Posted on by Jón Frímann

Shortage on updates while moving and other things

In the next few days or weeks there is going to be a shortage of updates on this web page. This is because I am moving to a different country and I might not always be connected to the internet (and I might have a lack of internet connection in Denmark) when something happens in Iceland. I also might be traveling when something interesting takes place in Iceland.

I am going to do my best update on events in Iceland in the case something happens. But I am sure that something is going to happen while I am mostly offline in this transit of mine.

If anything happen, please post information on that in the comments. They are going to remain open for the next 30 days as is the default rule on this blog.

With my move to Europe I am also considering starting to cover volcanoes in Europe as well, as any major earthquake that happens in Europe. As that is also not done far as I know. But other sites that cover this topic are global. But I am considering going more regional (Europe) instead of being just local to Iceland. But I feel that there are enough global volcano web sites out there. So it is not in my plans to go global. But I have few problems, for instance on how to cover Russia. A country in Europe, but also has borders in Asia and to the U.S. But I am sure that I am going to be done figuring out this problem when I am properly connected to the internet again in Denmark (but I don’t know how long that is going to take).

Ads info.

I am considering adding the other Amazon stores to this web site. But that might take some doing due to hard languages in question (Japanese, Chinese, Italian, French etc..). But at the moment this is just on the consideration stage for the moment. At the moment the store is slow according to my counter. But I am sure that traffic is going to pick up in coming weeks. At least I hope so.

Any comments and suggestions on this are welcomed!

103 Replies to “Shortage on updates while moving and other things”

  1. For several years now, I have been developing new paradigms to try to predict volcanic eruptions using new methods that I hope soon will create a revolution on the science of Volcanology. I am now ready to reveal the most guarded aspect of my new theories.

    When Jon moves, thats when Bardabunga will erupt with a force over VEI 6.

    Later I will reveal how I arrived at this.

    1. Oh, best of luck with the move!! I hope it goes very smooth for you and that nothing unexpected occurs, except of course, Barbarbunga

      Looking forward to whats in store next 🙂

  2. My prediction is that once Jón moves, Dr. Strange will start dynamiting volcanoes in Iceland. After that, UFO’s will appear in the skies over Reykjavik and drop fliers that read, “Greetings Earthlings, We the Reptilian Space Lord Mofo’s will now turn your precious volcano island into a slave mining colony!”.

    2. Sorry, Iceland sent a rather curt official letter telling me where I could shove my aplication for a mine-survey permit. They suggested a fairly sun-deprived part of my anatomy.
      So I will sadly not drill large amounts of holes and fill them with ANFO.
      A bit sad though, it could have ended up in a lot of new jobs in Iceland. The geological surface survey I had done was really promising. 🙁

      Me Grumpy now 🙁

      1. Your idea is ahead of it’s time. I doubt that Iceland will allow that kind of mining until quite a bit ahead into the future. In other words, not until Iceland has become a post eruptive wasteland.

      2. Nah, they are to fond of their eruptive wastelands.
        It feels so odd, this is the first time I have ever been asked to go to hell when I’ve wanted to do business with someone.
        But, and this is prety funny, after asking me to go and do something unsavoury with the nether parts of a duck, they demanded I tell them where I found what, and threatened to sue the company and me personally if I don’t. Hillarious! 🙂

      3. Dr. Strange, I’m talking about hundreds of years away. If Iceland becomes uninhabitable, then they will have to sell it off to mining co’s to finance the relocation of their people. Or they could form their own mining co’s, which is more likely I guess.

        Fascinating that they treated you like some kind of “undesirable”. All Scandinavian people have been very kind to me except for my ex and his assorted lovers.

      4. Well Carl perhaps the person responding to your letter is old enough to remember the russian team that travelled across Iceland some decades ago with a lot of explosives. I vaguely remember the irritation they caused when setting off their explosions here and there. They were even said to be responsible for totally exterminating fish from some ponds, making the local farmers very unhappy.

      5. That one I hadn’t heard of.
        But still, I found it odd that they turned nasty against a fairly large company asking a polite and normal question.
        But, water under the bridge. If they do not want companies operating on Iceland, then we are not going to argue.
        @Sigrún:
        They do not have the expertise on Iceland to run a mine, nor the economy to start one or even buy up the needed expertise.

