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Geophone network is going to stay up

I have changed my mind on taking the geophone network down. The main reason being that data is valuable. The data that I am collecting today has value. I did not release this until this morning. After I had been telling the person who hosts my Hvammstangi geophone that data has value yesterday. This is also true for my geophone network. But it is going to cost me a lot to keep it running as is. The largest cost being maintenance and internet cost over 3G (2190 ISK, 13,41€ a month pr. 3G connection where that is used).

But this is it. My geophone network is going to stay up until I can replace it with a better network in the future. When that is going to happen I do not know. But I hope it is going to take me less then 10 years until I can start to implement that plan.

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Glacier flood from Grímsfjall volcano continues to increase [Update]

Current glacier flood from Grímsfjall volcano continues to grow in size. To everyone surprise I think. Currently the glacier flood remains small. Harmonic tremor on Grímsfjall SIL station continues to grow. But this is due to the glacier flood. Not any volcano activity so far.


Harmonic tremor during this glacier flood from Grímsfjall volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Conductivity of the glacier water remains high. But this means glacier food water is in the river. As oppose to any normal melt water coming from the glacier it self. This current glacier flood is the second glacier flood from Grímsfjall volcano this year. But earlier this year a small glacier flood did go from Grímsfjall volcano. My coverage of that glacier flood can be found here (28.01.2012) and here (29.01.2012). Current glacier flood started on Wednesday. So it has already been ongoing almost four days at current time. I am going to post more updates on this glacier flood if needed.

Icelandic news about this glacier flood

Enn vöxtur í Gígjukvísl (Rúv.is)
Vatnshæð í Gígju enn að aukast (mbl.is)
Vatnshæðin um tveir metrar (Vísir.is)

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Minor glacier flood has started from Grímsfjall volcano glacier lake

A minor glacier flood has started from Grímsfjall volcano glacier lake. This glacier flood is expected to be extremely small. Since last glacier flood from Grímsfjall volcano took place earlier this year. That glacier flood was also small. Minor harmonic tremor changes have been taking place on Grímsfjall SIL stations. But they are not strong and can easily drown in wind noise. But it has been a stormy few weeks in Iceland.


Harmonic tremor changes on Grímsfjall SIL station. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I do not expect any volcano activity to take place following this glacier flood. As last eruption in Grímsfjall volcano took place last year and that eruption was the largest one in 140 years at least. But I am going to keep monitoring this activity and post updates if anything changes.

Icelandic News about this glacier flood

Lítið hlaup hafið í Grímsvötnum (Rúv.is)
Vatnamælingamenn á leið austur (Rúv.is)
Hlaup að hefjast í Grímsvötnum (Vísir.is)
Lítið hlaup hafið í Grímsvötnum (mbl.is)

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Minor earthquake in Höfsjökull volcano. Continued earthquake activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone

It has been quiet in Iceland for the past few weeks. Mostly due to bad weather. But that drops the SIL network ability to detect minor earthquake activity in Iceland.

Hofsjökull volcano

Hofsjökull volcano is among Iceland most quiet volcanoes. With no eruption documented in historical times. Hofsjökull volcano is also a interesting volcano. As it more like two volcanoes in one. Why that is I am not sure. Hofsjökull volcano is covered with a glacier that is up to 650 meters thick in the central caldera.


The earthquake in Hofsjökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake was small. Just magnitude 1.3. But with the depth of 22,4 km. So it took place in the magma chamber, or close to it. Rather then any crustal earthquake activity. But it is hard to know for sure at the moment. During a normal year. Hofsjökull volcano can have up to 10 earthquakes during the year. Some years there are no earthquakes at all in Hofsjökull volcano.

Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Earthquake swarm that started on 20th of October in TFZ continues to this day. But currently the earthquake activity is just minor earthquakes at the moment. But the swarm is ongoing now for one month. There are also no signs of this earthquake swarm stopping. Even if the earthquakes are just minor ones for now.


