Posted on by Jón Frímann

Risk of rock collapse in Ketilbjörg cliffs

There is currently a high risk of rock collapse in Ketilbjörg cliffs in north-west Iceland. This area is located north of Sauðárkrókur town. The area is now extremely dangerous due to the fact that the rock can fall of it’s location without warning. This are big rocks that are breaking off and falling into the coastline, many of them having the size of small houses or cars. If people travel to this area they should not go to the edge where cracks are in the ground. Doing so puts your life at risk.

Icelandic News

Enn hrynur úr Ketubjörgum (Rúv.is, Images, Icelandic)

14 Replies to “Risk of rock collapse in Ketilbjörg cliffs”

    1. The very same thing is also at HUS and VOT. Tho at HUS, this signal stopped completely as the M3.2 occured at Hamarinn. That is no coincidence.
      And this is not wind noise at all, because wind noise generally raises the frequinces, and doesnt cause the thickening of the signal. This signal is thick, made like from small spikes. I am sure that IMO has enough experience to know what could cause it. But it is not a coincidence that it is focused around Grimsvotn, which is lately getting short tremor pulses and long period quakes.

      http://shrani.si/f/3k/4E/UtUKf87/hus.gif

      http://shrani.si/f/2u/qN/1VrEo9MN/grf2.png

      1. What ever it is. It is increasing more and more rabidly in Grimsvötn today (Sunday)!
        The red (o,5 – 1 Hz) and green (1-2 Hz) lines are now following the blue one upwards.
        Meltwater from the surface can be ruled out, because of °C under 0.
        Let’s wait for some eqs to appear in that area…

  2. Isn’t this pattern of tremor often related to some kind of subduction event?

    1. Not really.
      Personally in my (also totally amateur) view, this signal is focused on Grimsvotn. It is present on HUS, VOT and ofc at Gimsfjall, but thats pretty much it. I cant say what this could mean, since I am not an expert on Iceland volcanoes and their monitoring, but the fine people at IMO are, so I will wait for their statement, shall there even be any.
      But if I speculate a bit (nothing wrong with that I think), I would initially bet on hydro-thermal activity. I do not believe this to be strict magma movement, since the frequencies and patterns dont match, it also isnt wind noise, since that has a well known clear signal. It is true that there are pulses of volcanic tremor at Grimsvotn and lets not forget stronger tremor pulses on April 1st, and April 27th, when I was the only one noticing it, while people said it was nothing and just wind noise (check previous comments in this post). There is a chance, that something is going on at Grimsvotn, and what you see on the drums are lots of microquakes, which esentially cause these spikes on the Infrasound plots, making it look so “tremorish”. IMHO, there is some magma movement below Grimsvotn, perhaps upward, causing some increase in Hydro-thermal activity, which is causing this signal. You could “almost” say this is an Icelandic version of Mt.Hakone. Under Ice.

      This signal first appeared actually at HUS station, and was somehow abruptly ended by the M3.2 at Hamarinn.

      Tho the sporadic quakes in this part of Vatnajokull, do perhaps indicate some changes in this region. There are perhaps sone features below ice that we might not be aware of, so I hope that IMO explains this, since they are the masters of their craft for this part of the world.

      Personally I do not expect any imminent eruption, since I do not see any clear signs. lets wait and see like always. These are active volcanoes under ice, and they like to roll in their sleep. 😉

      Unless its Oraefajokull, that mofo pretty much awakes instantly and with a bad attitude. Kinda like when I abruptly wake up my girlfriend.

      3. Google translate from the article:
        “Increased high-frequency tremors (2-4 Hz) has been detected seismic stations Grímsfjall station and glacial cliff on the Vetta in Skeiðarárjökull because the gel.”

      4. “The water level has increased in the river over the past days. Electrical conductivity, which is an indication of the proportion of geothermal water in the river, has also increased. According to information from Finni Palsson in Earth Sciences is not much water in Grimsvotn (0.2 to 0.3 km³). Considering that now is similar to water in Grimsvotn and last runs, which was in March 2014, is expected to Hamas flow of the gel will be <700 cubic meters per second and the race will peak in the middle of the week."

      5. It will peak soon. Google translate has some strange translation from Islandic.

    1. Maybe that is the gel that Hamas will flow < 700 cubic meeters of according to Google translate. Maybe an Israeli tourist will be hit by Wednesday. How do they manage to pour cow urine down the Grímsvötn?

      1. @ Porsche928
        The linked RUV-article some posts up was exactly what I was looking/waiting for! Thanks a lot for finding and posting!
        Here we can look for Gigjukvisl gauge ourselves: http://vmkerfi.vedur.is/vatn/index.html

        On your last article…Never eat yellow snow, even it’s the beauty secret! 🙂

      2. Thanks. Nice link to that site. Intresting to look in here to follow Icelandic geology from you people and Jon off course.

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