      6. Well, most get a bit testy when they’re in a financial bind or in the midst of a stagnant economy. The person who wrote it may have had a bad hangover or something. Btw, your story did make me laugh and think of cranky hungover Norsemen. At least they didn’t split your head in two with an axe.

      8. Methinks that the Icelanders are much like me, not motivated by money. I love my land, so I can relate. Besides which, we can take love with us to the next world but we do not need money there.

      9. @Carl:

        Icelanders have no money and no expertise in mining. And, they are at the same time proud of, and fearing their volcanoes.

        Human history tells me that the most typical reaction to foreign business proposals about to touch their backyards in this situation is: Get lost!!!

        My sympathy is on your side.

  3. First as a long-time lurker let me say that I really enjoy reading your blog and the comments on it.
    Out of curiosity where are you moving to in Denmark? And are you going to study down here? You are well aware I hope that the geology of Denmark is perhaps the most boring in the world.

    1. I like Denmark as a country. I plan to study computer and programming to start with. But I have a long list of things to finish studying in Denmark. I am going to see how much I can finish in reasonable time.

      Denmark might not be interesting earthquake wise. But I am still going to have a active geophone there. As they do have earthquakes there from time to time. But there are no volcanoes in Denmark and have not been for the last 200 million years I think.

      Info on geology in Denmark, http://geologi.snm.ku.dk/english/udstillinger/danmark/

      1. It is alright down here 🙂 Even though I myself will most likely be moving to Sweden from Aarhus within the year (for studying purposes).

        We do have the occasional earthquake yes, but usually never stronger than 3-4 on the richter scale (I believe the 4.7 in 2008 was the strongest in a long time). The earthquakes are usually caused by the earth still rising after the last iceage.

  7. I will be waiting. Don’t stress about not being able to post for a while. I hope the move goes well.

  8. Jon, we will miss you and be happy if everything is good for you. Until then, all volcanoes will be waiting for you, and only then start. We are far too curious to disappear on you and your knowledge to.

    (Google translation)

  9. Travel safely, Jón F., we look forward to your return, and if something happens, head for an internet café, we’ll wait here! Have a friend at GEUS in case you need a contact, who works in Greenland.

      1. I think that is possible, but hydrothermality is also caused by increased heat from below. And regarding the deep earthquakes and the already ongoing magmatic inflation at Krysuvik I doubt this explanation of hydrothermal inflation.

      2. That would be odd. Yes, it is a really hydrothermally active place, but for it to inflate the ground it would take more power being inserted into the system, and that means a lot of magma to beginn with.
        KRIV-CGPS looks normal to me, it has a tendency do small jumpy motions, but in the long term it is an even and steady inflation. Nothing out of the ordinary for a volcano waking up out if its slumber. When it will go off is another question, my current guess is anywhere between five years and forty years.

  14. There is some activity at Hekla.
    The borehole strain tensor-meters are showing prolonged increased activity.
    I do not think it is a sign of an impending eruption right now. There has sofar not been any sharp and rapid movement at the station that was the first sign of the last eruption, but there is a higher rate of movement there than normal.

    Here is the link for the collected and barometrically corrected values of all the borehole strain tensor-meters around Hekla.
    http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/strain/str_corr/index.html

  15. Carl:
    Hey there!
    Following the debate from behind.
    Do you think today’s Torfajökul earthquake interfere with strain around Hekla?
    It’s pretty close.

    1. I would think it had if it had been deeper, but at 1,0km I have a feeling that it is a cracking in the caldera wall caused by water-expansion in a fissure or something equally non-tectonic or magmatic.

      I am more pointing my finger at the sprungur-area between Selfoss and Hekla. There has been low-level quakes there for a couple of weeks now, covering the entire sprungur-area. I think that activity might affect the strainmeters.
      But, I am just guessing here. It could also be some precursor for Hekla itself, it has as you know showed signs of increased activity the last few months. After all, we do not understand that volcanos precursors even a tenth as good as for instance Grimsvötn, Askja or Lody (Lord/Lady) Eyja.
      Hekla actually scares me, nothing would get me to climb it. It can go off anytime, and if it goes it could be anything from Big to Stupendous. I would gladly climb the rest though.

