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Overview of earthquake activity in Iceland past few weeks

During the past few weeks it has been quiet in Iceland. With few earthquakes. March for instance was rather quiet month. In Week 17 there was more activity in Katla volcano, then the weeks before.

There have been several small earthquake swarms taking place in Iceland during past few weeks. Most noticeable was off the coast of Flatey. That is on TFZ earthquake zone. Also there was a noticeable earthquake swarm in Hengill volcano due to water pumping activity. There has also been earthquake activity on the Reykjanes ridge. Where the largest earthquake had the size of ML3.3.

Other then this minor earthquake activity. It is has been rather quiet in Iceland for several weeks now. This does happen in Iceland. But even so, there is always something interesting going on when it comes to earthquake activity in Iceland.

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Moving host complete (almost)

If you are reading this. Then your DNS has updated to my new hosting site. That is cheaper for me in the long run while I am experiencing low amount of traffic on my web site. This domain is going to move to a new IP address in next few hours. While that takes place it might go offline during that period. Estimated time of change is around 03:00 CEST. At the same time a SSL options is going to be installed at the same time. That is going to allow people to browse this website over https. The forum is back online now.

Broke (again)

This is the never ending story with no end at current time. But I am getting a bit short of money (reason why I moved from expensive to cheap hosting again) for this month. The main reason is that I am moving to Denmark. With all that cost and so on. So any donations to help me with this month, or any month of the year for that matter are welcomed. Since I did switch to a cheaper hosting. I am finally going to see some plus from having ads on this web site, and my other web sites. But I have been running a rather deep loss money wise having dedicated server and low traffic. If the traffic is to increase again. I am going to move to bigger hosting in steps. When Shared hosting becomes too small. I am going to move to VPS hosting, when that gets to small. I am going to move to dedicated hosting. That allows me to have traffic to pay for the hosting expense as the traffic grows on my web site.

As for my income. It is my plan and termination to get off social welfare and stop being broke. I am not giving up on that plan. But it is going to be hard to do so. Since I am self-employing my self as it is. I also made a chose few days ago. I am going to be a writer and writing is going to be my work. I just hope that it is going to solve my money issue in the future. But for now. I am surviving on small amount of money. That is whatever is left when I have finished paying my bills.

Thanks for the support!

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Moving to shared hosting in progress

The progress of moving from dedicated hosting to shared hosting has started. When that part has finished I am going to update the DNS information. That progress might take up to 2 days to finish updating for everyone.

Until then. I am not going to post anything. Also note that if comments are made during this time period. They might get lost in the transfer process.

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Moving web hosts again due to budget issues

Due to lack of money (I am doing this before I get seriously broke again). Because there is not enough traffic or donations to keep me on dedicated server. I am going back to shared hosting. This is just pure budget issue that I am currently having. But dedicated hosting costs me around 850 DKK a month. At current status it is a price that cannot afford in any way or form. Due to lack of income from this web page, and the fact that I am low social income and this web page among my other web pages have not made any major improvements to that status.

It is also going to be a while until I publish anything and get income from my book publishing. Until that happens. I am going to be living rather poor. In the worst case I might have to move back to Iceland (but it is a idea that I do not like for many personal reasons. But sometimes there are no good option to have in life).

The move to shared hosting is going to take place in next few days. I am hoping for smooth transfer this time around when I switch hosting again.

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Short earthquake swarm on Reykjanes Ridge

This morning there was an short earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge. This earthquake swarm only lasted for about 1 hour. The largest earthquake had the size around ML3.1 (automatic size estimate).


The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge this morning. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office.

There is still a risk of this earthquake swarm is going to resume at any point for the moment. But it still might just be over. It is hard to know for sure at current time. The strongest earthquake was visible on my geophones in Iceland. The web page can be viewed here.

Icelandic news about this short earthquake swarm

Skjálftahrina á Reykjaneshrygg (mbl.is)

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Earthquake activity close to Hekla volcano

Yesterday there was an interesting swarm of small earthquakes in Hekla volcano system, or to be accurate. The earthquake swarm took place on the edge of Hekla volcano system. How far into the SISZ it was I do not know. For some unknown reasons, the earthquakes have not yet been reviewed. So errors are in there location and depth.


The earthquake activity on the edge of Hekla volcano system. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office.

I have no idea what this means in terms of possible eruption in Hekla volcano. But this activity is interesting. But this is however not something that is new to this area. But it is uncommon anyway.

Activity in Hekla volcano system can be monitored on my web page with webicorders. Some of them have high human and wind noise however. As this is not expert setup that I am using.

