Katla volcano eruption in the year 1918

Last large eruption in Katla volcano was in the year 1918. Cameras where a bit hard to find during this time and it took long time to take pictures of eruptions in those days. There are few pictures that exist today of the eruption in the year 1918 and the aftermath that did follow it.

Here are the only pictures of the eruption taking place in Katla volcano during the year 1918.


The ash cloud from Katla volcano during the eruption in the year 1918.Author of this picture is unknown. Picture is assumed in public domain due to age (94 years ago). Death of author is unknown to me. Corrections welcomed.


Ice bergs from the glacier flood that did follow the eruption in Katla volcano during the year 1918. Author of this picture is unknown. Picture is assumed in public domain due to age (94 years ago). Death of author is unknown to me. Corrections welcomed.


Painting showing the ash cloud of the Katla volcano eruption in the year 1918. I sadly do not know how did paint this picture or it’s copyright status. Corrections welcomed.

Based on this pictures. This is what we should expect from Katla volcano in the next big eruption. I do not know when that might be. It might be a long wait.

Earthquake activity east of Grímsey Island (TFZ). Possible fake earthquakes in Eyjafjallajökull volcano

At 03:03 UTC an earthquake with the early and unconfirmed magnitude of ML3.3 took place east of Grímsey Island. This earthquake did take place on TFZ. It is possible, but this earthquake might be the start of an earthquake swarm in this area. But that is not uncommon pattern for earthquakes in this area. But however it also happens that earthquakes like this one takes place. But then nothing more happens.


Earthquake activity in TFZ. The early magnitude ML3.3 earthquake is marked with a green star. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Eyjafjallajökull volcano

There has also been some earthquake activity in Eyjafjallajökull volcano during the night. This activity is possibly false due to weather or faulty SIL seismometer. The earthquake that have been detected so far have extremely low quality. But the increases the chance of them being false, rather then real events. It is not going to get known if this activity is real or not until it is reviewed by seismologist at Icelandic Meteorological Office.


The possible earthquake activity in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. This activity might be due to faulty hardware or weather, rather then real activity in Eyjafjallajökull volcano.Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Eyjafjallajökull volcano has been quiet since it’s eruption in the year 2010. I do not expect that to change any time soon. Since it seem that Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption cycle is around 150 to 500 year (theoretical maximum in my opinion). So I am not expecting anything to happen in Eyjafjallajökull volcano any time soon. If this earthquake activity is confirmed it is interesting. What might come out it is impossible to know for sure.

Name change has taken place

This blog is now known as Iceland geology blog. Now I am going to cover all types of geology in Iceland. Not just earthquakes, volcanoes activity. But that is going to remain large part of what I am going write on this blog. Since that is where most activity takes place in Iceland.

I hope that everyone enjoy the new format of shorts.

Forum has been closed, blog name change, two new blogs about geology

I have closed down the Iceland volcano and earthquake forum. Nobody was using it and I don’t see any reason to keep it running when nobody had used it for a long time. It was just collecting spam bots. But thankfully not many spam posts. But that might have changed on short notice. After 2. October 2012 the domain volcanoforum.eu is going to point to this blog until it expires (in 2013 or 2014).

Changing the name of this blog (again)

I am going to change the name of this blog on the 1. October 2012. The reason is for simply-faction and broaden this blog subject range. Also after 1. October 2012 this blog is only going to cover events and geology in Iceland. I am not going to delete older blog post about activity in El Hierro, Sweden and Denmark. But they are going to be moved into there own sub-category. Where they can be found if anyone is looking. That way I can clean up the list of subjects on this blog. Without having to delete any blog post that I have written in the past. My coverage of earthquakes in Denmark are going to be moved over to my oldest blog. That can be found here. All earthquake related blog posts about Denmark are going to be in English on that blog.

The new name for this blog is Iceland geology blog. I am going to cover earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, geological history and a lot more then what I have been doing for the past two years. This name is also simpler to remember then Iceland volcano and earthquake blog. So I think it is going to contribute to better success of this blog as an medium on the internet.

Two new blogs

I am moving all the Canary Island coverage to it’s own blog. That blog is called Canary Island geology blog. It is just going to cover geology events in Canary Islands. Earthquakes, landslides, cracks and such. I do not know how often I am going to update that blog. But I am going to update is as often as something interesting is happening in Canary Islands.

The link to the blog is http://www.jonfr.com/canary – Currently the link is inactive (the link works. But you just get a empty folder). But I am going to get it up and running in few hours.

