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Earthquake swarm in Katla volcano yesterday (07.June 2012)

Yesterday there was an earthquake swarm in Katla volcano. Over 50 earthquakes have been recorded so far. But this earthquake swarm stopped yesterday at 16:22 UTC. Most of the earthquakes where shallow, with depth less then 1 km. Largest earthquake had the magnitude of ML2.5. No harmonic tremor was detected following this earthquake swarm. But that is unlike what did happen last year, when a similar earthquake swarm took place in Katla volcano.


Earthquake activity in Katla volcano yesterday (07. June. 2012). The main areas appear clearly on this map. The small dot SE on the caldera rim is an area that became active after last years minor eruption. What is taking place there is still an mystery. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office.

This activity appears to be similar to what happened around 9th July, 2011. But no harmonic tremors are taking place in Katla volcano following this earthquake swarm.


Earthquake activity in Katla volcano on 9. July 2011. This good to compare the earthquake activity yesterday (image above this one). Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office.


The ML2.98 magnitude earthquake that happened in Katla volcano yesterday (07. June. 2012). This is the earthquake as it was recorded on Skeiðflöt geophone station. This image is released under Creative Commons License. See License page for more details.


Same earthquake as above. But filtered at 1Hz and this is how the earthquake appeared in Heklubyggð geophone station. This image is released under Creative Commons License. See License page for more details.

So far this is just an earthquake swarm. As there are no harmonic tremor signal taking place as the earthquake swarm is taking place. I do not know if there has been any glacier flood following this earthquake swarm. But if there was. It would mean that hydrothermal vents under Mýrdalsjökull glacier have been emptying out. It happens regularly in glacier such as Mýrdalsjökull glacier.

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New pictures of Grímsfjall volcano crater

Rúv News has just published pictures of Grímsfjall volcano craters. This pictures where taken by Ómar Ragnarsson. The pictures show among them a Island that has formed inside the 1.5 km long and 800 meter wide crater that did erupt in May of last year.


The Grímsfjall volcano crater that erupted on 25. May 2011. Copyright of this picture belongs to Ómar Ragnarsson.

More pictures can be found on Rúv News web site. I recommend that people click on the images to get full size (or click and open in new tab).

Undraveröld Grímsvatna – Myndir (Rúv News, Icelandic, Pictures)

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Special report: New magma injection at depth in El Hierro volcano

While I have returned to just covering Iceland volcano and earthquake activity. It does not mean that I have stopped to watch the earthquake activity in El Hierro volcano at present time.

New earthquake activity with the depth of 15 to 28 km have been taking place in El Hierro volcano today (04.06.2012). Minor earthquake activity has also taken place on 29. May, 1. June, 3. June. But this where not many earthquakes. Nothing suggests that eruption has resumed in El Hierro volcano. However an new injection of magma into El Hierro volcano might have increased hydro-thermal activity in earlier eruption vents, or moved older magma that is already high up in the fissure that was eruption. That however does not mean that the eruption has resumed. But there is nothing in the data from El Hierro volcano to suggest that an eruption has resumed at this point.

For the moment, it is mostly quiet in El Hierro volcano. I fully expect that to continue for the time being. At least it is clear that more needs to happen in El Hierro volcano before an new eruption starts in El Hierro volcano. So for the moment, there is nothing to worry about in my opinion.

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Craters in Grímsfjall volcano clearly visible

The craters from last years eruption in Grímsfjall volcano are clearly visible on new pictures that Rúv did release in the evening news. There also seems to be some increase in hydro-thermal activity in Grímsfjall volcano. Based on the pictures and what was reported in the Rúv news this evening (02.06.2012).

When the eruption was at it largest last year, the crater was around 1.5 km in size. But once the power started to drop in the eruption, the single crater did turn into several small craters. The glacier is slowly closing this new crater. In few years time, there are not going to be many signs in this are that an large eruption took place there.

The new images can be viewed in this news on Rúv news web page.

