Posted on by Jón Frímann

Fake Hekla eruption, earthquake swarm in Krísuvík volcano

I did miss this yesterday. But apparently there where false rumours on Facebook yesterday that Hekla volcano had start erupting. While the facts where those that no eruption was taking place in Hekla people did believe this anyway and didn’t check for the facts. The reason why this did happen was that somebody did use a old news about last Hekla eruption that took place in the year 2000. But news of that eruption can still be found on the internet today.

The most serious aspect of this false rumours about Hekla volcano is that this got into the news rooms at few media station, where people asked the news reporters on why they where not covering the eruption (that didn’t exist) in the news and with breaking news on the tv. But this also got into Icelandic Met Office, but people where calling them also. According to news on this false rumours this annoyed the geologist on duty. But this takes valuable time from them for no reason.

About six thousand people fell for this prank or false rumour on Facebook.

News about this: Hekla fór að gjósa á Facebook (Vísir.is) (Icelandic) – Use Google Translate at own risk.

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A small earthquake swarm is taking place in Krísuvík volcano. This earthquake swarm is not big so far. The largest earthquakes have gone up to ML2.2 in size. The depth in this earthquake swarm is about 7 to 11 km. So far something less then 30 earthquakes have happened. Other then this small earthquake swarm in Krísuvík volcano, and few other small earthquake swarms taking place in Iceland or around it there isn’t a lot happening in earthquakes and volcano activity at the moment.

61 Replies to “Fake Hekla eruption, earthquake swarm in Krísuvík volcano”

  1. The 2.0 quake in Krysuvik has been clearly recorded by your helicorders, I think I can even distinguish the P wave and the S wave!

  2. Jón:
    This fake Hekla eruption seems to be a consequence of the still lasting effect on people from Eyjaf’s air traffic disruption.
    But I am curious to see what Krísuvik is up to.

  3. I was about to post about this; my Icelandic au pair was on me this morning… “Mike! Mike! Hekla started erupting at 5pm yesterday, MBL says it could be as big as 1947”.

    Very funny. Not!

  5. Well, as often as the loons scream about catastrophe, it’s just a matter of time untiluntil someone accidentally listens to them.

    The bad part is that this numbs people to the real.

  6. Jón:
    Sorry if this has been explained before, but, in the case of an eruption taking place in Grímsfjal, would the resulting plume be visible from Mila’s Jökulsárlón webcam? Into what direction it points?
    Thanks in advance.

  8. OT well i live in a dark cold place and it can be very difficult. The dark grinds away at Your soul. Man was made to live in the sunshine. Enjoy Denmark, Jon, i wish You well!
    i don’t know about Iceland but here there is a certain mindset against the people who leave…”What?, you must be a wimp, you can’t take it.” but it’s mostly envy. i tell people…. It’s ok,,,, leave—- Don’t worry. Enjoy the sun… if You change Your mind, You can always come back… Alaska isn’t going anywhere and it’s not even going to change. Maybe Iceland is the same. Thank Iceland for what it has taught You but enjoy the rest of the world……. It can be lovely.
    Very Best!motsfo

    1. I wish to you the same, Jón.
      Although I am not a “beach person” as most people here in Rio, I can remember how difficult it was to survive the cold months I spent while working in Germany.
      Best from me too!

      1. The cold months are nothing compared to Iceland. While Iceland does have a ocean like climate (warm, cold winters). There is a lack of sunlight in Iceland during the winters and too much sunlight during the summer in my opinion.

      4. How cold You feel depends on many things; not the least is Your own body’s regulatory system. It takes minimun 2 years to readjust to a different climate……………… People really do feel the cold differently. And a LOT depends on the temperature that You came from and a lot depends on Your diet. Now lets not argue about cold………….

        worst climate i was ever in was Biloxi Mississippi at 98%humidty
        and temp at 90F….. i’d breathe in and there was no air for my lungs to use…. literally felt like i was drowning on land. Real bad.
        😉 Best!motsfo

      5. @motsfo, The more humidity is in the air. More I like it, that also does good for my skin. But my skin does not like the dry air in Iceland for some reason.

        But I need to do some heavy adjustments for the heat. As Iceland almost never sees temperature above 20C, even in the summer time.

