Volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland
Welcome to the same blog, with a new name (again). This blog is now named Jón Frímann volcano and earthquake blog. My focus area is Iceland and Europe. But I also cover events in other parts of the world if I can do so. But that might not always be the case.
The forum has also changed about name, it is now in line with this blog. As they are connected on subjects and what is covered there.
Next is more coverage of volcanoes and earthquakes in Iceland and in other parts of the world. 🙂
I have made up my mind on how to deal with current identity crises on this blog. It seems that most people want to see this blog called “Jón Frímann earthquake and volcano blog” (or in that direction. This is similar to the name that my other blog has). At least that is what I read from the comments here. I normally make this type of changes in the beginning of the month. But I am going to make an exception this time around. The change is going to happen at 21:00 UTC on 18. January 2012. At the same time the forum is going to change about name. It is going to be called Jón Frímann Volcano and earthquake forum (in accordance with the blog, since they are connected).
The focus areas
While this move allows me to cover all the world. My focus areas are going to be Iceland and Europe on this blog. But I am mostly going to cover Iceland activity, volcanoes and earthquakes. Same goes for the forum. Its main focus is going to be Iceland and Europe. No major changes are going to take place there right away. Besides the name change. The reason for different focus areas is because of the difference in activity
If people have any other suggestion or issue with this idea. Please let me know in time. Thanks.
I am also sorry for this issue that showed it self. I do this because I was not happy with the name, and I also read almost everything about volcanoes everywhere in the world. I also feel that Europe activity is not getting good enough coverage as Iceland once was (that allows for all manners of wrong information to be put forward). Before I started to write about it. I also want to evolve this blog and its subject. I find that to be important thing to do with my work on the internet.
Blog post updated at 18:31 UTC on 18.01.2012.
In the beginning of the new year I changed the name of this blog to include the area that I now cover with this blog. I added Spain and Canary Islands to it. But many people have been asking since I started this blog if I covered events that take place in Europe, as well as Iceland. I have not done so yet. But that might be about to change, if I get a positive feedback from this blog post. I would also change the forum to cover the whole of Europe. How exactly (there are many countries in Europe) I am not sure yet. But I am working in ideas how to deal with it already.
If I expand this blog to whole of Europe it means a lot more work for me. But that also mean that I cannot cover every single small event that happens in Europe. But I would do my best to cover all the major events as they take place. But this change would mean that I would cover whole of Europe as one area. It would not be country special as such. I would name the country with the location in Categories tags.
There are benefits as drawbacks to expanding this blog to whole of Europe. I get more to write about, as dead times in Iceland, Spain and Canary Islands can be covered with other events taking place in Europe. The drawback is that I do not know every fault line, or volcano in Europe. So it might take me a while until I know about all the other volcanoes in Europe. But I can learn about those volcanoes like any other volcano on the planet Earth. This however does not change the fact that I know more about earthquake and volcano activity in Iceland then in other parts of Europe. As I have been watching and studying the activity in Iceland for a lot longer time then I have been watching the activity in Europe. But I have been watching earthquake activity in Europe and around the world for about 14 years now. It is also added benefits of expanding this blog is that I should get more revenue from advertisements. As I should get more traffic then when I am just covering Iceland, Spain and Canary Islands. But donations are often not enough to cover my costs (+other things) of running this blog and my other web pages. This is just the way that is I guess.
It is different how I report earthquake activity in Iceland. For instance. I am not always writing about small earthquake activity that always takes place in many places. Doing so would be waste of my time. Same goes for Spain and Canary Island, where I now report only events that are worth reporting.
It is also an important factor in all this that from this year I am going to move back to Denmark. But I already cover earthquakes that take place there when they happen (every 2 to 10 years) since I have moved to Denmark once before. I want to expand on that to all of Europe. For the reasons I mention above. But I wanted to hear from my readers if this is an good idea or not for me to do. Even if I sometimes think that might be an good idea. Sometimes it turns out that the idea that I had was not.