      2. For the last days it been up to 8°C so I hardly think the quake Torfajökull has anything to do with water expansion.

  16. Jon, Look at the sun for me!
    i’m looking at a moose in the front yard…
    all bedded down/expecting more snow.
    Best!motsfo

    1. Sleeping mooses are strangely cute. Mooses in heat are decidedly nasty and best stayed away from…
      I am still not certain what the difference is between a female moose and a drunk cougar in a night-club. One of these days I will have to perform a comparative analysis, or not… 😉

  17. For those interested in the Geldinganes harbour blasts (there has been a lot of questions lately about them) that show up as around 1,0s at MET. You can follow them on the tremor-plot for Kuludalsa (which sadly is not as nice a name as Kaldarsel).
    It still does not have anything to do with the defunct Esjan, or the not so defunct Raudholar.
    http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/oroi/kud.gif

  18. On page of the Hekla tremor to approximately 11:12. recorded an earthquake and silence, and is like a hum, I see you are doing a lot of wind, if anyone can explain much appreciated.
    Translated by Mr. Google sorry

  19. GFUM and SKRO are showing clear signs of increased inflation (direction UP, about 10-20 mm) during the last 2 months.

    1. Hello Jack:
      Looks really normal to me. Especially the up-rate of both GRIM&GFUM (GRIM is the continous, GFUM a bench-mark intermittent station) looks spot on what is normal for Grimsvötn.
      But it really puts it into perspective. In all likelyhood Grimsvötn had inflated in this rate for a 1000 years or so, at least that is the time-span of the current cycle of high activity.

  20. Jon: I wish you all good in Denmark! Move safely, and don’t take any stress on unpacking. ;o)

  21. @all:
    After comparing the action at Jóns Heklubyggd and the Torfajökull 2,5 I now think that it was bit more interesting than I first thought.
    1. Jóns Helicorder recorded a lot of tremoring starting with a quake at 20.18 yesterday with tremoring running up untill a second quake at 20.53.
    Low level tremor followed that and slowly increased untill the 2,5 at Torfajökull quake where all activity just stopped dead in the water.
    2. 1 hour 30 minute before the initial quake at 20.18 a large shift in the borehole tensor strainmeters occured and since then there have been wild swings up and down on all stations.

    From this we can deduce some things.
    1. Torfajökull is not a frost-crack quake. That would have been a solitary crack.
    2. It is probably not tectonic in nature since we have all the other activity.
    3. It could be magma-tectonic or magmatic in nature, but is not a sign of Torfajökull preparing to erupt.

    My current guess is some kind of weird interactivity between Torfajökull and Hekla. Something like harmonic interoscillations. Ie, that one volcano influences another one and they start to trigger each other. If you play guitar, press down the second band on the D-string and then pluck the E-string. The E-string will the harmonically influence the pressed down D-string since you are pressing the note E. So the D-string will vibrate without having been played.
    In volcanological terms. The borehole strain of Hekla activated a harmonic tremoring and the quake under Torfajökull, and then it started to go back and forth.

    2. In my last plot of the Hekla area… the one that had several years of data in it… there was a lineament treking from Torfajökull off towards the north area of Hekla. I thought it was a bit odd… a rectangular corridor like that.

      Dunno what to make of it.

    3. There was human activity + wind yesterday. No earthquakes. If it doesn’t show up on IMO web page then there is a good chance it isn’t a earthquake.

      Sometimes I do record a earthquake that does not appear on IMO web page. But that does not happen often.

      I don’t think that Torfajökull volcano has that big of a effect on Hekla volcano. But it is worth noticing that there fissure swarms do cross at one place. But not by a lot and that area has not seen a lot of activity for a long time now.

  22. My guess either Hekla and/or Grimsvotn will erupt this year, I hope it’s until summer time because that’s when I am in Iceland

  23. Actually just two of the 4 recorded EQ´s has been verified. I believe that both depth and location might be subject to change when the IMO people look into it.

  24. Hey Jon, have a good transfer and take your time about it. I know how it is to change the country where you live. Even wenn you know the place, it just takes time to fit in and find your way.
    But as others have said – we are here, watching and waiting. So don’t hurry, but take care that nothing stays behind ( it is rather a long distance to go and fetch someting *s*).

    We are very happy with the place you created here!

