Posted on by Jón Frímann

Skeiðflöt geophone is up and running

Today I started the geophone at the farm Skeiðflöt. It is just south of Katla volcano. Some setup spikes are on the webicorder plot at the moment. But they should be clear off in the next 24 hours.

Currently there is bad weather in the area and it seems to show on the geophone at Skeiðflöt. But this new geophone adds to the sensitivity of my network and allows me to see earthquakes down to ML0.0 in good weather taking place in Katla volcano. But all large earthquakes should appear on this geophone regardless of most weather conditions outside. This geophone also increases my chances of seeing earthquakes in Eyjafjallajökull volcano if any take place to start with (it has been quiet after the eruption in the year 2010).

All my currently online geophones can be viewed online here. The webicorders are updated every 5 min.

36 Replies to “Skeiðflöt geophone is up and running”

      1. That’s excellent news. I can picture Skediflöt well – right next door to a place I stayed last time in Iceland

  5. It seems that this geophone might be noisy. I am not sure why that is. But it more then just wind noise. It might be something from Katla volcan, or the ocean. But only thing that can be done is to wait and see how it develops.

    1. How far away is the farm from the ring road? If I remember correctly, its pretty close, right? This might also contribute to noise.

      1. It is close the ring road. But the traffic is now not that heavy, so it is not traffic noise.

        But road traffic is going to contribute to the noise level when the traffic is heavy. But no more then on the geophones how are located in towns (Hvammstangi and Eyrarbakki).

        The noise on my geophone follows the noise pattern of the IMO station Álftagróf. When it drops there, the noise drops on my geophone at the same time.

  6. Is IMO tapping your geophones, and if not – do you think they will do so in the future?

  7. @Jon: Could you give the approx. distances to Katla caldera, Atlantic coast, and the ring road for this new geophone?

    1. The distance to the caldera rim is about 20 km. The geophone is however located inside Katla volcano domain (that is an area outside the main volcano, but inside its main fissure swarm, but not part of the extended fissure that often extend from Icelandic volcanoes). That is going to give me interesting results I think

    1. This is noise, plus some technical fault. This SIL station is not close to any volcano. It is some distance from Hekla and Eyjafjallajökull volcanos, that are the closest volcanoes to it.

    1. Thanks Jón for your commitment and good work with the new geophone.
      I agree Peter something seems to be going on, the oval you suggest is perhaps getting tighter.
      http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/02 Feb 02:45 GMT :
      00:47:06 63.658 -19.163 1.1 km 0.2 90.0
      23:21:48 63.629 -19.253 5.0 km 0.6 65.38 (half decent quality)
      23:21:34 63.635 -19.197 1.1 km 0.4 90.01
      If I’m not mistaken Goðabunga http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/god.gif shows an uptick in activity.
      Although regarding http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla/god_trem.gif it seems like business as usual.
      Jón have you any thoughts regarding this disparity?

  12. Jon is your geophone showing more going on at Katla over the last day or two?

  14. There seems to be local high noise on the geophone. I am not sure why that is. But this noise seems to follow the pattern of this SIL station, http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/alf.gif

    But this SIL station is closest to my geophone. It is just about 3 km north of it I think. This geophone is also located about 20 km away from Eyjafjallajökull volcano. So if anything happens there, it is going to appear clearly on my geophone at Skeiðflöt.

  15. @Peter Pan

    I don’t know, but I would saythat that this is almost defiantly linked to Katla as the quakes are still mostly on the Katla Caldera, and over the past few months, the position of the earthquakes in the caldera have been constantly changing; this appears to be magma trying to find the easiest Path to te surface.

    The experts are clear to correct me if I’m wrong, which I may well be! 😉

  16. Hope the interference disappears.

    Appearance donation posted to your danish account as promised, use it as you wish.

    /Micke

    1. Thanks for the support! 🙂

      As for the noise. It is seems to be weather + coastal ocean wave noise. There doesn’t seems to be a lot of human made noise taking place at this geophone location (cars, human foot steps and such things).

      Large earthquakes and harmonic tremor noise should be visible when it happens. But how well depends on the noise level at the time it takes place.

      1. Yes, Jon is right. The weather has been day after day, quite stormy, rain, wind and snow. So this affects geophones especially in such a windy place as those near Katla.

  20. Dike intrusion?

    Friday
    03.02.2012 10:47:20 64.599 -17.183 20.4 km 0.8 99.0 17.1 km ESE of Bárðarbunga
    Friday
    03.02.2012 10:46:50 64.582 -17.170 12.2 km 0.9 99.0 18.2 km ESE of Bárðarbunga
    Friday
    03.02.2012 10:44:08 64.578 -17.172 16.8 km 0.8 99.0 18.3 km ESE of Bárðarbunga
    Friday
    03.02.2012 10:43:29 64.612 -17.146 22.6 km 0.9 99.0 18.5 km E of Bárðarbunga
    Friday
    03.02.2012 10:43:25 64.590 -17.176 15.0 km 1.0 99.0 17.6 km ESE of Bárðarbunga
    Friday
    03.02.2012 10:43:11 64.592 -17.215 16.7 km 0.7 99.0 15.8 km ESE of Bárðarbunga
    Friday
    03.02.2012 10:42:43 64.592 -17.161 23.1 km 1.1 99.0 18.3 km ESE of Bárðarbunga
    Friday
    03.02.2012 10:42:37 64.597 -17.161 14.2 km 0.9 99.0 18.1 km ESE of Bárðarbunga
    Friday
    03.02.2012 10:42:19 64.585 -17.182 16.7 km 0.6 99.0 17.6 km ESE of Bárðarbunga

  21. Santorini has erupted other times since its large eruption in 1630 BC. These were small eruptions. Maybe there is going to be, sooner or later, another small eruption at Santorini. No reason for worry, Santorini big eruptions happen every many thousands of years, as magma has to fill the chamber, and it does that, between every small eruption. A small eruption can happen in soon, but a large eruption will take thousands of years to happen.

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