Posts

Posted on

Rate of eruptions in Iceland

Donation note: I am currently working on a new solution for people to support my work and effort here. It is still possible to donate directly via Paypal by using my email address (jonfr@8930a1.talbot.shared.1984.is) if you have Paypal account. I have removed the subscription option since I hope to be able close down my Paypal account no later than on 1-Febuary-2014. As things are turning out I am not going to use Skrill.com and at the moment I do not have any account with them.

Update on donations: Since my other options have not worked out. I am going to keep Paypal as an way to get donations. As explained before I can not have the regular donation button due to requirement that Paypal has. There is nothing I can do about it since I do not want to risk loosing my Paypal account since I am going to be using it.

There is a common believe that eruptions in Iceland happens in Iceland every 3 to 5 years. According to this believe the next eruption in Iceland should take place around the year 2014 to 2016. The reality of this is far more complex than common believe is in this matters. It is true that eruptions are common in Iceland, but it is not the same to say that eruption happens at regular intervals. For instance the longest break in 20th century since proper documentation of eruptions started was 7 years (Krafla 1984 and then Hekla in 1991). Then there are shorter time periods between eruptions as happened in the year 2011 when no more than three eruptions took place in that year. Two minor ones and one large one. The minor eruptions took place in Grímsfjall volcano (largest eruption in 140 years) and smaller eruptions in Katla volcano (lasted for ~10 hours) and in Hamarinn volcano (~16 hours). Then we had a minor explosion (no eruption) in Kverkfjöll volcano during the summer of 2013 [coverage link on it here and here].

It is not uncommon in Iceland to have several eruption from several volcanoes at the same time or over few month period during the year. It has happened in the history of Iceland and can happen again. It is also not uncommon not to have any eruption in Iceland for a long time and quiet scene last for several years. Currently it is quiet in Iceland but the history has shown that it is not always so. For more details on eruptions in Iceland I reccomend this blog post (jonfr.com) and this overview from Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Blog post updated at 22:10 UTC.
Blog post updated on 10-November-2013 at 23:40 UTC.

Posted on

Minor earthquake swarm on Reykjanes Ridge

Today (04-November-2013) at 04:03 UTC an minor earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes ridge. The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 3,2 and the depth of 12,2 km.

131104_2130
Earthquakes on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquakes are no uncommon in this area and there have been several earthquake swarm in past few weeks. Currently there are no signs of volcano activity taking place at this location and there are no clues or suggestions that such event is about to take place at present time. The largest earthquake did appear clearly on my geophone network and it can be viewed here on my geophone website.

Posted on

Loose rocks fall down at Thingvellir national park

Today (02-November-2013) loose rock did fall down at popular hiking router in Thingvellir national park in Iceland. The rocks that did drop have estimated weight of around 2 tons for the largest ones. No damage took place and nobody was hurt following this rock slide. While not common it does happen that rock fall down in Thingvellir since frost and water slowly crack the rock and make it loose with time.

grjothrun_0.svd.02-November-2013
The rocks that did drop down. Copyright of this image belongs to Rúv and the original person who took this picture.
img_1245_2.svd.02-November-2013
The rocks have been marked off. Copyright of this image belongs to Rúv and original person who took this image.

There is a reaming risk of more rock falling down in this area. When they might come down is impossible to know for sure. Currently the employees of the Thingvellir national park are estimating the risk of more rock coming down at this location.

Icelandic news about this

Stórgrýti hrundi úr barmi Almannagjár (Rúv.is. Icelandic)
Meta líkur á frekara hruni (Rúv.is, Icelandic)

Posted on

Donations needed for November

So life goes on. At least I am trying to pretend that is what is going on with me. The fact is however that my life is not much of a life since the fact is that my money issues drag along with me for now and I am sure it is going to drag along with me once I have paid all my debt down (moving is expensive as was the case for me 1 year ago). The problem is the crazy economic policies in Iceland, currently the exchange rate for Icelandic krona (ISK) is 21,98 against DKK (Danish krona). That means I am paying 22,73 ISK for 1 DKK (at Visa exchange rate) and that is not making my life easy. It has also been unofficial policy in Iceland to keep the disabled and people with issues (like having an Asperger’s syndrome that makes it really hard to me to get a regular job that pays decently) at poverty levels. That is no surprise since it comes from a dark history in Iceland that took place mostly before the year 1970. Back then it was custom to keep poor people poor by economic means or by force if nothing else worked.