Current earthquake activity in TFZ today and past few days. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I fully expect the earthquake activity to continue in TFZ. When it might stop is impossible to know for now. So keeping an eye of this area of TFZ is a good idea. The risk of large earthquake taking place in this area remains unchanged last I knew.

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Earthquake activity update on 16.11.2012

Here is a short update on earthquake activity in Iceland. It has been stormy few weeks so recorded earthquake activity has not been a lot in Iceland.

Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Earthquake activity continues in TFZ. A bit less then when it did start on 20. October 2012. But it still moves along. The risk of large earthquake area remains for this area. When, where and how big remains unknown factors so far.


Earthquake activity in TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Herðubreiðarfjöll volcano

Herðubreiðarfjöll volcano is a small volcano (no GVP entry that I know of) just north of Askja volcano. But Herðubreiðarfjöll volcano are in fact part of Askja volcano fissure swarm. But I do not think they are part of Askja volcano as such.


Earthquake activity in Herðarbreiðarfjöll volcano (the blue dots). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The earthquake activity in Herðurbreiðarfjöll volcano was most likely a minor dike intrusion into the volcano. What that means is too early to say at this moment. But most likely it does not mean anything for now at least.

There has been some minor ice-quake activity in Iceland when the temperature drops below 0 degrees in Iceland.

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End of my geophone network in December 2012

It is not easy for me to make this decision. But I have dedicated to end my geophone network as it is today in December 2012. The reason is cost of running it. I just can’t afford it. I am also dealing with cost of hardware, maintaining that hardware and so on. That is just how it is. Dealing with technical problems is also a factor in this. Computers die, hardware needs to be replaced after certain amounts of years. This all costs me money. Technical assistance by the people who are hosting the geophone hardware also costs time for them. It also costs money for them in electricity cost (not a lot. But something as all the hardware uses electricity).

While it is great being able to track earthquake activity in real time (5 min delay on my web page). I just cannot afford it. I am also not going to move back to Iceland. So that makes maintaining my geophone network today even harder. So in December 2012 this is going to be all over. All my geophone network stations are going to go offline and that is going to be end of that. I am going to keep the hardware for later use somewhere else. Where and when that might be is unknown at the moment.

I want to thank everyone how did support my effort in building my network as it is today (buying Skeiðflöt and Eyrarbakki geophone stations). Sadly I can no longer maintain the geophone network as explained above. But that is just how it has to be.

Following geophone stations go offline in December 2012

Hvammstangi
Skeiðflöt
Heklubyggð
Eyrarbakki

Following geophone stations are going to remain online

Bov, Denmark (but the web page is going to move soon to a new server)

Future network

While the current geophone network is coming to an end. It does not mean that I am going to quit my plans so easy. I plan on building a new network of seismometers (proper ones) in Iceland when I can afford it. When that might happen I do not know. But I am going to build it in a SIL style. The seismometers are also going to be located far from any human traffic so I won’t have any noise from that or any other cultural noise source (at least, keep it at minimal). I am also going to hire people and create a company around this to take care of the hardware and process the earthquake data gathered.

I am going to build seismometers network in the following place when I can afford it (this means. When I am rich).

Iceland
Canary Islands (maybe. Not sure yet.)
Falkland Islands (Details pending)

The new network is going to be a proper network. It is also going to be in places that Iceland Meteorological Office has no SIL stations at the moment. But this is going to take a while until it happens. So all that people can do is to wait until I am ready to do this. It is going to take a few years at least.

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Renewed earthquake activity in TFZ

Earthquake activity has renewed at TFZ. The area that is activate is the same area that had earthquake swarm from about 1 month ago. But largest earthquake in that swarm was a Mb5.6 earthquake. The largest earthquake today was a magnitude ML3.3 earthquake at 12:12 UTC. A magnitude 2.8 earthquake did take place at 13:08 UTC.


Current earthquake activity in TFZ. Green star mark the magnitude magnitude ML3.3 earthquake. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office.

