Category: Monitoring

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All quiet in Iceland at the moment

It has been quiet in Iceland, so quiet in fact that for 7-July-2013 there was only one earthquake recorded on the automatic SIL system. There were more earthquakes recorded on the manual review system that Icelandic Meteorological Office has.

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All quiet in Iceland. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I do not know how long this quiet time is going to last. Currently it is counting on around 4 weeks at the moment and it appears that the peak is today (so far). When this might change I do not know. I am using this quiet time to enjoy little bit of summer, even if I am broke (little to no money to use) at the moment.

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Minor earthquake in Hekla volcano

A minor earthquake was detected in Hekla volcano on 21-June-2013. This earthquake was at north-east side of Hekla volcano, it had only the magnitude 0.6 and depth of 8.3 km. This is not at good detection according to Icelandic Meteorological Office person that I did speak to about this earthquake today.

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The earthquake in Hekla volcano to the north-east side. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake is just one earthquake in series of earthquakes in Hekla volcano. While this earthquake was poorly located due to almost not being detected, I am sure that the only reason this earthquake was recorded is due to more SIL stations around Hekla volcano that have been set-up in the past two years.

There are no signs of eruption is about to start in Hekla volcano.

Blog post updated at 00:22 UTC on 22-June-2013.

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Minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

Today (21-June-2013) there was an earthquake swarm in Katla volcano, this earthquake swarm took place in the same area where the minor eruption in the year 2011 (July) took place and created a minor glacier flood down Múlakvísl river. So far there is nothing that suggest a eruption is about to take place in Katla volcano, this activity needs to be monitored closely since things can change quickly in Katla volcano.

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Earthquake activity in Katla volcano on 21-June-2013. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake activity in Katla volcano starts around the same time as it did two years ago (2011), but then earthquake activity started on 17-June-2011 and continued until July-2011 and did not end until November-2011. This type of earthquake activity did also take place in June-2012, but no eruption did take place that summer. I expect this earthquake activity to continue in Katla volcano for the time being, sine most earthquake activity always happens during the summer in Katla volcano. It is unclear that is creating this earthquake swarm, it can be anything from pressure changes in hydro-thermal zones in this area, or magma injections at depth, I do not think any dike intrusions have taken place so far in Katla volcano.

Currently there is nothing that suggests eruption is going to take place soon in Katla volcano.

Blog post updated at 22:06 UTC on 21-June-2013.

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Fresh dike intrusion into Bárðarbunga volcano

Interesting earthquake activity continues in Bárðarbunga volcano. There is also interesting earthquake activity taking place in Hamarinn volcano. The source of this activity is magma dike activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. It is most likely not going to result in a eruption, but might be a sign of more activity in the future.

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Activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

There has also been activity in Hamarinn volcano, I do not know if it is connected with the activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. I find it unlikely to be the case, but I cannot rule it out at current time. It is unclear if this is new earthquake activity, it might be as simple as new SIL stations in the area, or this could be real activity increase in the area close to Hamarinn volcano. I am currently not clear on this detail as is. Last eruption in Hamarinn volcano was in July 2011, I did write about it here. It is worth keeping a eye on this activity in the Hamarinn volcano, it has proven to be a unpredictable volcano and it appears that magma is at shallow depth in it.

Blog post updated at 23:32 UTC on 20-June-2013.

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Minor earthquakes in Katla and Bárðarbunga volcanoes

There has been minor earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and Katla volcano for the past few days. This is just a short overview of this earthquake activity.

Bárðarbunga volcano

A minor dike intrusion took place in Bárðarbunga volcano on 18-June-2013. This was a small earthquake swarm, with largest magnitude at 1.2, the most depth in this earthquake swarm was at 24.3 km. So this was most likely a magma dike formation.

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The magma dike earthquakes form a nice line on this IMO map. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Katla volcano

A minor earthquake activity has been taking place in Katla volcano for the past few days. So far it does not mean anything, this is most likely a summer related earthquake activity as glacier weight gets less on Katla volcano during the summer. Some deep earthquakes have been taking place in Katla volcano, it is unclear if they are sign of anything at this stage. This is most likely a some magma dike intrusion at depth, it happens commonly in Katla volcano without resulting in a eruption.