I am unsure on the name change date if I go trough with this plan. But I would not change it in the middle of the month. I would change it in the beginning of the month. So I have this date to choose from. 1 February, 1 March, 1 April, 1 May, 1 June, 1 July (the latest date that I want to use).
The area that I already cover to date.
Iceland, Jan Mayen (Norway), Spain, Canary Island, Denmark
So please let me know what you think about this in comments.
It is clear that Grímsfjall volcano is an restless volcano. In the year 2011 it had the largest eruption for at least 140 years. But even so that does not stop the volcano from preparing new eruption sometimes soon. But I am now expecting an new eruption from Grímsfjall volcano in the next 12 to 48 months or so at the earliest. The preparing for eruption clues have already started to show. But that is an slow increase in earthquakes in Grímsfjall volcano. Something that has always been a clear indicator of that an eruption might not be far off, even if nobody knows when and how big next eruption is going to be. It has been documented that Grímsfjall volcano does sometimes have an eruption every once or two year when the activity is at highest. But since the year 1983 the eruptions in Grímsfjall volcano have been getting more frequent and larger, the largest one so far being last year.
The latest earthquake in Grímsfjall volcano. It has not been reviewed so it’s location might change. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office.
GPS data from the past 6 months (I think). As can be seen not a lot of magma has been going into Grímsfjall volcano system since the large eruption that started 21.05.2011. So far the inflation has only been around 100 mm to date, but even so that is more then whole inflation of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in the year 2010. But that was only around 60 mm for comparison. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office.
It is unclear what happens next in Grímsfjall volcano. But for us how watch volcanoes. This is going to mean a lot of waiting time until next eruption in Grímsfjall volcano.
This blog officially also covers Jan Mayen Island north of Iceland. But since the Jan Mayen Island is uninhabited, activity there is not on the top priority list and I do not mention the Jan Mayen area as such because of this.
Yesterday (15.01.2012) there where two earthquakes detected by EMSC north of Jan Mayen Island. This earthquakes happened in the rift zone that is in this area. The largest earthquake had the size Mb4.9 with the default depth of 10 km. The smaller earthquake had the size Mb4.2 with the default depth of 10 km.
This area has the depth of around 2 km where it is shallowest (mountain peaks) so it is impossible to what is going on. But this is most likely tectonic earthquakes rather then volcanic earthquakes that are taking place in this area. But due the distance from populated areas and any seismometer networks only the largest earthquakes are detected when they happen. Norway National Seismic Network can be found here, they have some better resolution of earthquakes in the Jan Mayen Island then EMSC.
Earlier tonight an earthquake swarm started around 88 km south of a town of Höfn í Hornarfirði. This area last had an earthquake or earthquake swarm in Week 22 (no map exist of it, but the earthquakes are in the weekly overview list) in the year 2007. Then the largest earthquake was around ML3.0 in size.
So far the largest earthquake has been around ML2.3 in size, with the depth of 9.4 km. But the earthquakes that are detected around ML2.0 in size. But given the distance from the SIL network. This size is the lowest size that can be detected from what I can tell. This is because of the distance from the closest SIL station and how few SIL stations are in this area that are able to detect earthquakes this far out in the ocean. Earthquakes like this regularly happen all around Iceland. But most are not detected due to lack of SIL stations in the area. For that reason it is impossible to know for sure how many earthquakes actually have taken place there, as the SIL network is only recording the largest ones in this area.
The area where this earthquake swarm is taking place is on the edge of Iceland volcanic shelf. This is often refereed to as intra-plate earthquakes. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office.
This area is not volcanic last I knew. As it has no-known volcanoes today and most likely never has had any active volcanoes. In this area the Iceland plate is pushing down the oceanic crust that is on top of. This progress often creates earthquakes as we are now seeing. I have not yet found any research paper, as I am unsure what terms to use to look for the research.
