Posted on by Jón Frímann

Bárðarbunga volcano update 9-December-2014

This is super short update for Bárðarbunga volcano.

  • The eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano has now reached 100 days.
  • The lava field is now around 77 – 80 km² in size. The volume is over 1,0 km³ according to last measurements that I know of (my numbers might not be fully up to date).
  • The frequency of magnitude 5,0 is dropping and it is now longer time passing between them, at least that is the case for the moment.
  • The subsidence in Bárðarbunga volcano is now more than 50 meters.

I don’t have good chance to make better report than this at the moment. Bad weather is going to delay my trip to Hvammstangi about one day, there is going to be two day snow storm in north Iceland from tomorrow.

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Article updated at 20:27 UTC.
Article updated at 20:34 UTC.

69 Replies to “Bárðarbunga volcano update 9-December-2014”

  1. Tuesday
    09.12.2014 18:00:03 64.668 -17.512 0.6 km 4.6 99.0 3.1 km NNE of Bárðarbunga

  2. So you are back in iceland but not at home 🙁
    I have a long list of christmas gifts (dvds, books, cds) to buy for me and my husbands family – hope this gives you a little extra money… 🙂

    1. Just doing the paperwork took one whole day for me (in connection on moving back to Iceland). After that I just planned to meet people that I have not seen for a while. Now the weather had jump in and change things for me.

      Thanks for the support. 🙂

  3. Tuesday
    09.12.2014 18:00:03 64.668 -17.512 0.6 km 4.9 99.0 3.1 km NNE of Bárðarbunga

    Tuesday
    09.12.2014 16:12:12 64.682 -17.444 0.7 km 4.1 99.0 6.1 km NE of Bárðarbunga

  4. This storm is going to be absolutely epic, possibly one of the worst in the past 100 years. The storm waves are going to be just tremendous as the wind direction is such that the fetch for these waves goes from the coast of Newfoundland Canada all the way to Europe in nearly a straight line. This is likely to be a storm of “natural disaster” proportion for some areas, particularly the coasts of Ireland and Scotland.

    https://twitter.com/RyanMaue/status/542369386905231361/photo/1

    1. We’re getting a storm on the west coast of the US that’s going to generate 20 + foot waves at the beach and dump a month’s worth of rain in 2 hours tomorrow. Should be…uh….interesting.

      1. They are still working with getting electricity back in big parts of the West Fjords: http://www.ruv.is/frett/rafmagnslaust-enn-a-vestfjordum

        At the moment, the weather seems to be worst in the north of Iceland (Blönduós, Skagafjörður). Even the main road had to be closed in many parts of the country, also near Reykjavík (Hellisheiði). http://ruv.is/frett/thjodveginum-lokad-um-vatnsskard

        In weather like this, only the Rescue Teams with their special cars are driving around to see all people are save and nobody has missed the road and is waiting in his car to be rescued.

  5. The last 2 Bardarbunga earthquakes of moderate size are very shallow, 600 or 700 meters depth. Should we be concerned about this?

    1. I wonder if that relatively shallow depth could roll some boulders down the slopes of the caldera . . . oh, right . . . NOPE . . . encased in ice. LOL.

      1. Some 800 meters of ice. Well, probably down to about 700 meters or so at this point as I believe it has been melting some from the bottom up. But the water isn’t going to be able to escape until it finds a path out of the caldera someplace.

  6. There have been wind gusts up to 70 – 80 m/s in westfjord in the last 24 hours. With normal wind being around 35 m/s when the worst was going over the westfjord part of Iceland.

    1. Do you know if your ship is waiting to doc until the winds die down or just waiting for its turn to unload?

      1. Jon’s ship is safely in port since yesterday (5am Iceland time, I think). The crew and captain must be breathing a sigh of relief. The weather must be dreadful in Iceland, and dangerous for marine interests.

      2. The ship is already in dock. There where some problems unloading it due to wind. But my belongings have now been processed by the customs authority in Iceland. All I now wait for is the bill so that I can pay for the shipment and get my belongings handed over to me.

      1. The Kite-surfers are already preparing themselves on the local beach for spectacular jumps. Occasionally you see some over enthousiast who thinks he’s Catweazle come fly over.

  7. Wednesday
    10.12.2014 13:10:28 64.660 -17.482 0.4 km 4.0 99.0 3.1 km NE of Bárðarbunga

  8. Wednesday
    10.12.2014 14:27:04 64.673 -17.445 3.9 km 4.3 99.0 5.4 km NE of Bárðarbunga

  9. Yeah, Jon’s ship is in port. But I just checked and it still appears to be anchored some distance from the doc. I doubt they would offload a container ship anywhere but dock-side unless it was an emergency of some strange sort.