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Activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Other then minor activity, it is rather quiet in Iceland at the moment. With no special activity taking place currently.

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Thieves stealing batteries from remote monitoring stations in Iceland

I did see in Rúv News today that thieves are now stealing batteries from scientists remote monitoring stations, this are the stations that monitor volcanoes, earthquake activity, GPS data and more. Each theft cost around 3 to 5 million ISK (damage to hardware), data is also being lost. Along with other hardware damage that happens when the batteries are removed forcefully from the hardware.

This theft prevents important measurements on active volcanoes in Iceland, that can prevent important measurements of a volcano if something is taking place in it. Theft has happened on monitoring station in Krísuvík volcano and Eyjafjallajökull volcano, not long time ago (about 3 weeks) a battery was removed from both places. It is important if people come across this hardware to just leave it be, it is important to monitoring active volcanoes in Iceland and damage cost money, lost data and even important signs of eruption in worst case.

So if you come across monitoring hardware in Icelandic nature. Leave it at peace!

Icelandic News about this

Stela rafgeymum vísindamanna (Rúv.is)

Blog post updated at 17:25 UTC on 16-June-2013.
Blog post updated at 18:55 UTC on 16-June-2013.

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Skeiðflöt geophone going off-line due to hard drive failure

Due to a hard drive failure the geophone station of Skeiðflöt is going off-line. I have to do this to protect the data on the hard drive until it can be replaced. When I write this I am currently running a hard drive check on it (and I hope it works after that). Once that is finished, I am going to turn the computer off until I can replace the hard drive with a new one. When that is going to happen I do not know yet, at latest this is going to take place in December when I go to Iceland over Christmas.

There is nothing I can due at the moment, since I do not have the money to buy (I am poor person) a new hard drive for the computer. I am also not sure if anyone locally can fix the computer, and clone the hard drive for me (as I plan to due in order to save me setting Windows XP up again from scratch, if I can do so to start with). Until the Skeiðflöt geophone computer can be fixed, it is going to remain off-line.

My next geophone to Katla volcano, in the case something happens is Heklubyggð geophone. All my geophones can be viewed here on my geophone web page.

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More frequent earthquake swarms expected in Tjörnes Fracture Zone

According to a news on Rúv.is, there is now a risk of more frequent earthquake swarms in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. This is due to the tension that has been building up in Tjörnes Fracture Zone for the past 200 years, with the last large earthquake taking place 37 years ago (Kópasker magnitude 6.5 earthquake in January 1976). This short and small earthquake swarms in TFZ are not going to release the tension that has been building up there for the past 200 years (in some areas), for that too happen. It takes one or more earthquakes that are stronger than magnitude 6.0 to take place before tension starts to drop in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone.

Icelandic news about this

Útlit fyrir tíða skjálfta fyrir norðan (Rúv.is)

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Increased monitoring for volcanoes in Vatnajökull glacier

I did see a short news about increased monitoring for volcanoes (you have zoom in manually, the new web page is a mess and not highly useful as such in my view) in Vatnajökull glacier.

Two new seismometer have been added to the SIL network in Vatnajökull glacier. Making detection of activity in Öræfajökull, Grímsfjall, Bárðarbunga, Esjufjöll and other volcanoes easier and more sensitive. It is going to be interesting to see what this information this new seismometer bring to light when it comes to activity in Vatnajökull glacier volcanoes.

Icelandic news about this

Vatnajökull undir nánara eftirliti en áður (Vísir.is)

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Minor earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge on the 29th of May

On the 29th of May (2013) a minor earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes Ridge. The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2.3, the depth range in this earthquake swarm was about 5.5 to 12 km. This was just a minor earthquake swarm, it also did not last long.

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge on 29th of May 2013. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This area of the Reykjanes ridge is highly active, only about three weeks ago there was a strong earthquake swarm in this area. This might just be a aftershock activity from that, it is however difficult to know for sure. I am expecting more earthquakes in this area in next few weeks to months.