Yesterday (12.01.2012) there was an minor earthquake swarm in Upptyppingar tuff mountain. But they are inside Kverkfjöll volcano fissure swarm that extends several km away from the main volcano. The largest earthquake in this earthquake swarm was around ML2.0 in size, with the depth of 14.4 km. But this was also the deepest earthquake in this earthquake swarm. But most of the earthquakes had the depth of 14.4 km and up to 7.8 km. So I am sure that this was magma, rather then tectonic movements that did create this small earthquake swarm.
The earthquake activity in Upptyppingar tuff mountains. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
This might mean that there is more activity on the way in Upptyppingar tuff mountain. As this suggests that new magma has started to flow into the magma sill that has formed under the Upptyppingar tuff mountains. It is hard to know or if there is going to be an eruption there. But I find it most likely going to be the case. But it might well be good 10 to 20 years into the future until an eruption happens in that spot. But activity started in this area in the year 2007, so there already have been good 5 years since activity started in Upptyppingar tuff mountain. For the moment however, it is all wait and see and earthquakes.
Special donation help wanted!
I want to do something for my mom and dad. How are not the most technical people in the world. The fact is that where they live there is no mobile signal inside the house, but it is good out side the house. This can be fixed with an GSM repeater. But that costs money. Around 47.000 ISK, 2.189 DKK, 244 GBP, 294€, $372. I am going to get permission from the mobile companies and the authorities in Iceland to setup this minor repeater in the licensed spectrum (900Mhz). I want to do this. But I currently do not have the money to do this at present time. That is why I am asking for donation so I can do this. But I want to buy them the smallest GSM repeater that is possible to buy in Iceland, just so that they can get GSM signal inside the house.
Thanks for the support. 🙂
During the past 24 to 48 hours there has been some unusual and interesting earthquake activity in south part of Hekla volcano system. I am unsure on what this means, as normally Hekla volcano does not have any earthquakes before an eruption. However, that is not the only type Hekla volcano can and has erupted over the centuries. One of the aspect of Hekla volcano eruptions is that it can and has erupted in fissure eruptions outside the main mountain. This type of eruptions can last from few week and up to almost a year. Based on the limited historical records of such events. This type of events are always basaltic lava events that do not make a lot of volcano ash when they start.
The earthquakes in Hekla volcano during the last 48 hours. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office.
There are clues that Hekla volcano might be about to have an fissure eruption some time in the future. But when and where is impossible to know for sure at current time. How that is going to manifest it self when the time comes is also impossible to know for sure. At current time there is however no eruption starting in Hekla volcano. When it might start is an good guess, with no answer to it.
Based on the earthquake activity in El Hierro volcano it seems that new magma injection has taken place, or is taking place at current time in El Hierro volcano.
This new magma injection into El Hierro volcano has already been followed by stronger harmonic tremors and more activity on the surface. As should have been expected when this happens. It is impossible to know at the moment how large and how long this new magma injection is going to last. But while it is ongoing, more eruption activity should be expected from El Hierro volcano. So far nothing suggests that new vents are about to open up in El Hierro volcano at the moment.
Other then this renewed activity. Nothing else has been happening in El Hierro volcano. There have been some news reports (in Spanish, use Google Translate to read) about new thermal anomalies in El Hierro volcano. This might just be hydro-thermal activity following dike intrusions at shallow depth.
The eruption in El Hierro volcano continues with on and off rhythmic at the moment. So fluxuations in the harmonic tremor plots can be rather huge. That is from considerable amount of tremors down to no harmonic tremors at all.
The harmonic tremor in El Hierro volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).
Here is also an video of the eruption in El Hierro volcano. I do believe that this pictures are rather new. But I am not sure. The audio is Spanish.
It is impossible to know for how long El Hierro volcano is going to keep up the current eruption pattern. But this pattern might stop at any time, without any warning at all.