for me. But that also mean that I cannot cover every single small event that happens in Europe. But I would do my best to cover all the major events as they take place. But this change would mean that I would cover whole of Europe as one area. It would not be country special as such. I would name the country with the location in Categories tags.
There are benefits as drawbacks to expanding this blog to whole of Europe. I get more to write about, as dead times in Iceland, Spain and Canary Islands can be covered with other events taking place in Europe. The drawback is that I do not know every fault line, or volcano in Europe. So it might take me a while until I know about all the other volcanoes in Europe. But I can learn about those volcanoes like any other volcano on the planet Earth. This however does not change the fact that I know more about earthquake and volcano activity in Iceland then in other parts of Europe. As I have been watching and studying the activity in Iceland for a lot longer time then I have been watching the activity in Europe. But I have been watching earthquake activity in Europe and around the world for about 14 years now. It is also added benefits of expanding this blog is that I should get more revenue from advertisements. As I should get more traffic then when I am just covering Iceland, Spain and Canary Islands. But donations are often not enough to cover my costs (+other things) of running this blog and my other web pages. This is just the way that is I guess.
It is different how I report earthquake activity in Iceland. For instance. I am not always writing about small earthquake activity that always takes place in many places. Doing so would be waste of my time. Same goes for Spain and Canary Island, where I now report only events that are worth reporting.
It is also an important factor in all this that from this year I am going to move back to Denmark. But I already cover earthquakes that take place there when they happen (every 2 to 10 years) since I have moved to Denmark once before. I want to expand on that to all of Europe. For the reasons I mention above. But I wanted to hear from my readers if this is an good idea or not for me to do. Even if I sometimes think that might be an good idea. Sometimes it turns out that the idea that I had was not.
I am unsure on the name change date if I go trough with this plan. But I would not change it in the middle of the month. I would change it in the beginning of the month. So I have this date to choose from. 1 February, 1 March, 1 April, 1 May, 1 June, 1 July (the latest date that I want to use).
The area that I already cover to date.
Iceland, Jan Mayen (Norway), Spain, Canary Island, Denmark
So please let me know what you think about this in comments.
it is good idea but if you have not a lot of time it can be dificult .Give a try at first and watch how its going.you can watch italy instead of denmark it is more intersting have a thought about it.Your friend from Greece .
Erik Klemetti (Eruptions, Wired Science) via Boris Behncke are covering Italy pretty well (especially Sicily), so that might relieve the magmatic pressure for you. Taking on the whole of Europe is a big task if you are going to cover all the tectonic and intraplate earthquakes and volcanism. Just the Tyrrhenian area alone has enough going on to keep someone covering it busy.
Dr Behncke Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/etnaboris/
Your blog is a welcome component of the geoblogosphere so however you decide, I’ll keep lurking.
Jon, I thought the current name was way too long and confused the purpose of the blog. I even made a mention to my girlfriend how bad of a name it is from a marketing perspective.
I think that Focusing on Iceland as a primary subject is best, and then other places secondary. Iceland is unique and fascinating. Spain, not so much. So I suggest a name like “Iceland Volcano and Earthquake Blog (and many other places)” keeps the name succinct. Maybe “Iceland and Europe Volcano and Earthquake Blog” isn’t too long though.
Or maybe even better, “Jón Frímann’s Volcano Blog.” Then you can cover whatever you want without having to change the name every time you want to include a new area. Alternatively, you could include every country that you want to cover, in the blog’s name (joke). The need to keep changing the blog name means it wasn’t named well in the first place. I think it was, at first. Then things kept changing and that didn’t convey a professional image.
Well, I do not care too much about market things. As they are almost always wrong (see here, http://www.staples.com/sbd/content/article/e-h/eightreasonsmarketingfails.html). I do not want to overstretch this blog and start doing what everyone else is doing. That is covering events world wide like Erik already does really well.
What I see however is an need for an blog that covers earthquakes and volcano activity in Europe in more details then is done today. I am up for that task. Since in part I already monitor earthquakes in Europe via EMSC and have been for several years now. So I would not be adding a lot to what I am doing already.
But now I wanted to get opinion from my readers, since it is the readers how matter when it comes to this blog.
Yes Jon I think it’s a great idea to cover earthquakes in Europe and also see a void there that you can fill. A niche market is perfectly valid and I think what you’ve done with Iceland is a great example of that.
I visited the ‘marketing fails’ page and I agree with what it said. And I believe your current name is a good example of the first fail reason they give. I think the name pleases you, the CEO, but not your audience. Keep it simple.
