Rate of eruptions in Iceland

Donation note: I am currently working on a new solution for people to support my work and effort here. It is still possible to donate directly via Paypal by using my email address (jonfr@8930a1.talbot.shared.1984.is) if you have Paypal account. I have removed the subscription option since I hope to be able close down my Paypal account no later than on 1-Febuary-2014. As things are turning out I am not going to use Skrill.com and at the moment I do not have any account with them.

Update on donations: Since my other options have not worked out. I am going to keep Paypal as an way to get donations. As explained before I can not have the regular donation button due to requirement that Paypal has. There is nothing I can do about it since I do not want to risk loosing my Paypal account since I am going to be using it.

There is a common believe that eruptions in Iceland happens in Iceland every 3 to 5 years. According to this believe the next eruption in Iceland should take place around the year 2014 to 2016. The reality of this is far more complex than common believe is in this matters. It is true that eruptions are common in Iceland, but it is not the same to say that eruption happens at regular intervals. For instance the longest break in 20th century since proper documentation of eruptions started was 7 years (Krafla 1984 and then Hekla in 1991). Then there are shorter time periods between eruptions as happened in the year 2011 when no more than three eruptions took place in that year. Two minor ones and one large one. The minor eruptions took place in Grímsfjall volcano (largest eruption in 140 years) and smaller eruptions in Katla volcano (lasted for ~10 hours) and in Hamarinn volcano (~16 hours). Then we had a minor explosion (no eruption) in Kverkfjöll volcano during the summer of 2013 [coverage link on it here and here].

It is not uncommon in Iceland to have several eruption from several volcanoes at the same time or over few month period during the year. It has happened in the history of Iceland and can happen again. It is also not uncommon not to have any eruption in Iceland for a long time and quiet scene last for several years. Currently it is quiet in Iceland but the history has shown that it is not always so. For more details on eruptions in Iceland I reccomend this blog post (jonfr.com) and this overview from Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Blog post updated at 22:10 UTC.
Blog post updated on 10-November-2013 at 23:40 UTC.