Bárðarbunga volcano update 19-December-2014

Bárðarbunga volcano earthquake activity continues as before. No earthquake has reached the magnitude of 5,0 or greater since Monday 15-December-2014. Earthquake activity in the range of magnitude 3,0 and above remains high at the moment. There has been drop in earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the past few weeks, this has been followed by slower rate of subsidence according to latest measurements.

141219_2055
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The lava field in Holuhraun continues to getting larger, it is now at the edge of being 80 km² in size. I don’t know the volume at the moment, since weather has prevented observation of it for the past few weeks and the lava field has considerable thickness in it (of few dozen meters at the most). The eruption continues at the same rate as before, there has been some reduction according to latest information, I don’t know how much reduction there has been at the moment. Lava is now flowing in lava tubes trough the lava field and breaking out at the edges and sometimes the surface.

Other things – pictures

If people remember this image that Icelandic Met Office posted few days ago.

I was there, I also got a bite of the cakes (they where good). I had made a surprise visit to the Icelandic Met Office that day. Since I just had the time to go there.

2014-12-09_16-38-00
This was my angle. This image is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see CC licence for more details.

I do have many more pictures, but the internet is slow and it takes a while for them to upload them and I am just not going do that while the internet connection is this bad.

Donations: Please remember to support my work with donations or by using Amazon store for your region or country. Thanks for the support.

24 Replies to “Bárðarbunga volcano update 19-December-2014”

  1. Congratulations on being at the right place at the right time! Is that you with the coffee cup in the background of the first photo?
    Hopefully there will be many more celebrations if the fissure continues to erupt.

  2. Glad the IMO offered you coffee & cake 🙂
    you deserved that for your hard work.

  3. Saturday
    20.12.2014 12:40:52 64.657 -17.401 3.6 km 4.7 99.0 6.3 km ENE of Bárðarbunga

    1. @Luisport – It doesn’t seem like other earthquake sites, (CSEM, EMSC, or USGS feeds) are picking up many of the earthquakes the MET office is reporting. I understand that the MET office equipment is/may be more sensitive but in some cases the other feeds are picking up the smaller quakes, as an example on December 16th, a 3.4 was shown on CSEM EMSC. There have been many quakes above 3.4 since December 16th as per the MET office but only one quake on December 17th a 5.3 was reported on the other feeds. Do you know the reason why this happens?

      1. I think (but i don’t know if it’s true) The major sites only report the biger quakes when there are a major quake swarm like in Bardarbunga.

  4. The EQ´s seem to be dying down slowly. At least the last couple of days seem more quiet than before. Any thoughts?

    1. Plenty of action on the drumplots, just that all quakes in Bardarbunga above 2.5 get verified by the IMO, and they appear to have no staff on.

  5. It looks like that the year 2015 is going to be financial problems for me. The good news is that I am going to be able to finish those problems in the year 2015 and never I to think about it again after that. Since I won’t let it happen again after the year 2015.

    1. Congrats on seeing light at the end of the tunnel.

      I just pray 2015 doesn’t end up in the super crash some write about. LOL. Sigh.

  6. Nice to see you back Jon. Keep up the good work, and have a great Christmas and a better new year.
    What’s your thoughts on this two magma sources under the NW of the caldera.

  7. Summary update from IMO at 10am today….

    Bárðarbunga: The largest earthquake measured the last 24 hours was M4.5 and occurred at 16:12 yesterday at the southern rim of the caldera. Three other earthquakes, over M4 occurred in the area. In total ca 30 earthquakes were measured in Bárðarbunga. Intrusive dyke: Ca 5 earthquakes occurred, all below M2.0. Other: Since midnight over 10 earthquakes have been detected south of Langjökull, ca 10 km west of Geysir in Haukadalur – the largest one M2.1 at 03:49.

  8. Monday
    22.12.2014 13:25:04 64.612 -17.438 3.6 km 4.2 99.0 5.3 km SE of Bárðarbunga

    Monday
    22.12.2014 11:15:45 64.658 -17.496 2.7 km 4.3 99.0 2.5 km NE of Bárðarbunga

  9. Monday
    22.12.2014 18:26:05 64.676 -17.453 8.9 km 4.0 99.0 5.3 km NE of Bárðarbunga
    Monday
    22.12.2014 18:24:56 64.679 -17.395 5.0 km 3.5 99.0 7.7 km NE of Bárðarbunga
    Monday
    22.12.2014 17:42:41 64.655 -17.330 5.1 km 2.2 90.03 9.5 km E of Bárðarbunga
    Monday
    22.12.2014 17:42:04 64.663 -17.388 4.0 km 3.9 99.0 7.1 km ENE of Bárðarbunga

    1. Monday
      22.12.2014 18:26:05 64.676 -17.453 8.9 km 4.0 99.0 5.3 km NE of Bárðarbunga
      Monday
      22.12.2014 18:24:56 64.679 -17.395 5.0 km 3.5 99.0 7.7 km NE of Bárðarbunga
      Monday
      22.12.2014 17:42:40 64.652 -17.357 2.5 km 4.3 99.0 8.2 km E of Bárðarbunga
      Monday
      22.12.2014 17:42:04 64.663 -17.388 4.0 km 3.9 99.0 7.1 km ENE of Bárðarbunga

      Monday
      22.12.2014 17:24:06 64.671 -17.405 8.2 km 4.1 99.0 6.7 km ENE of Bárðarbunga

  10. Continuation of earthquake activity near Geysir in Iceland.
    Several M1.5 quakes, a few M2 quakes.

    There is a spot NW of Geysir, SE of Langjokull, which until a year ago, was nearly absent of earthquakes. However in past weeks, swarms of earthquakes have been increasing, always in same spot, indicating a weakness in the crust.

    It often forms a line of earthquake, so it is exhibiting a rifting sort of behavior. In my opinion this is another spot to pay close attention to, in years ahead. Things in Bardarbunga started this way.

  11. Hi all. In case anyone is interested

    xxhttp://www.environmentjob.co.uk/volunteer/52757-iceland-wilderness-management-team?from_update=truexx

    just remove the xx’s. Would love to apply myself but would not be able to afford it!

Comments are closed.