Let me suggest one more (simpler) name idea I’ve had, please. You can use a title and subtitle. Like this:
“Jón’s Volcano and Earthquake Blog.
Primarily covering Iceland but also including the Canary Islands and Jupiter’s moon Io.”
So you can update the subtitle any time you want but it doesn’t effect the blog name proper. Good luck!
Yes Erik covers the volcanoes really very well but he is now on a very comment-unfriendly site. The many adds there suck and whenever you update it gets automatically sorted to most popular…
A real conversation like we had when Eyja erupted is not possible with a commenting system like Disquss. So your site could provide the place for the amateurs and volcanophiles who just ask questions or report what they see on webcams or found elsewhere.
I can no longer post any comments on Erics blog because i am not a member of facebook or the other places where you need to have a user in order to be allowed to comment on Eriks site. I read it daily but i will not sign up to places i do not like just to be allowed to post. And if you notice how much less comments the site gets since the move, i am for sure not the only one who is very unhappy about the move. Your system is MUCH better.
I vote for Jón Frímann’s Volcano Blog
I agree whole-heartedly. And, I do not want to comment on EB with my own name.
I agree as well. Posting on Eriks blog is not good at all.
Outside of Iceland the European volcanic scene is made up of either mongenetic volcanoes associated with the rifting in Germany, France and Spain, all of which will re-erupt but we don’t know when, and those polygenetic fields in Italy and Greece and Turkey. Covering every single volcano/tremor in Europe would be impossible unless you set a point of say only discussing tremors over 3 richter scale(or whatever you decided) or those manmade(eg by schist gas explorations or in Iceland)
http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/ will give readers a list of earthquakes and you could chose one from the list to discuss every week? or readers could choose one and participate? The community participates!
The Mainstream media will cover the really big things once they start, your niche is talking about things before/during/after rather than the media frenzy.
IF you go too far you’ll have to find a lot more cash to run this project. Or more volunteers to help you writing threads!
Why not call your blog Jon’s European Volcanoes or Jon’s European Techtonics. the current name is clumsy, and however much you dislike marketing you ignore it at your peril.
I really like your blog and wish you luck with what ever you decide!
Do a volcanic blog, with emphasis on Iceland. If major events are lacking – please do write about other regions. That doesn’t mean you have to change the name of the blog or anything. Also, don’t just cover happenings in general – go into detail. Since you’re think you’re headed for a writing career, practice by writing detailed and complex posts about certain topics. I bet alot of people want to read about the physics involved in volcanology, not just interpretation of seismicity and tremor charts. My 2 cents.
I think, this is a good idea. Especially covering Iceland, since a lot of people have problems understanding the documents and stuff which is written in Icelandic.
BTW: Whats wrong with your Hekla helicorder? It stopped updating almost a week ago.
Heklubyggð helicorder is online. But it has lost the internet connection, same goes for the web cameras in the same area. This happened due to power fluctuation in the area during storms.
It is going to be fixed in the next few days. So it should start to update when that fix has been applied.
I would love it if you wrote “detailed and complex posts about certain topics” – i.e., what is going on to cause what we’re seeing. I don’t think I could follow super-technical posts, but would read with *great* interest posts that explained, in terms that this amateur could understand. Few bloggers do this – they either write for other geologists, or their coverage is broad but without much depth. It would be quite the writing challenge!
“Iceland volcano & earthquake blog” should suffice I believe. Important is to stay close to your field of expertise, i.e. Iceland. Main headline should always be some development on Iceland. If from the domains Spain, France, Germany, Benelux or UK come significant reports/events it is up to ‘the editor’ to decide over the headline and the secondary important items. Don’t bite off more than you can chew, is the saying!
From my (former) publisher’s perspective I would suggest to deal with events that in a way can be related to your Icelandic experiences. You occupy an interesting niche on the web with your blog. Don’t spoil it by going there where many others also venture. That would be a pity for your readers and yourself. Keep it ‘simple’.
Maybe a different layout would help you structure the various ‘themes’, with a headline spanning the blog-width and under that 2 columns (blocks) with items of secondary importance, all selectable (click) and below that the main article spanning the blog-width and content of the headline. Yes, an almost newspaper-like design. A reader could then choose to select a sub and go there first… Just an idea.
I think it might be a good idea, there are what something like 4-5 years on average between icelandic eruptions and probably something like 50 years between canary island eruptions. Even pre-eruptive behaviour like sudden inflation, tremors etc doesn’t happen that often in Iceland & Spain maybe once every week or two, so writing about the rest of europe would give you something to fill the gaps with.
