According to the automatic SIL system that IMO runs there was a ML3.9 magnitude earthquake about 18.3 km north of the island Grímsey, this earthquake happened at 09:00 UTC. The automatic depth was 14.7 km. This numbers are expected to be changed as the earthquake get reviewed by seismologist at Icelandic Met Office.
No damage is expected from this earthquake. But there is a good chance that it might have been felt in Grímsey Island.
Idle question:
Since I am bored waiting for my snow-storm delayed flight;
What would happen if you dug away the cone of a dormant volcano in a tectonically active part of Iceland? Would it just quake a bit more, or would it go boom? Would the timeframe of the excavation make a difference? And would that difference make difference in hindering causing an eruption? And can humans cause an eruption by digging in a volcano?
Nothing would happen. But the cone would be gone. This actually has happened many times before in Iceland. They remove the cones for the gravel and use it in roads.
Gravel???
Oh my… The cone I was thinking about would have made into the worlds most expensive gravel. Some of the magmas are very high in ultra-expensive metals.
But thanks for the answer. Then I know you can do it, and that it has been done in Iceland before. I thought the risk would be a bit greater if you dug away a volcano that is sleeping.
Methinks it’s a good thing that the volcanoes scare away the “gold diggers”. Mining is a dirty business.
Actually not if you do it correctly and stay away from uranium-mining.
But foremost it is necessary to mine for metalls, otherwise we will not exist.
Can’t we get what we need from recycling?
Ok, know you have cleaner energy over there in Scandinavia but wasn’t aware that you have cleaner mining methods. I learn something new everyday on this splendid blog!
Actually we do have that.
But my main point is that we cannot recycle enough to keap up with our needs since we do not discard metals in large enough quantities.
For instance today the amount of recycled steel in production is 30 percent, the rest needs to be mined material.
Rare earth minerals like vandaium, niobium, yttrium, tanthalium, lanthan and all the other we need for our computers, electric cars and soforth simply does not exist in metalic form to recycle in more than fraction amounts.
And there actually the electric car died. There is not enough REMs to make even one generation of batteries for them.
There is a good reason for the prices of REMs going up tenfold in one year… Hybrid Electric Cars…
Loads of Uranium in Devon and Cornwall (England). The old mining industry has left uranium (pitchblende, torbernite and other uranium phosphates and arsenates) all over the public footpaths and Carbis bay bathing beach. We ignore it. Even though it is Intermediate level radioactive waste, it does not have the political campaign against it exaggerating it’s hazard and we all live happily just the same as if it weren’t there. In spring you can sit outside at the beachside cafe with pitchblende washed up under your table – it doesn’t appear to hurt anyone.
Ah, but the english have a unique way of looking at things.
Do not forget the stock-piles of enrichened plutonium on the beaches of Sellafield. I am amazed that it still exists.
For those who do not know, Sellafield is responsible for half of the worlds release of nuclear waste into the environment. It has since it opened in 1947 released the same amount of nuclear debree as Tjernobyl every 4,5 years. They have lost enough plutonium to produce 5 bombs, and they actually steal the organs out of the workers there. But they serve jolly good tea and cucumber sandwiches!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sellafield
For me this is the planets largest disgrace.
And the second of course being Dounreay, that is so radiactive that some of the buildings havent been entered for 50 years, and they actually used an old hole in the ground and just dumped nuclear waste and spend uranium into it. Yes, you are reading correct. They made a landfill with used uranium rods.
But they where fined for it 140000punds… Wow…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dounreay
Makes you want to cry.
And after that barrage I will now board the plane (finally) to go and decide to keap 21 nuclear power-plants in commission… The world is a sick place and I am hipocrite.
See you all on friday.
The uranium contamination in Cornwall from teh mining industry is in a different league to that which has been spread by the nuclear industry. Cornwall rarely mined uranium commercially and just dumped it’s uranium as a byproduct of other mining – absurdly high quantities just scattered everywhere. The Cornish even intentionally scattered radium on their agricultural land as fertilizer! There is one place in Cornwall which is accessible, where the radioactivity is higher than it was at the perimeter fence of Chernobyl after the accident! Workers who mined that mine actually lived to a greater age than miners on non radioactive mines. The reason is that they mined radium and it was so profitable that they worked summer only to avoid need to pump the mine, so they inhaled less dust over their lifetimes. Dust was the main killer of miners in Cornwall.