      6. Replying to Jon here…
        (no reply where i want to reply)
        Yes, Jon, the dry cold air wrecks havoc on skin for sure. Whipping out my little trusty dual thermometer i see that 20 C is about 68F.
        Since i’m near the ocean we very seldom see 70F here… i’d say 3 times in 40 years… Fairbanks sees 70F- 90F all the time but not here. Here 70F gives us heatstroke. and i’m not kidding about that. i think You will enjoy Denmark. i know i would. i miss nice weather.
        But i’d have to leave all my Grandkids and i can’t do that. Now if i could get them ALL to move to the lower 48… Well, Jon, i’ll be thinking of You enjoying the spring weather in Denmark and it’s not too far away now…. Here i’ll have snow until April 15th and it’s snowing now… and i think this storm will be big because there are huge moose bedded down right off the back yard and they only do that when it’s going to get bad.
        Well, Best! to You, Jon, i’m excited for You!

  9. Jón, the EQ’s under Kjalarnes have been pretty persistant now for a while. I know that there are very distinct old fault-lines running through,at least, the western part, some of which are very visible fro Reykjavik. Do you know if these EQ are assoiated with further slipping of the western part of the mountain or can this be assosiated with a general movent of the Reykjanes fizzure swarms? Somehow I have the feeling that the western “face” of Esja is gradually slipping down and west. But then again I am not by a long shot knowlegable in these matters.

    1. They are making the harbor deeper in that area. A lot of tnt being used there.

      Everything is now down in regards to geophone updates. But I have turned the Heklubyggð updates on locally, so that is going to update until I get my system back up and running.

      1. Nah, they are not using trinitrotoluene (TNT) in those blasts, that blasting agent is pretty much retired from comercial use since it detonates and do not deflagrate enough. It was, and still is, mostly a military explosive agent used in militare grade granades and soforth. Amatol is the classic TNT-mix explosive in bombs and grenades. TNT is also the standard gauge set from which you classify explosivity.

        They are either using standard comercial dynamite, or more likely if it is midsized blasting they would be using the mining technique of mixing AmoniumNitrate and Fuel Oil (ANFO). And for those who are not chemists, that would be chemical fertilizer and diesel. Do not try to mix and detonate it at home, it might prune your beards (for bombing females that would be the nether beard) a bit to much.

  10. 25.01.2011 18:56:41 64.514 -17.667 1.1 km 2.9 90.13 7.5 km ENE of Hamarinn

    I think we can see that on your instruments…

    (took me four attempts to get your bloody captcha right grrr -they’re too hard!)

  11. @fireman and others who occasionally grumble about the captchas (and way OT, I’m sorry):
    are you aware that each time you solve a captcha on this website (succsessfully or not) you help mankind preserve and make public a piece of old literature by digitizing them? The words shown to you are from scans of old books which have not been recognized by the OCR (print recognising software) but can be read by human eyes (mostly;)). Sometimes they are from hundreds of years ago und not used nowadays. As there are zillions of books being digitized, a few employees would not be able to decipher the many words that the software missed… but zillions of blog users are a force team! Even the unsuccsessful trials are collected. If you want to know more about it, klick on the little Help button in the captcha window and then on the Learn more! button at the bottom. I find that such a great idea that I am thinking to use it on my website to protect my e-mail address from spammers (with an explanation for my visitors of course). So, I do not mind solving the captchas even if I get them wrong several times.

    @Jon: I also do not mind the Ads on your blog as long as they don’t jump at me (like starwoman said, flickering and flashing ones). But the blog is so interesting that I am not disturbed. And I have found some books in your store already that might tempt me… 🙂 Good luck to you!

    1. Granyia i had no idea… Thanks!
      See what we learn here?
      Rift with information.
      Best!motsfo

    1. Did the quakes happen directly inside a volcano or not?
      Since Hamarinn is more to the west isn’t it? And Bardarbunga more to the north.

      1. Sander, what is inside or not of the Bardarbunga volcanic system is a really moot question I am afraid.
        But I will try to answer them as well as I can.
        No, they where not happening in the central Bardarbunga volcano. Some of them where between the sub-volcano Hamarinn (of Bardarbunga) and Bardarbunga proper. One where in fissure that might be the tip of the Laki sub-feature of Grimsvötn, or an adjacent fissure of Hamarinn/Bardarbunga, but that one is impossible to tell with this information.