The second blog that I am creating is called Falkland Island geology blog. Since I am going to move to Falklands Islands in about 10 years time. While there is no volcano or earthquake activity as such in the Falkland Islands. I am going to cover any major earthquake that happens close to the Falkland Islands. But Falkland Islands are located close to major fault lines that are close to Antarctica and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.

I am not going to cover any event in Antarctica or South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands as such. But I am going to cover any events that might have an effect in Falklands Islands. But as most of the earthquake activity happens some distance from Falklands Islands it is unavoidable that I am going to cover activity that is closer to the Antarctica and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. This applies mostly when major earthquakes happens or an eruption sends ash cloud towards Falklands Islands. Earthquakes do happen close to Falklands Islands. With the magnitude up to Mw7.0 and larger. But they do not happen so often. Ash clouds often happen. As erupting volcanoes in Chile often push ash in the wind direction that takes ash cloud towards Falklands Islands. I do not know yet how often this happens. But it happens once in a while I think.

I am also going to cover fossils finds, general geology in Falklands Islands among other things. This new blog is going to be updated when something happens and when I have something new to tell about.

The link to the new blog is http://www.jonfr.com/falkland – Currently the link is inactive (the link works. But you just get a empty folder). But I am going to get it up and running in the next few hours.

My other blogs

I have two other blogs then this blog. My oldest blog can be found here. I blog both in Icelandic and English on that blog. I publish many things on it. Videos, Icelandic blogs, English blogs and more. I also have a blog called Spacewatch. I try to update that when I can. But in the future I hope to publish my own space pictures on it. But it is going to be a while until I can do that.

Other

I hope that people like the changes that I am doing now. But I have been thinking about this for the longest time now. But now is the time for action. Not just thinking.

Update 1: The blog Falkland Islands geology blog is now up and running. The blog Canary Islands geology blog is now up and running.

Blog post updated at 21:18 UTC on 30.09.2012.

Minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

Tonight around 22:30 UTC there was an minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano. This earthquake swarm did last in about 20 minutes. After that the earthquake activity did drop back to normal background levels. This earthquake swarm is most likely part of normal autumn earthquake activity in Katla volcano. More earthquake swarms like this should be expected in Katla volcano during next few weeks.


Earthquake activity in Katla volcano this evening (28.09.2012). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

What happens next is impossible to know. But I am not expecting anything special to happen in Katla volcano following this earthquake swarm. This earthquake swarm did appear clearly on my geophone at Skeiðflöt and Heklubyggð. The geophones can be viewed here.

Few words on my geophone network

I run a small geophone network in Iceland. This geophone network won’t be getting any bigger any time soon. I have two reasons for that statement. I cannot get hardware that I need to build my geophone network. The main part remains out of stock, the geophone. I have also come to releases that after about 10 years time I won’t be able to run the geophone network anyway. But my plan is that in about 10 years time I am going to move to the Falklands Islands. Based on distance, cost and such factors. It is going to make it impossible for me to run an geophone network at that distance. It is going to take me 10 years to assemble my plan and get the funds before I can move to Falklands Islands. During that time I am going to be living in Denmark.

I have been running the current geophone network, in one or other form since the year 2006. So that is already 6 years. This has not been easy task. With hardware failures, software failures, internet failures and other issues that I have had to deal with during this time. But I have managed to keep the system running during that time, with help of the people how are hosting it for me at location. I am always thankful for that help.

I am however just going to close the geophone network in Iceland after 10 years. Closing at one place means that I can open up at new place. That place is going to be in Falklands Islands with time. As I need time to set-up new geophone network. Along with solving connection issues and such things. Setting up new geophone network in Falklands Islands might take up to 5 years for me. Depending on connections and such. As I might have to set-up my own radio links (I just expand my lan into such radio links on 2.4Ghz). Since ADSL speeds are expensive and have limited data quota are included with the subscription (the largest is just 3,3GB for 1 month), along with limited mobile coverage in Falklands Islands. But this is just really early planning. The details are going to get shorted out when I move there after 10 years or so.

I however think it is good to run my own geophone network for more then 10 years (oldest parts of the geophone network have then been running for up to 16 years in the year 2022) on my own. I am not sure. But I do not think many people in the world are doing this as I am. But I might be wrong on this.