Generally, although the authorities know about the radioactivity in Cornwall, which is well above the level at which people would be evacuated if it had come from a nuclear accident, it is hushed up to protect the Cornish Tourist Industry. Hence my uranium ore shop http://www.rubbleshop.co.uk. Please do not order anything from it though, as it is currently closed while I tidy my shed.
video CD’s of cornish uraium and radium in public places available at postage cost price from me if you ask. Website contact email will work.
Worse than that, they used the shaft as dump for various nasties, including sodium (they used liquid sodium as reactor coolant there). Sodium metal in shaft, water eventually leaked into shaft, everyone affected great surprise when it went BANG!
Yes, sodium metal is probably far more dangerous than the radioactivity. Fun stuff, but dangerous.
Now I’ve hit burning magnesium engine blocks with a solid stream from an attack hose… most spectacular.
I imagine that the sodium was just as, if nor more so… energetic.
Treacleminer:
Uranium ore is rather safe to handle. You need HUUUUUUGE amounts before it gets dangerous. Used uncased uranium rods are deadly. So when you mix sodium and used highly radioactive rods with sodium and a few other nasties and it explodes…
Dounreay is much worse than Tchernobyl, but since it is England it will be tart and custard with tea.
The radioactive sun always shines on the Empire.
Nota bene, we do stupid things too, one of the other we have produced is the explosive lake. For 40 years we poured out residues from dynamite production into a lake. To top it off we poured down explosives mercury ontop (stuff in explosives caps). The explosive capabillities of the lake is the same as the trinity nuke. To top that off you dump down unused ordinance and chemical warfare grenades and bombs.
So what do you do when you have an explosive highly poisonous lake? You build a residential area around it because it is to dangerous to clean it up… Phew…
Carl: And the location is?
The old Nobel site of course…
@Jack:
Vinterviken is the name of the site.
Parabéns pelo blog. Acompanho vocês desde scienceblogs, eruptionsblog e agora Islândia . Sou de Santo André ,estado de São Paulo ,Brasil. Só estou postando para parabenizar a todos . Esse site é o que participo no Brasil – http://www.painelglobal.com.br . E vou deixar aqui links do vulcão de lama Lusi que foi causado pela perfuração incorreta durante exploração em busca de gás natural . Desastre ambiental: http://www.ecodebate.com.br/2008/06/12/desastre-ambiental-perfuracao-causou-vulcao-de-lama-na-indonesia/ -Perfuração causou vulcão de lama na Indonésia
http://www.apolo11.com/vulcoes.php?titulo=Vulcao_Lusi_continua_a_jorrar_lama_sobre_cidade_da_Indonesia&posic=dat_20100204-083505.inc
Taís: Estou feliz por ter outro brasileiro em “nossos” blogs. Seja bem-vinda!
From now on I’ll write in English to ease our colleagues from the task of Google translating our comments.
Thank you very much for the links, specially for the “Painel Global” one. Nice one. Didn’t know we had that kind of thing “made in Brazil”, since we lack from any significant volcanic activity in Holocene period (except for Trindade volcano).
Hope we’ll be hearing more from you.
Grande abraço do Rio de Janeiro. 🙂
Renato Icarahy
Ah, more Brazilians!
Nice!
Some earthquakes west of Godabunga, north of Thorsmork/Basar, outside of the main central volcanoes. Also some earthquakes these recent days in the Veidivotn region, which is a Bardarbunga fissure (also north of Katla and Landmannalaugar). Probably tectonic.
That earthquake was confirmed as 3.2R
You guys are funny :).
Friday
17.12.2010 04:47:17 63.882 -19.791 9.7 km 2.6 90.06 13.6 km SSW of Hekla
Hmmm. [Back to sleep]
Still messing with it… I now have all of 2008 imported into my spreadsheet.
Ran into a really odd thing while playing with the imported data. 2010 was missing three days of data.
Guess where I found it.
In week 53 of 2009. Go figure.
The convention to determine the start of a new week (at the turn of the year) is dependent on the country, there is no international stardard for it.
Earthquake 14km south of Hekla, magnitude 2.4, and about 10km deep. Magma on the move there, but still deep.