    1. Nope, they are not. It is just when they are really drunk and pinches me in the middle of the part of my anatomy that faces away from the mirror so it turns blue they are a bit to much 😉

      (Giving myself a piece of cake to celebrate that I did not use the word butt)

  26. Who said anything about cougars beeing bad? I would state the contrary as implied by the name “cougar”. 🙂

  28. There a pumas on Dartmoor in the UK – aren’t they the same. They are rarely seen and keep away from people. Mostly the only thing seen are footmarks and sheep dragged up trees half eaten with their hearts eaten out. No-one hardly ever sees the pumas, but we know they are all black ones and they do get seen sometimes when they are attracted to te captive female pumas on-heat at Sparkwell but otherwise are never seen.

    1. Courgars are older women on the prowl for men.
      Very unlady like.
      But i supose they could rip one’s heart out.
      Best!motsfo

      1. Oh brother!!! Cougars aren’t always on the prowl for men & they aren’t always drunk, either…

      2. Partial “Oh hell yes!”
        A cougar is not always drunk, but they are always hunting. If they are not hunting, they are not Cougars.
        Sadly I am no longer young enough to be hunted by them though… 🙁

      4. In the name of equality we should take the name of a coolish animal and go out and do some “cougaring” of our own. Then we didn’t need to be sad 🙂

        I suggest and vote for “Wolf”, then we could go “wolfing” and “wolf” down some… 😉

      6. Didn’t mean any offense…. Brenda…..
        i thought perhaps Treacleminer didn’t know the reference.
        And as another OT observation….
        my 40 year old daughter (yes i’m that old 😉 )
        corrected my husband (yes, he’s old too) and reminded him that cougars needed to be older that their prey or it was considered charity.
        😉
        “Wolf”………….?? hummmm no i think men are always wolfs, no age limit on men.
        Now let’s raise this conversation back up to a decent level and get back to the volcanoes…..
        Best!motsfo

  29. @ Lurking – Thank you for the plots. The sill is very visible in the second plot…

  30. @Jon

    I wish you all the Best and a happy moving time, i hope everything goes as planned, even if the tendency is that something goes wrong allways while doing something like that ; )

    during that time, let’s hope that iceland remains calm until you’ve finished your move to danemark. i would be happy to read from you again when you’re back again.

  31. Geographical society, Spring seminar 2010, doc with short intro of all sorts of interesting things (depth of moho under Eyjafjallajökull 22-25 km), short intros, some in English, most in Icelandic, ca. 60 pages. http://tinyurl.com/5waqotz

    Hekla & Torfajökull, totally different zones in every way.
    Geldinganes is the other “end” of the Krísuvík fissure.

    1. Yes, they are definitly separate volcanos, but they seem to have influenced each other a bit now and then.

      Here I wrote a beautifull answer to the wrong question. I mixed up Geldinganes and Selfoss. But the answer was to informative to just scrap so I am posting it either way. 🙂

      Reykjanes Peninsula consists of six volcanos. Rekjanes, Krisuvik, Brennisteinsfjöll, Hengill, Hromundratind and Grensdalur.
      Brennisteinsfjöll is closer to Selfoss than Krisuvik and is located east of Kleifarvatn, stretching towards Selfoss. Above Selfoss you have Hengill that disects the Thingvallavatn and stretches down. Then comes the Holocene volcano of Hromundartindi and the pleistocene Grendsdalur. They are closest, but are inactive.

  33. As a long time lurker I have greatly enjoyed this blog. I wish you all the best with your move. No volcanoes in Denmark, but you’ll be closer to the “dormant” Eifel volcanic fields between Belgium/Germany. There is active magmatic activity within Laacher See atleast.

    Robs

  34. Come to think of it, there were some unexplained \explosions\ near a farm in Iceland over the holidays. I remember a discussion and the Icelandic people were not of the opinion that it may have been farmers playing with explosives. If Iceland doesn’t have a military then who guards the volcanoes? Just wondering because if no one is watching then anyone could feasibly go into those areas and start blowing things up.

    1. Oh, No! Who’s shall we volunteer to the task of climbing up there and fix it?

  37. Best of luck on your move to Denmark Jon. Looking forward to when you are back online and for all the updates to come! In the meantime I’m sure someone around here can keep us all amused 🙂

  38. Heklubyggð helicorder is down due to power outage problems at 05:00 UTC and around 11:00 UTC. I have it on my to-do list to get a UPS on that station soon as I can afford it. But they cost me $77,25 / €56,21 (plus shipping $6,65 / €4,84) single unit (360W). For Heklubyggð I am going to need two UPS to keep everything connected even if the power goes down at this location.