Hardware that I can buy in the future

With the future lack of geophone for me to buy. I have several options on what hardware to buy so I can record earthquakes. First of is the cheap SEP seismometer. But that is a long period seismometer with period up to 20 seconds. Good for detecting earthquakes more then 2000 km away. My second option is to by a digital seismometer that is called VolksMeter. But that is also a tiltmeter. But VolksMeter seismometer is expensive (while I am broke at least). They cost $1245 single channel and $1795 dual channel. This is without GPS, power supply and such things. Based on this prices. I am not going to buy VolksMeter seismometer any time soon.

Blog post updated on 28.09.2012 at 04:45 UTC.

Minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

Normal autumn activity appears to be starting in Katla volcano. This earthquake activity is not something to be alarmed about. But worth keeping an eye on anyway.


The earthquake activity in Katla volcano during the past 48 hour period. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This is just normal autumn activity. As such it is not dangerous and does not mean anything. More earthquakes might happen in next few days to weeks.

Large landslide in north Iceland

Few days ago an large landslide did happen in north Iceland. This landslide did come from the mountain Móafellshyrna. It has been estimated that this landslide is about 300 meters wide and is about 1 km long. Rocks continue to fall from the mountain. Some are large as houses in some areas. So going up close to this landslide is not save for the moment.

It is believed that mixture of earthquake activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone along with rain and melting snow is the reason for this landslide.

Icelandic news about this

Drunur í björgum við Þrasastaði (Rúv.is, Icelandic, Pictures)
Gríðarstór skriða (Rúv.is, Icelandic, video)

Earthquake activity drops in TFZ

During the past few hours earthquake activity in TFZ has dropped. This is not unusual. As earthquake activity in this area happens in swarms. Last earthquake swarm in this area where in the years 1996 and 2004. Those earthquake swarm lasted for several days and made several earthquakes with the magnitude 4. It is impossible to know how long activity is going last in this area. But since it has been ongoing for better part of current week (week 38). It might well be this activity is already over. But only time is going to tell what happens next. In current earthquake swarm. More then 500 earthquakes have been recorded so far.


The area of activity in TFZ. Stars mark earthquakes that are larger then magnitude 4 in size. But red dots show other earthquakes. The arrows show the fault movements in this area. It is from this news here on IMO web page. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.


The earthquake swarm as it looks during the past 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.


The earthquakes on IMO tracker. It shows the magnitude of most of the earthquakes that have taken place during past 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

As sad before. It is impossible to know what happens next in this earthquake swarm. But it might well be that it is over by now. Only time is going to tell us what happens next in this. Chance of an larger earthquake taking place in this area remains high.

Almannavarnir announcement (Icelandic Civil Protection System)

Jarðskjálftahrina úti fyrir Norðurlandi (Almannavarnir.is, Icelandic)

Icelandic news about this earthquake swarm

Jarðskjálftar í Eyjafjarðarál (Icelandic, vedur.is)
Talsverð jarðskjálftavirkni á Norðurlandi (Icelandic, Vísir.is)
Fjórir skjálftar yfir 4 að stærð (Icelandic, mbl.is)
Íbúar geri ráðstafanir til að draga úr tjóni (Icelandic, mbl.is)

TFZ earthquake swarm update at 20:50 UTC

This is a short update for the earthquake swarm in TFZ at 20:50 UTC.

At 19:42 UTC on 20.09.2012 an earthquake with the magnitude of ML4.2 took place on TFZ. This earthquake swarm was most likely felt in Siglufjöður town, Dalvík town and possibly more places around the epicenter of this earthquake. This earthquake did also appear clearly on my geophone network in Iceland. Swarm of smaller earthquakes did follow this larger earthquake as before.


The epicenter of the latest magnitude ML4.2 earthquake in TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.


The progress of the earthquake swarm during the past 48 hour period. This earthquake swarm happens in swarm, with drop in activity between them. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.


The earthquake swarm as it did appear on my Hvammstangi geophone station. This image is released under Creative Commons licence. Please see CC licence page for more details.


The earthquake swarm as it did appear on my Heklubyggð geophone station. This image is released under Creative Commons licence. Please see CC licence page for more details.

It is impossible to predict the progress and development of this earthquake swarm. But I expect this earthquake swarm to continue for the next few hours to days. It might last longer then few days. But only time is going to tell us what is going to happen next in this earthquake swarm. I am going to post new update on this earthquake swarm once I have had the time to check some of this data. But that might take few hours until I can do so. At the longest, not until tomorrow. Depending on IMO work on this earthquake swarm data. I am going to post new updates on this earthquake swarm soon as possible if anything major happens.