Iceland geology – Page 150 – Volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland

March 20, 2013

Magnitude 4.8 earthquake deep on the Reykjanes Ridge

During the night there was an earthquake deep on the Reykjanes ridge. This earthquake had the magnitude of 4.8 according to automatic result from EMSC.

The earthquake on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to EMSC.

Due to earthquakes location there is not a lot of details on it. But this location on the Reykjanes ridge has been seeing some activity in the past few months. This might well just be normal tectonic activity for this area. More information on this earthquake can be found here.

March 18, 2013

Earthquake activity in Esjufjöll volcano

Earthquake activity has started again in Esjufjöll volcano after some time with no activity. The two earthquakes that where detected by the SIL network only had the magnitude of 1.0 and 1.1. But what is most interesting is there depth. But registered depth is around 0.1 km (around 100 meters). This really shallow depth for earthquakes in this location. While it is unclear what is creating this earthquake activity. The most likely reason is that an minor dike intrusion is taking place in the volcano. Last eruption in Esjufjöll volcano is believed to have taken place in the year 1920. But that has not been properly confirmed yet.

Earthquake activity in Esjufjöll volcano is marked by the red dots in Vatnajökull glacier. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is impossible to know for sure what is happening in Esjufjöll volcano. Not only is there little known about earlier eruption history of this volcano. It has also been poorly studied in the past. So what to expect if anything happens is not known properly. Based on earlier earthquake activity in this volcano from the year 2011 more earthquakes might happen in next few days to months. But it is impossible to know that for sure at the moment. But it is not an bad idea to monitor this volcano for any more activity in next few weeks.

March 17, 2013

Weather has been problem for monitoring instruments on Mýrdalsjökull glacier this winter

Bad weather has been a major problems for monitoring Katla volcano (and others also) this winter in Iceland. Not only has the bad weather damaged communications setup for the instruments in question. But also has a lot of snowfall prevented solar chargers and windmills that generate power for this instruments made them fail. In many cases the instruments them self are also under several meters of snow in few cases.

This means that for long periods during this winter there have been no data recorded on several SIL stations on Mýrdalsjökull glacier. But last week technicians from Icelandic Meteorological Office and University of Iceland did go up to Mýrdalsjökull glacier to try and fix the broken instruments and hardware in question. They had some success. But have to return later to repair the hardware they where not able to repair this time around.

Icelandic news about this repair mission can be found here. This news is in Icelandic.

Mýrdalsjökull leikur mælitæki grátt (Rúv.is, Icelandic)
Fréttir: Jökullinn leikur mælitæki grátt (Icelandic, Video)

March 17, 2013

Earthquake activity intensifies in Skjaldbreið

The earthquake activity that started in Skjaldbreið yesterday continues. This earthquake activity has been picking up in number of earthquakes. But when this blog post is written no earthquake has been over magnitude 2.0. That however might change if this earthquake activity picks up more from the current activity level.

Earthquake activity in Skjaldbreið south of Langjökull glacier. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is hard to know what is going to happen in this earthquake swarm. But earthquake activity in this area is often “slow”, in the terms it is slow to start and reaching its high point. If that is going to happen now is impossible to know. All that can be done is to watch and see how this earthquake swarm progresses and if any stronger earthquakes start to appear. Stronger earthquakes might not appear at all in this earthquake swarm. But they also cannot be ruled out.

March 17, 2013March 17, 2013

Three earthquakes in Hekla volcano

During the night there where three earthquakes in Hekla volcano. All of the earthquakes where small with the magnitude of 0.6 up to 0.9. Depth of this earthquakes was on the range of 10.7 and down to 11.8 km. No other activity has followed this earthquakes in Hekla volcano since this earthquakes took place.

The earthquakes in Hekla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Currently there are no signs of volcano eruptions in Hekla volcano. If that changes I am going to write about it. But for now Hekla volcano is as quiet as it has been since the year 2000. When last eruption took place.

March 16, 2013

Minor earthquake swarm in Skjaldbreið

During the night a small earthquake swarm started in Skjaldbreið south of Langjökull glacier (might be part of Presthnjúkar volcano). This earthquake swarm is minor. With largest earthquake only being magnitude 1.9. While this is an minor earthquake swarm there seems to be more activity taking place then appears on reviewed and automatic SIL map. The reason for that is the earthquakes in questions are small to be located by three or more SIL stations in the area. While this unseen earthquake activity does not appear on Icelandic Meteorological Office maps it can be seen on the SIL station closest to the earthquake locations.

Location of the earthquake swarm in Skjaldbreið. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Activity at the end of this tremor plot suggests more earthquakes are taking place. But they are not being located as they are not detected on three or more SIL stations. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquake activity is common in this area. Since it is on the tectonic plate boundaries in Iceland. It is difficult to know how this earthquake swarm is going to behave in the next few hours. But so far it has stopped for few hours before continuing again.

March 10, 2013

Earthquake swarm in TFZ

During the night an earthquake swarm started in TFZ. The first earthquake had the magnitude of Mw3.8 according Icelandic Meteorological Office. This earthquake was felt clearly in the area it has been reported. Above 20 aftershocks have been recorded in this area following this earthquake.

Location of the magnitude 3.8 earthquake in TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Trace of the earthquake activity. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake was well detected on my geophone in north Iceland. This image is released under CC Licence. Please see CC Licence page for more details.

It is possible to watch this earthquake activity on my geophone network page here. At the moment the earthquake activity has stopped. It is impossible to know if it is going to start again in this area or not. But this area is normally highly active in terms of earthquake activity during the year. So earthquakes swarms like this are not uncommon.