Kids of poor people where sent to other farms to work (this took place mostly before the 1900, but it did last something towards to 1940 – 1960ish. I am not sure how long), disabled people where forced to live on farms and if nothing else the state paid the farmer who hosted the people an minimal amount to take care of them. But for most part, poor people and often disabled people where slaves in Iceland (before 1900). The laws that require people to hire them to an farm and work there have de-facto never been removed from Icelandic laws to this day.

What this to do with my money problems and issues. The Icelandic culture (you are never going to get many Icelanders to admit this) retains many of this old view on disabled people, the view that people disability is somehow there own fault and they should just accept what they are given from Icelandic state. Even if it is so low amount that there is no possibility to survive off this amount. This is done intentionally and here is a good example of this. Way back in the year 2004 when I started to live on my own I just got around 89.000 ISK (541,26€ on today exchange rate, at the exchange rate of the year 2004 it was just 1016,21€. Today that is 964,54€ or 158.600 ISK, in euro my income has not increased at all) as an disability welfare from Icelandic state. It was not until 2006 – 2007 that welfare got up to barley liveable levels and then in the year 2008 the economic collapse came and my income did go straight to hell in terms of how much I have to pay the bills and such things. The reason I moved to Denmark (to start with. My plan is to move to Austria when I can, not sure when that is going to happen. I want mountains and earthquakes since I cannot move to Azores Islands for several reasons) is to avoid this issue, since I am sure that Icelandic economy is going to collapse again soon in few years time.

I am stuck in a trap, the trap is normally called poverty trap [see also Poverty]. So far my attempts to break out if have turned out to be fruitless. I am not going to try and give up on this since this is my only change to change my life. But at the moment it is not going so well. I have low income of this blog due to low traffic (no eruption or earthquakes taking place in Iceland or Europe at the moment) at the moment. I am sure my income is going to increase temporary in terms or advertisement income when next eruption takes place.

Until that happens I have to count on support from my regular readers. Since without that support I am not sure I can do this job. Since it is a lot of work to keep track on what earthquake swarms and volcano are doing on daily basis. My work schedule is most hours of during the week, even when I take a break from writing on this blog once in a while. My other work can be found here below, since it is a links to my other websites.

Jón Frímann bloggar (Icelandic, English, Danish (soon), German (soon))
Jarðfræði bloggið (Icelandic version of this blog)
Canary Island geology blog (Canary Island geology blog)
Europe geology blog (Earthquakes and volcano activity in Europe)
Spacewatch (blog about Space related matters)
Falkland Islands blog (All about Falkland Islands. Work in progress)
Jón Universe (My fictional short stories. Updated regularly)

Information on how to support me can be found here. I have written all the instruction on how to send me a donation there as clearly as I can. Thanks for the support!

Posted on

Two minor earthquakes in Hekla volcano

I am sorry being late with this blog post.

On Wednesday (23-October-2013) two earthquakes took place in Hekla volcano. One earthquake took place outside the main volcano, but inside the Hekla volcano system. All earthquakes were small with the largest one having the magnitude of 1,6 km. The two earthquakes in the main Hekla volcano are shallow earthquakes, the largest one (magnitude 1,6) just having the depth of 1,3 km. What is creating this earthquake activity remains unclear at present time.

131024_2315
Earthquake activity in Hekla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

So far there are no signs of an eruption going to take place soon in Hekla volcano. Web cameras of Hekla volcano can be found here (jonfr.com), here (Rúv.is) and here (livefromiceland.is). My webicorder data can be found here (jonfr.com) online. The geophone at Heklubyggð detects earthquakes down to magnitude 0,0 if the weather is good, so if an eruption starts in Hekla volcano all the signs are going to appear clearly on that geophone as the activity starts.