        Why is it moot to ask if it is inside or outside of these volcanos?
        Well, most of the eruptions come from fissure outside of the volcanos proper. That is why they are more aptly described as Volcanic Systems. Those volcanic systems intersect and interacts with each other in ways not properly understood.

        The volcanos in the area that acts like this are from south to north Katla, Torfajökull, Grimsvötn, Bardarbunga and Askja.

        Normally eruptions from the central volcanos vent is less dangerous than a fissure eruption like Laki (Grimsvötn), Veidivötn (Bardarbunga) and Elgja (Katla). The exeption of course being if they have prolonged heavy central vent eruptions that empty out the magma reservours enough for a caldera collaps to occur.
        Let us take Bardarbungas caldera as an example. 80 X 20 kilometres instantenously fell down more then 0,5km when that caldera was formed. An estimated 320 cubic kilometres. The power release in that collapse was larger than the total amount nuclear devices ever produced.

      2. Thanks for your reply! Didn’t think of it this way 🙂
        I don’t have much knowledge about volcanoes but they interest me a lot. (a chemistry study is not directly related to volcanoes but has a lot of overlap..)
        I keep learning from this blog..!

      3. I should though stress that caldera collapses are the second most rare occurance that can happen to a volcano. We are here into the really rarified territory of what some might call a supervolcano. The only rarer thing are the trap-events, but that happens about every 50 million years or so.

        So, normally the regional fissure eruptions is the largest and it is bad enough. Happens about every 250 years in the world, and most of them are in Iceland.

      5. @Jón:
        I know, it was a fairly long time ago, but it was violent though. I just mentioned it to put things into perspective a bit.
        Most volcanos in Iceland have had fairly recent (in geological terms) caldera events and are not likely to have one soon. Askja is of course the exception. But some have not had a caldera forming event, or have filled up calderas. Those make me a bit un-nerved thinking about them…

  13. Regarding fake Hekla eruption:

    I am really fed up with all the hype of humans wishing (unconsciously) disasters with all fake news and predictions of disasters. This was circa 2000, and now again circa 2012. I think this is because those humans felt bored and maybe need some adventure in their lives or some repressed need for change. I also think this is going to peak circa late 2012, as humans are very prone to mass hypes, mass memes (spread through the web), mass hysteria, mass religious delusion. The other day, news reported a superstorm California that was predicted to last 40 days by, imagine, scientists! This looked so much biblical. of course nothing happened. I think most people still have too much biblical psychological conditioning. They confuse reality with sci fiction movies. Maybe humans lack a connection to nature, and living in the here and now, and instead fantasize on disasters. Maybe they spent too much times bored in their sofas. But, I understand this, even myself sometimes am bored and find myself fantasying what would a future huge Laki eruption look like, and what would happen. But some people go too far and spread fake rumors and prophecies, that become interest of many others. This can have a negative impact on others. There are much more important global issues to worry with, for those with nothing to do. Finally, I am really sorry for this harsh social critic, but I felt compelled to write it. Next time I will comment on volcanoes again 🙂

    1. @irpsit:
      I fully agree with you.
      But I have a feeling that only a minority believes and spreads such alarmist rumours.
      Since we are in a volcano blog, we are in close link to reports carrying this kind of speculation.
      The rest of people are in the shopping malls, too busy to read the news, even the really important ones. Maybe why the media has to do all they can to call their attention, even if the skew reality a bit.
      I don’t see any comfort in what I said, but this is not such a big deal.
      🙂

    2. Just keap ’em coming, I agree with you. Even though I really love to speculate on the occasional hypervolcano, when I get bored with the equaly not existing supervolcano. 🙂

      Actually I wonder why I need to speculate on the megalodoniac faintly possible eruptions when I really would not like to see a caldera-collapse or even a Laki thingamabit? I guess a bit to much time on my hands and a serious lack of local volcanos on my part.

    3. Rhetorical Question (no need for a response):

      So do you think this type of behavior would go away if they had more active or adventurous lives or more change and that is the only missing piece? If we just challenged ourselves more we would all be very content to avoid the chinese curse (‘may you always live in exciting times’).