March 8, 2013March 8, 2013

Two SIL stations have failed during winter on Mýrdalsjökull glacier

During a rather harsh winter in Iceland. Two SIL stations have failed on top of Mýrdalsjökull glacier. This are the SIL stations Austmannsbunga and Etnu glacier (local name). The reason for the failure is ice that loaded on to the mast the SIL stations. Making it fall down on the ground. Therefor making the SIL stations lost contact with Icelandic Meteorological Office and University of Iceland. University of Iceland and Icelandic Meteorological Office plan a trip soon to this area of Mýrdalsjökull glacier too fix this SIL stations that are broken. But the weather has too improve first in Iceland before that can happen.

I also suspect this is the problem with the SIL stations on Vatnajökull glacier. That SIL station just has the term “vot“.

Icelandic news about this weather related failure

Skjálftamælir á Mýrdalsjökli óvirkur (Rúv.is)

March 6, 2013March 12, 2013

Donations needed for march [updated]

This is a sticky blog post. Too see the newest blog post. Please scroll down to read it.
This is a short blog post. Too read the original long blog post please do so here.

Current status of my debt problems

I hate debt. I really do. After this is over. I am never going to fall into debt again. I have banned my self from ever taking a loan again. Even for an house. Currently I have managed to get my debt under control in Denmark. This means that I can pay an lower amount each month until the debt is over. The first debt that I finish paying up is going to take place in August 2013. The second on in June 2014 if nothing changes. I am only going to change it so I finish sooner. Not the other way around.

As things currently stand. I am going to finish paying off the debt that I need to pay off right now in June 2014. I do still have debt in Denmark. But I am going to pay it up in whole (9000 DKK) once I have paid everything else up. Since this is an danish Kommune loan that I got there and it is interest free for 5 years. At least that I have been told so far.

My debt in Iceland is bigger. But I am now managing it in the way as I now manage all my debt. With my current plan I am going to be finished paying that off in October 2016. I do hope that I can speed those payments up soon as possible. Since this is a overdraft loan and they carry high interest rate.

Current status in general

With my debt in order this should start to get better. However this does not leave me with a lot of live on during the month. But it is still better then what I have had to deal with during the months of January to March 2013. It at least leaves me with something to buy food with during the month. Not a lot, but something. I take something a lot more then nothing any day of the week.

As for March 2013. I have gotten few donations (thank you!). But I am not sure that if it is going to cover all of my food cost this month. But I have prepared for the worst and I am now hoping for the best.
I am also getting my money back from some service that I have now cancelled for good. When that money comes I do not know. ~~I might well have to wait until April until I get it.~~

Update 1: I now have got repayments from the service I did cancel. This is not a lot of money. But makes the rest of this month a bit easier.

e-Books

I offer anyone how wants an e-book after they have donated to me. But you have to let me know. Some people might not want an e-book from me for there donations. So just drop me a email with the subject line “e-book” and your paypal donation email address if you want an e-book from me for your donations. Thanks!

I am trying to work hard writing books and short stories. But I find it bit hard with all this money issues. It is going to get easier since I have managed to take control of my debt issue.

Google Adsense

I have finally been approved again into Google Adsense. This means some replacement of advertisement. I am still going to have Amazon advertisements on my blog and English part of my webicorder web site. But I can only have it on part of my blogs, since Google Adsense does not support the Icelandic language (I also blog in Icelandic). But this means better income for me again when something happening. What I have learned from is this. Never do something hasty as I sometimes do. I am not going to remove my Google Adsense account again in the future. But I am going to limit it to my English blogs only. Icelandic blogs and webicorder web site are going to remain Amazon advertisement only.

Blog post updated at 08.03.2013 at 15:31 UTC.
Blog post updated at 12.03.2013 at 00:39 UTC.
Blog post updated at 12.03.2013 at 03:47 UTC.

March 3, 2013

Deep earthquake swarm in Tungafellsjökull volcano

Today (03.03.2013) between 13:19 UTC and to 13:21 UTC a deep earthquake swarm took place in a volcano named Tungnafellsjökull. This was a minor earthquake swarm, with the largest earthquake having magnitude 1.4. But it is the depth that is important here. The depth was most at 28 km, with the shallowest earthquake having the depth 18.7 km. This suggest magma intrusion into the volcano at depth. A pattern that was seen during the Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption as an example.

For the past few months. Tungnafellsjökull volcano has been having swarms of earthquakes. All of them small, but many of them above 2.0 in magnitude. But so far none above magnitude 3.0. While earthquake activity has remained low in Tungnafellsjökull volcano I find that events are speeding up there in the past few months. With the terms that more earthquakes are being detected in this volcano and now at more depth. I find this worrying and also interesting. This volcano is far from any populated area, so any damage resulting for an eruption in it should be minimal. It also has no glacier to speak of. There is going to be a bad weather in Iceland until Friday (according to the weather forecast at the moment), so detecting any small earthquakes in this area might be limited by it.

The red dots show the earthquake activity in Tungnafellsjökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is too early to know what happens in Tungafellsjökull volcano. It is also important to note that Tungnafelljökull volcano has never erupted in historical times. This makes figuring out what happens next in it more difficult then ever. This activity might not mean an eruption is imminent. But at the moment I cannot rule one out just yet. It is clear that more activity is going to be needed before the picture of what is taking place in Tungnafellsjökull volcano gets clearer.

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