The risk of large earthquake in this area still high. When it might happen is impossible to know for sure. There have been reports of the largest earthquake being felt in the town of Siglufjörður and other nearby areas. I fully expect earthquake activity to continue in this area. There have been stormy conditions in Iceland for the past 24 hours. This winter storm is making it more difficult to detect smaller earthquakes in this area, as in other areas of Iceland.

This earthquake activity appears clearly on my geophone in Hvammstangi. Even if there is a lot of wind noise taking place.

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Survey of dangerous Icelandic volcanoes has started

Rúv News reports that survey on Iceland volcanoes and possible risk factors has already started in Iceland. It is expected that this survey is going to take about 20 years. But there is a lot of science research following this survey.

This survey is going start with the volcanoes that are closest to populated areas in Iceland and cover risk factors like volcano ash, lava flow and field, earthquake risk and so on. The list is long and so is the work ahead for the people doing this survey and study.

Rúv News about this survey

Byrjað að kortleggja eldstöðvar

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Earthquake swarm in TFZ continues, little earthquake activity in Katla voclano, new earthquake activity in Askja volcano

Here is a short update on activity in Iceland for the past few days.

Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Earthquake activity continues in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. But this earthquake activity has been ongoing since 20 October, 2012. Every once in a while a magnitude 3.0 earthquake takes place, or larger. The risk of large earthquake taking place in this area remains. General alert for this area is also in effect because of this danger of large earthquake taking place in this area.


The earthquake activity in TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Katla volcano

Winter has come. At least when it comes to earthquake activity in Katla volcano. But little to none earthquake activity is now taking place in Katla volcano. Earthquake activity is now well below background level. It can be expected that current status is going to remain in Katla volcano until next summer.


Earthquake activity in Katla volcano for the past few days. Nothing important is taking place in Katla volcano as this image clearly shows. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Askja volcano

While Katla volcano is getting quiet. It seems that Askja volcano is getting slightly more active. But earthquake activity in Askja volcano during the past few weeks suggests a minor magma intrusion (dike intrusion) might have taken place. But none of the earthquakes that took place where above magnitude 2.0 in size.


Earthquakes in Askja volcano during the past few days. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I do not think this earthquake activity in Askja volcano means it is getting close for an eruption. Since there are no signs in that direction at the moment. But this earthquake activity is interesting. What ever it means in the short term for Askja volcano. It is also common that volcanoes have earthquake activity without anything happening at all following such earthquake activity.

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Earthquake activity update for Iceland and TFZ

This is update for TFZ over the past few days. Along with update for earthquake activity in Iceland during the past few days.

Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Earthquake swarm in TFZ continues. In the past days the largest earthquakes have had the magnitude of ML3.2. A second earthquake swarm is also taking place west of the village of Kópasker. That area also had an earthquake with the magnitude of ML3.2. That earthquake swarm is unrelated to the earthquake swarm taking place off north of Siglufjörður village. Earlier today an earthquake with the magnitude 3.8 took place. More earthquakes are expected to take place. This latest earthquake was clearly felt in Siglufjörður village. This earthquake swarm started on 20th of October. So it has been ongoing now for almost two weeks.


The latest earthquake in TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.


Earthquake tracker from Icelandic Meteorological Office showing the earthquakes during the past 48 hours in TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquake activity is expected to continue in this part of TFZ. The risk of large earthquake in this area has not yet passed. Most of the earthquakes appears clearly on my geophone in Hvammstangi.

Iceland activity

Other the earthquake activity in TFZ. It has been generally quiet in Iceland. For the past four days there has been really bad winter storm taking place in Iceland. With wind up to 40m/s and wind gust up to 70m/s or more. This means that fewer earthquakes are being detected by the SIL network in Iceland due to increased wind noise. But earthquake activity has been low in Iceland for the past few weeks (besides TFZ). So I am not sure if that changes anything. There is no volcano activity taking place in Iceland at the moment.