Gígarnir í Grímsvötnum greinilegir (Icelandic, Video)

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Minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

Today (28.05.2012) at 11:22 UTC an small earthquake swarm did start in Katla volcano. This earthquake swarm did end at 12:28 UTC. This is small earthquake swarm, both in numbers of earthquakes and in the magnitude of the earthquakes in the swarm. With the largest earthquake having the magnitude of ML1.4. The depth of this earthquake swarm was around 0.1 km, but that gives the depth around 100 meters or so. Following this earthquake there has been some minor disturbance at Álftagróf SIL station. But because it only appears on one SIL station. This change might have its origin in something else. Like human traffic, local wind etc. For the moment I cannot rule that out.


The change in tremor at Álftagróf SIL station. This change in tremor might not be because of Katla volcano. But something else. Please keep that in mind. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office.

If the tremor changes at Álftagróf SIL station where from Katla volcano. They where highly local and did not show up on other SIL stations for some unknown reason. That has happened before, but the SIL network was not as dense around Katla volcano back then.


Image of the active area in Katla volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office.

I find it most likely reason for this earthquake swarm where some changes in hydrothermal areas inside Katla volcano caldera. All hydrotheraml areas in Katla volcano are under high pressure due to the glacier that is on top of them. So changes might not happen without some earthquake activity as did happen few hours ago. This is also not in any way a sign that Katla volcano might be about to erupt. This is far too low earthquake activity for such event to be starting. There is an chance of small glacier flood following this earthquake swarm in next 8 to 24 hours. But it is far from certain that is going to happen.

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Quiet time continues in Iceland geology

It has been rather quiet in Iceland during past few weeks. This seems to be continuing to some extent. There are few earthquakes and nothing noticeable is taking place in Icelandic volcanoes at the moment. While this quiet time is currently I am going to enjoy the summer a little bit. I am also trying to survive the heatwave that has been taking place in Denmark + Northern Europe for the past 10 days. As currently I am not used to type of heat (over 25C). But that is going to take some time until I do.

I am going to try and write something while it is quiet in Iceland. But this quiet time is going to mean longer time between blog posts. But I am sure that something of interest is going to happen soon in Iceland.

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Internet connection problem at Skeiðflöt geophone station

I have been having this issue for some time. I have already tried to fix it already. But that solution has not worked, and if I want to move to 3G connection it is going to cost me at least 15900 ISK, 97€, $123, 726 DKK. The problem is rather continued connection dropout. The connection that I am currently using is a 2Mbps ADSL connection that owners of the farm have, but over an poor phone line that does not carry ADSL signal so well (as I suspect is the case rather then anything else that I have think of before). There is an good 3G 900 signal in this area. So my solution would be to move this to 3G internet, rather then anything else. The connection charge pr month would be 1690 ISK (10€, $13, 77DKK) for 3GB of data. With that move. I should solve the connection dropout issues permanently.

This appears on my geophone web page with lack up updates for the Skeiðflöt geophone station. If it was connected normally, as it is going to be soon. This would result in green lines all over the helicorder image. Something that is not good, and makes it harder for me to monitor Katla volcano in real time. I plan on fixing this next month by switching over to 3G connection at that location. So I guess that June is going to be a bit broke for me as well (thankfully, there is cheap food in Denmark that I can buy. But I am still going to be broke). But I am going to work out the money issue somehow in the end.

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Krísuvík volcano inflates and deflates regularly

It seems that Krísuvík volcano is inflating and deflating on regular basic. I do not know how regular this change is. But it has been noticed by Icelandic scientists how are bit puzzled by this behavior. Last inflation episode did last until end of the year 2011. Since then deflation did start again and is currently ongoing. It is uncertain if what this means. At the moment it is too early to know for sure if this means if that Krísuvík volcano is getting ready for an eruption. But if there was an eruption in Krísuvík volcano, it would be Hawaiian eruption so no volcano ash. Volcano ash eruption would only take place if an eruption started in Kleifarvatn lake. But the effects of that would be limited to local area (Reykjavík and other nearby towns). It would not create any global problems, as many would want to believe.

Inflation and deflation period have been the years 2009, from January to September. In May 2010 inflation did start again, that inflation period lasted until end of the year 2011. Since then deflation has been taking place. Today there is continues GPS monitoring in Krísuvík volcano. But it is unknown if this type of behavior has taken place before in Krísuvík volcano. But for now Krísuvík volcano is being monitored both with GPS and the SIL network. What happens next anyone guess.

Icelandic news about this.

Land rís og sígur í Krýsuvík (Rúv.is)