      1. No, we would get more addicted to excitement and want more and more. Adrenaline is addictive.

  14. @Carl LSoM – over at Eruptions they now have a list of all the volcano webcams to be found, and Japan is busy right now – Kirishima – some good posts with links.

      1. For some strange reason I can’t reply to your other reply, so I will ask it here.
        What is trap-event?

        Sander

      2. Trap events are large scale lava floods. The crust literally opens up and oozes massive quantities of magma. It doesn’t have to be all at once, most traps show multiple events occurring over a few million years.

        The Deccan Traps, the Columbia Flood Basalts, the Siberian Traps are all examples of this.

        The Columbia Flood Basalts make up pretty much all of the Columbia Plateau in Washington and Oregon state. And if you think that’s big… I’ve read reports that indicate that Deccan traps were up to 5 miles thick in places.

        But neither compare to the scale of the Siberian Traps.

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_basalt

      4. The interesting thing is that some scientists say the Icelandic hotspot is an LIP in formation, and that Iceland the far (far far far far very far) future might also become one of these trap-areas.

        Did you by the way know that the Reunion hotspot probably caused the Deccan traps?

      5. IIRC, the average magma output in Iceland in the past 1000 years has been in the same ballpark as that of Columbia Flood Basalt eruptions.

        Even the Siberian traps, a few million km^3 over a period of a few million years averages not that many km^3 per year.

        Is Iceland an ongoing trap eruption? How big was the Thórsá eruption 8500 years ago?

  15. There is a supreme drive in man to survive and he exhilarates in overcoming life threatening circumstances. In modern society survival can be seen as a guarantee but that is illusion. He can be lulled into a state of sleepwalking. He yearns to succeed, to be challenged, to kill the dragon, for his very existance to be validated. We have searched the maps lately and “there be no more dragons”. So we daydream about them…… We fantasize about the triumph of surviving catastrophy……….. to validate our lives to the universe.
    That’s what men do…………

    Women on the other hand go shopping..
    ;)… no, just kidding…. i’m a woman, for goodness sake… it was just too funny to not say. But there is something to say about the challenged life.
    Best! and may the catastrophy remain a daydream. motsfo

    1. Another way to look at it:
      guys like to blow things up……….
      ‘Supervolcanoes’ really accomplish that.
      😉
      Best!motsfo

      2. @MotsFo:
        I have been out for a while and had the chance to observe people in a nearby shopping mall.
        I must say that I didn’t find any evidence to support your “antifeminist” theories.
        The only difference I noticed was the time spent in front of the windows, which is considerably longer for the women.
        As for the numbers of individuals of each sex invoved, they fall 50/50.
        🙂

      3. Interesting, Rio…. i’d have to say up here women do most of the shopping, unless You are at the gun counter. And unless it’s fishing season; then You see groups of men pushing carts down the food isles looking lost and confused……( i live near a world famous salmon river and groups of men are on fishing trips.)
        my goal in life is to get enough food in the pantry to never have to go shopping again.
        Clothes? Shopping for Clothes? i have shirts older than You.
        Sorry for the Long OT
        Best!motsfo

      4. Now I know that I am a man… I do all of my yearly shopping in about five minutes (4 suits, 2 winter-jackets, 4 sweaters, 8 shirts, 4 ties, 16 pairs of socks and 16 pairs of underpants, and it all fit).
        And I absolutly love to blow things up in weird ways…
        When I was 13 I built a small napalm-volcano 🙂

    1. No, it is more than normal. But still within what could be counted as “interesting, but no eruption”.
      But it would have been hilarious with a “lame duck” fake eruption news story and the day after Hekla goes off. 🙂

  17. Appreciate the information flow on this blog. Kudos as well for the professionalism! Will look forward to read and learn more over time. Just and observer with interest in volcanos and weather–no degrees in either.
    Capch luimmgess ond–gads

    1. Nope, that is a small mining blast.
      At least for being a swedish mining blast. It is smack-bang in the middle of the mining belt, sometimes they do them un-anounced and they arent removed from the list. Swedish mining blasts normaly range between 3,0 and 4,2.

      The area is called the Malmfälten (Ore Fields). Earthquakes in Sweden follows the coast-lines, not inland.

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