Posted on

Earthquake swarm on Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Yesterday (18-October-2013) an earthquake swarm started on Tjörnes Fracture Zone. This earthquake swarm has not been big, with largest earthquake only having the magnitude 2,5. This earthquake swarm is taking place at the end of an unnamed volcano that is in this area. The earthquakes appear to be only tectonic at this moment.

131019_0030
The earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone yesterday and today. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is hard to know for sure if earthquake activity is going to continue in this area of Tjörnes Fractures Zone. Currently the activity remains low to moderate in this area, but no large earthquakes (over magnitude 4,0) have so far taken place in this area.

Posted on

New earthquake swarm on Reykjanes ridge

Today (19-October-2013) new earthquake swarm started on the Reykjanes ridge. So far this earthquake swarm has been small, with only 16 earthquakes recorded. Largest earthquake in this swarm had magnitude 3,3 at the depth of 6,1 km.

131018_2320
The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge. The green star marks earthquakes with magnitude over 3,0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I am expecting more earthquake activity in this area of the Reykjanes ridge over the next few days and weeks. It is impossible to know when an new earthquakes swarm starts. The best way is to monitor current activity at Icelandic Metorlogical Office website and on my webicorder website.

Posted on

Possible volcano eruption in the year 2002 off the coast of north Iceland

Donation notice: If you can donate please do so. It helps me run this website and keeping up my work here. Information on how to donate can be found here. Thanks! 🙂

Few years ago there was an strong earthquake swarm 45 km north of Grímsey island, the earthquake swarm location was between Grímsey island and Kolbeinsey island. The strongest earthquake in that swarm had the magnitude of 5,5. It’s now considered a possibility that an minor eruption took place at this location when this earthquake swarm took place in the year 2002. This is according to an recent study into the volcano activity in this area. Since this part of the rift zone where volcanic activity continues where the Tjörnes Fracture Zone ends.

unnamed.volcano.svd.18-October-2013
Storagrunn volcano. Image from Vísir.is news, copyright belongs to Bryndís Brandsdóttir and other people connected to this work.

This volcano is located at depth at this location so any minor eruption is not going to get noticed on the surface of the ocean.

tfz.svd.18-October-2013
The earthquake swarm in this area in the year 2002 (vedur.is, Icelandic, images). Earthquakes larger than 3,0 are marked by green dots. Copyright on this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Icelandic News about this. Beware Google Translate.

Við misstum af síðasta eldgosi við Norðurland (Vísir.is, Icelandic)

Posted on

New volcanoes found 900 km south of Iceland

In an recent study mission on Reykjanes ridge they did discover new volcanoes. What was discovered is that there appears to be more earthquake activity outside the main rift zone than originally thought. They also found volcanoes that are up to 2000 meters high (from the ocean floor) and have some other oddities too. At this south part of Reykjanes ridge there is an fault zone at the south end of it. According to the news the Reykjanes ridge is now about to break it soon (in the next few million years) and extend it’s reach more south. This area of the Reykjanes ridge appears to be high in volcano activity, a lot more then previously thought. All of the volcano activity at this location goes unnoticed due to how remote this area is and how deep the ocean is at this location.

I don’t know what this fault zone is named. But I think it’s this one on Google Earth.


View Larger Map

Rúv News in Icelandic. Beware of Google Translate.

Ísland teygir sig lengra suður (Rúv.is)

Blog post updated at 23:41 UTC.

Posted on

Earthquake activity continues in Eyjafjallajökull volcano

Minor earthquake activity has continued since last week in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. This earthquake activity is so small that none of the earthquake have had the magnitude of 1,0. This earthquake activity is also shallow, less than 5 km depth. So it’s clearly not magma (at least not new one) that is creating this activity. I am not sure what is creating this activity in Eyjafjallajökull volcano at this point and I might never know.

131016_2345
Minor earthquake activity in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

At current time there is no risk for an eruption from Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Since there is no new magma flowing into the volcano at present time. If you want to watch Eyjafjallajökull volcano you can do so here (jonfr.com) and here (mila.is) web cameras.