    2. Ships docked in a VERY bad storm can get into trouble. Perhaps this is the case in this situation, or perhaps there is another ship that needs to off load first. Another possibility maybe paper work the for the off load.

      1. Sorry! Was on the phone with my son and lost track of the conversation. My post is out dated.

  10. Well, it seems to be that the topic of this blog changed meanwhile. Now it’s all abouts storms and ships? Nice! Not to forget the good old friend amazon.

    2. I have a bias that showing caring and concern for someone that one cares about is almost always in order.

  11. The quake building up between Barda and Tungna is impressive! We will see something there in near future.

  12. Wednesday
    10.12.2014 17:01:11 64.676 -17.498 6.2 km 4.2 99.0 4.2 km NNE of Bárðarbunga

  15. Wednesday
    10.12.2014 19:58:35 64.658 -17.386 0.7 km 4.4 99.0 7.0 km ENE of Bárðarbunga

  16. Wednesday
    10.12.2014 21:11:27 64.672 -17.444 4.5 km 4.2 99.0 5.3 km NE of Bárðarbunga

  17. Ahhhhhh . . . found it! LOL. The Dettifoss appears to be near the dock at Grundartangi near a Hong Kong ship.

    Don’t know if it offloaded containers in Reykjavik, or not. They are a lot closer to the dock at Grundartangi than I saw them being at Reykjavik.

    Where is the village you are going to live in, Jon?

    1. They offloaded what they needed in Reykjavík and then they moved on to the next destination on there schedule. My belongings are now off the ship and on land.

      The village that I am going to be living in is in north-west Iceland. It’s called Hvammstangi.

  18. Ahhhhh . . . now the Dettifoss is back in Reykjavik near the Sundabakki area at dockside.

    Interesting.

    1. Oops . . . just shy of dockside. Don’t know if it’s close enough to unload, or not. Doesn’t look like it.

  19. Thursday
    11.12.2014 08:57:23 64.687 -17.474 7.9 km 4.2 99.0 5.8 km NNE of Bárðarbunga

    Thursday
    11.12.2014 06:50:02 64.703 -17.488 12.3 km 4.1 99.0 7.2 km NNE of Bárðarbunga

  20. Hi, I just received 3 text messages saying that Katla had erupted and the aviation code had been changed to red. Can’t find any verification of this anywhere on the net. Has anyone else heard anything about this.

  23. Well thats good news if its only an exercise, there was a couple of EQ,s there this morning but its strange that the app I have reported it as an eruption with ash to 20000 ft. However the main part of the app takes about an hr to updats so nothing is showing at the moment.

  24. I hope poor little Baugur has not too cold in this blizzard! When you compare Baugur with big Bardarbunga in the background on Mila cam 1, you get the impression that it’s tiny. There was a great drawing/map published on the IMO BB update site with comparisons of lava field sizes from Baugur, Laki and Eldgja. Quite big, the Nonahraun!

  25. Thursday
    11.12.2014 13:15:44 64.666 -17.440 3.6 km 4.2 99.0 5.1 km NE of Bárðarbunga

    Thursday
    11.12.2014 12:40:23 64.667 -17.495 5.5 km 4.6 99.0 3.3 km NNE of Bárðarbunga

      2. No, do not think it was wind, it showed up on other stations from 15:20 to 15:35

        Could just be a swarm of quakes that looks like tremor

      4. Never eaten toffees with syrup – just imagine the sugar content and the calories … 😯 😆

        And this metapher would of course have nothing to do with viscous material connected to volcanoes … ehm …

    4. Large number of EQs of 3+ since this morning. None reaching M5, but more of 3-4 than usual.

  27. is the bias applicable to detection of quakes > 3.0 or only to [much] smaller ones?
    per IMO posting of 10-Dec-2014
    “It worth noting that the storm, now going over Iceland, reduces the sensitivity of the seismograph system, making it harder to detect small earthquakes.”

  29. Thursday
    11.12.2014 16:15:24 64.621 -17.449 4.6 km 4.5 99.0 4.3 km ESE of Bárðarbunga

  32. Things should turn mostly to normal from Monday (I hope). I might not be able to start regular updates until 16-December-2014. What is going to remain off-line is my earthquake counter computer (no space) and my main earthquake computer (no space). That is going to be the case until middle of August-2015 when I start school, since that is for the moment the plan I have.

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