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Earthquake swarm in Hengill volcano

Yesterday (21.04.2012) an earthquake swarm started in Hengill volcano at 18:57 UTC on 21.04.2012. The area in question is well known for having earthquakes swarms during past few months. It seems that this earthquake swarm is not over, and there is also a risk of stronger earthquakes in Hengill volcano than have currently happened. But the largest earthquake so far was event with the magnitude ML2.8.


Earthquake activity in Hengill volcano at 00:50 UTC on 22.04.2012. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office.

Icelandic news about this earthquake swarm.

Jörð skelfur við Hellisheiðarvirkjun (mbl.is, Icelandic)

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Donations for Skeiðflöt geophone station needed

I have been having issues with Skeiðflöt geophone stations for the past few months. The problems is that I use WLAN (Wireless Network) to get the data from the geophone to the internet, and soon to my main earthquake computer. However, I have been having connection issues. This is because the wireless signal where the computer is located is quite bad. The signal is only 11dB according to the planet wireless hardware that I am using, I think that is quite poor signal. I have already tried to increase the gain by sending and bigger antenna to the people how are hosting the hardware for me. But it did not work as I hoped for.

Two new AP points (one acting as a repeater for the signal) would solve this issue permanently. But they cost 529DKK (current exchange rate), €71, $93, 58GBP (+1 Ethernet cable). Currently I am moving and bit short on cash because of that, at least I want to spend the little money that I have carefully at the moment. I am not sure if I can buy this at the moment my self. I would have to check my bank account first. But any donations to help me solving this issue are welcomed.

Thanks for the help!

Moving

I am currently moving to Denmark in next few days. So updates might bit lacking or late of anything happens in Iceland because of that. I will do my best to keep this blog updated if anything happens. My laptop hard drive is dying due to old age. There nothing I can do to fix it at the moment (it costs money that I do not have).

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Earthquakes recorded in Snæfellsjökull volcano

Snæfellsjökull volcano is not often in the news in Iceland. But today there was a short news about it due a study that was done last summer on earthquake activity in Snæfellsjökull volcano. The study was to see if there where any earthquake activity in Snæfellsjökull volcano. The results are really interesting, the main result was there is a lot of earthquake activity in Snæfellsjökull volcano. But also that most of the earthquakes take place on the depth from 9 to 13 km depth. This study was done by Matteo Lupi and Florian Fuchs at Bonn University in Iceland.

The reasons for earthquake activity in Snæfellsjökull volcano is magma. There are not a lot of tectonic movement in Snæfellsjökull volcano area. As it is a volcano zone, but not a rift zone as is the case in most areas of Iceland. But so far it seems that there is no risk of volcano eruption for now. At least that is the opinion for the moment.

Image removed at the request of its author.

Currently there is no permanent SIL network (IMO wants to install SIL stations, but they lack funding to do so) or other type of Seismometer network on Snæfellsnes peninsula. This is bad, because this area has three active volcanoes that erupted around 1000 years ago. Along with populated areas close to this volcanoes. I plan on trying to setup few geophones in that area if I can. But currently I do not have any money or way to install and run geophones on Snæfellsnes peninsula. My closest geophone to Snæfellsnes peninsula is at Hvammstangi village. Closest the distance is around 84 km or so to the Ljósufjöll volcano. But that means I can record earthquakes down to ML1.0 in the best weather. But since I just have one geophone in this area at the moment. I cannot locate any earthquakes. I just know that they take place.

This is based on blog post from Haraldur Sigurðsson, geologist.

Blog post and news about this in Icelandic

Jarðskjálftar undir Snæfellsjökli kalla á skjálftamælanet (blog.is, Icleandic)
Þörf á skjálftamælum við Snæfellsjökul (mbl.is, Icelandic)

Blog post updated at 20:10 UTC on 17.04.2012
Blog post updated at 20:13 UTC on 17.04.2012
Blog post updated at 15:23 UTC on 20.04.2012

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Askja lake ice-free mystery deepens

A short update on Askja volcano ice-free lake.

There have been news about the tour of geologist to Askja lake this week in the news. So far the result are puzzling. It turns out that Askja lake is just 1C, but that is normal for this time of year. So why it is ice-free remains a mystery at current time. Data from GPS and seismometers. Samples of the water has been taken also for a analyze and review of weather condition’s is under way. But so far the Askja lake mystery deepens.

News about Askja volcano and new video of Askja volcano. Use Google translate in the hope to understand what is sad.

Ísleysið á Öskjuvatni er ráðgáta (Rúv.is, Pictures, Icelandic)
Loftmyndir af Öskjuvatni (Video of Askja lake, Icelandic)