If you exclude Etna and Stromboli, already very well covered in other blogs you don’t even have that many extra eruptions to cover. But since, as mentioned by Richard Jenkins, your speciality has always been writing about volcanic eruptions before they happen, interpreting GPS, tremors etc. you could cover pre-eruptive events in Greece (Santorini), the Azores, Vesuvius, Campi Flegrei, Eifel, Puys, mainland Spain and speculative places like those earthquakes on the Czech border all that would be very interesting to follow and isn’t covered well any other place I know of. But I would keep your main focus on Iceland and maybe relate the events at those other places to icelandic volcanism.
My only reason for subscribing to this blog is to find out about what Icelandic volcanoes are doing. If you want to cover others, that’s fine so long as it’s clear in the subject what country you are talking about. But it’s the detailed coverage of Iceland that’s important to me. Thanks for all your good work.
Today I know far more about Icelandic volcanoes then any other on the planet. So detailed coverage of what is going on in Iceland is not going away with this changes. It has not done so after the latest changes that I made in beginning of this month.
Jon: I like JJ’s proposal (i.e. “Jon’s Volcano & Earthquake Blog – With Emphasis on Iceland & Europe”). It would give you the largest freedom in terms of what & when to write, yet the least extra work or obligations. And, it could help the blob readers to contribute by submitting info on local stuff, local links, etc.
I still think the “North Atlantic Volcano Blog” would cover your area of expertise, and would allow leeway to analyze some European volcanoes.
Good one Matt 😀
Jon, please do not stretch yourself. By all means cover events in other parts of Europe but with the Icelandic Blog you are viewed as an expert and respected by professional and amateur geologists alike.
I worry that if you try to cover too much your content will “Thin”. Iceland needs you as a specialist. There are so many other Blogs and web sites that deal with Volcanoes and earthquakes that you may be in danger of joining the ranks of the many.
Just my opinion Jon. I understand that times like this can be quiet but you are as Unique on the web as the geology of Iceland is in the world.
How about Jon’s Earthquake and Volcano with emphasis on Iceland and Western Europe? That way it will cover Iceland UK, Scandanavia, France Germany, Canary islands and Spain.
It leaves Italy and Greece to those who already the area
My view is that it was best when it only covered Iceland. Other peoples blogs cover the other places. It was good when it was mainly Icelandic people talking about what they had unique insight into. Covering the rest of Europe would detract from it.
some places seem very poorly covered : say Greece, near middle East ( Turkey) . Italy, well covered already ! For me better coverage/monitoring of Greece(etc) would be most welcome
on the other hand, i also like the idea of just concentrating on the Atlantic Area !!
My view is that your blog should be called: Jon Frimann Volcano Blog, as already suggested.
It would be fantastic to have coverage of as many areas of the planet as possible from somebody with your knowledge and experience. When events are quiet in Iceland, you could concentrate on Greece or the Canaries. The majority of those interested in Seismology & Volcanism at whatever level of study are interested in the subject itself and this is rarely only in one area – an eruption is exciting wherever it happens!
And of course, there is your survival and success – broaden your horizons, the more areas you cover, the more followers you’ll have- the more donations to you and hence the continuation of your important work.
Go for it x
This would not add as many volcanoes to my monitoring list as many think. I am already watching 31 volcanoes in Iceland already. Plus the 6 volcanoes in Canary Islands and the 3 in Spain. So total of 40 volcanoes.
As for going global I would have to think about it for few hours. But I can not monitor all of the 1587 volcanoes in the world at the same time. It is impossible for me as an single person to do so. I already monitor global earthquakes as I do monitor earthquakes in Europe. So that would not be adding anything to my current watch list.
I want to thank everyone for there input. But if you have more, please post it here. I would like to hear it.
I would focus on Iceland, while posting ocasionally in other events in Europe (or even the world) when something interesting happens (like in Chile, Indonesia or Spain).
I really enjoy when you talk about Iceland, because it is such a fascinating country, with always stuff happening, and I think it is why most people here came for. But of course we also like to hear you commenting if something interesting happens in another volcano or fault, around the world. But I wouldn’t extend too far, I would post often about Iceland, and when nothing happens in Iceland, post something about somewhere else (or if something happens around the world, that is important)
Name: I would sticky either to the “Iceland…. blog” or even better “Jon’s Frímann … blog “. Just my opinnion
I am going to do just that. See the new blog post on this. 🙂
New blog post is up about this issue!
Man i think that would be awsome, not only for us who like your job but it would be an amazing chance for us to learn more and more all together (=
I think that watching alots of volcanoes and learning how they work would make ones predictions much more reliable!