    I have contacted the owner of the summer house, as this did also create problems for his web cameras. But they no longer updates.

      1. Great video. It gives you a wonderful view of what we are up to regarding Katla, her neighborhood, hazards, features. Very illuminating, indeed.
        Many thanks.

    2. Watched last night plus a few more related vids on the youtube page.
      Those male elves were even cuter than the volcanoes, I dare say.
      Especially the pilot..ooo baby!

  41. Well if its in the Kiruna area it might well be a mining event.

    The mines beneath Kiruna is deteriorating as far as I have read. There has even been ideas about moving the entire city since the groud is very unstable and might very well collapse in the future.

    However I believe a M3.0 is larger and contains more energy than the event i described so could it be a intraplate tectonic event?
    However that would require a large event at a greater distance.

    I will let Carl answer this one as he has alot more insight/knowhow when it comes to mining and swedish tectonics…;)

    1. And actually if you look at http://www.snsn.se/ (swedish page) you will see that we do have alot of EQ´s…90% of them or so is along the coastline.

      However we do get alot of tremors…Althoug they are small but once in a while we have a 3.0 or even a 4.0 as was registered a few weeks ago..

      But even in this case I will leave it to Carl to make his analysis/comment. 🙂

    2. Yes and no, the Kiruna mines are under a process called blocking. That is when the depleted and abandoned parts of the mine start to fall in on it self. This process is normally aided by blowing away the overhang.
      The Kiruna Mine is unusually prone to this since the 8 by 2 kilometre slab of iron ore is slanted at about 40 degrees. So as the go down they are creating a “lip” of overhanging bedrock, and it is this bedrock that is falling down.
      And yes, large parts of the city is being moved, or will be moved shortly due to this mine-process in the worlds largest underground mine.

      The 3,0 recorded was a mining blast at the open-pit mine in Aitik (copper-mine). The largest to date mining blast at Aitik was recorded as a 4,2 quake. I have posted a link to a movie from that blast before a couple of times.
      Kiruna Mine can have up to and above 3,0s as it blocks up.

      There is no tectonic quakes up in the northern inland of sweden. The swedish tectonic activity is around its coasts. A quake in sweden is either due to true tectonics, ie. plate moving. The MAR pushes “the eatern atlantic plate” against norway and that causes norway to rise up, and that in turn pushes sweden into Finland. The other type is a false tectonic quake caused by the land rising up with the speed of 1cm a year after the iceage, those quakes are also along the coastlines. So if you see a quake in sweden and it is inland, then it is for sure a mining blast.

      1. Thanks carl for clearing that up. As I wrote in my post all quakes can be seen along the coastline as is shown on the link i posted (think you need to “drill down” on the website abit as it seems to be JAVA based). But also here Carl confirmed it or atleast cleared up why all tectonics occur along the eastern coastline.

        Just one question..Do the blasting at Kiruna mine actually release the energy needed for the instruments to record a mag4.0 event? Counting joules that is an awesome amount..

        Are they mining with nuclear weapons???

      2. No, the Kiruna mine can “only” get up to a 3,0 and that is with the added energy of the rock blocking up and falling 1km down into the hole.

        The mining blasts that reach up to 4,0 are done in the open pit of Aitik mine. There they drill the largest explosive holes on the planet, hundreds of them, each filled with tonnes of ANFO, then they blast.
        Once again, the movie with the worlds largest ever mining blast, click on “Blasting at Aitik”:
        http://www.boliden.com/www/bolidense.nsf/En?OpenPage

    1. This earthquake was recorded on all my geophones. I am going to extract the data from Hvammstangi geophone on Monday. It was recorded on the Heklubyggð geophone if it was online. But I am not sure if that was the case of not at the moment. But I hope so.

      This is a large earthquake for this area. It did happen in a slip-fault that is close to Jan Mayen island.

  43. We’ll probably see some activity in Kolbeinsy later today.
    These things come in waves.

  46. I got a great recording of the earthquake on the Hvammstangi geophone station. I am going to post that wave form when everything is settled in Denmark.

  47. The image for Hvammstangi geophone station now updates, as the image is now created by the local computer that runs the software for the geophone station.

    1. A bit of an odd day for Sigrún H to go schlepping across Katla to clear away the ice. I thought it was a storm over Katla today.
      Seems like it has plateaued out for the time being. Nice and steady numbers though.

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