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Website news for December 2011

Here are the website news for December 2011.

Name change for the blog in the beginning of January 2012

Since I now cover Spain and Canary Islands. A name change is needed for this blog. That name change is going to take place in the beginning of January 2012. The new name is going to reflect the area that I cover daily in this blog. This change is because I plan to move to Canary Islands (hopefully) in about 10 years time or so.

Changes in advertisement setup

I am going to change the display of the Amazon ads that I have here. Since I try to have ads from most of the language areas in Europe (that Amazon supports) there are many ads and they take a lot of space following it. So instead of using large banners. I am going to replace them with smaller banners or just ads boxes. Google Adsense are going to remain in the same size however as they have been on this blog.

Donations

This blog is free, so are all the information that I put forward here (all that is from me is under CC Licence). For that reason I depend on donations to do my work properly. There is also cost of hosting, living, computer hardware that I have to pay. I am not only living on this blog. But I do have social benefits as I am born with Asperger’s syndrome. Before people start to make a stereotype out of me, I must say that this is really mild version of Asperger’s syndrome that I have. But it has its challenges on times in the people department. But as social welfare goes, it is small amount and when I start to rent apartment again and all that. It is not going to last that long over the month.

My plan also to move back to Denmark have created the situation that I am now saving as much money that I can in order to pay for the moving cost to Denmark (more details later on in this blog post). For that reason I am broke so to speak. Thanks to some great donations last month have eased that pressure somewhat. But I am also trying to save the donations up for the move to Denmark. However, it has proven to be difficult trying to save up money with all the hardware failures that I have been having during the past two months. But that should be more or less over now. I at least hope so. I have only delayed one hardware upgrade until I move to Denmark. That is on my server computer. It needs a hard drive replacement. The hard drive is dying in that computer. But because it is going to be turned off after two weeks and is going to remain offline for the next few months until I move back to Denmark. I figured that it should be in good order (at least I hope so).

During the past two months I have had to replace old hardware that was on its last hours. This has both cut into my savings and told the sad story on how I have been avoiding proper hardware maintenance due to lack of money. To this day I have already lost data (nothing that was not able to get again, for most part) due to lack of replacing old hardware. This all comes down to the reason that I have been really broke for a long time, due to lack of proper income for what I want to do. This blog and my other writer work is a way for me to get out of that cycle of problems. But I am going to work hard on that goal to get off social welfare forever. Since I have grown tired of being poor and not to live my life as I want.

I also want to let people know that with growing geophone network the cost of running such network is going to increase. For the long time now I have been able to have that cost close to zero. But I am not sure for how long I can run it close to cost free. For at least one new geophone station that I am planning and hoping to get up and running in the new year I am going to have to buy a mobile modem (GSM/3G) and subscription (around €10 an month) so I can get data from it. As there is no good other connections in the area. There are going to be at least two geohone network stations like that I plan in coming months.

Geophone network

In December I plan to setup and start two new geophone stations. This geophone stations are going to be located in Eyrarbakki (a small village close to SISZ). The second one is going to be located on a farm named Skeiðflöt, it is located south of Mýrdasljökull but is inside the Katla volcano system that extends a little bit to the south in that area. I am not sure when the geophone stations go up. But it is going to be sometimes after 13 December, 2011. At least I hope so. But this is the plan now and I hope that it holds.

The new geophone stations are going to increase the sensitivity from ML1.9 at Hengill volcano (from Hekla volcano geophone) down to ML0.0 (or about that). For Katla volcano. I am going to be able to record earthquakes down to ML0.0, along with tremor spikes and other stuff like that. For the moment I can barely see earthquakes down to ML1.8 in Katla volcano. Overall, this is going to give me a lot better picture on what is going on in Katla volcano, in real time also.

For the year 2012 I am planning a geophone station at my mom and dad farm. Since now there is a mobile signal that I can use. The cost layout of that would be geophone + computer (I have already bought the computer) + GSM/3G modem and the subscription with that. I am going to post more details on that when the time comes.

Volcanoforum.eu is up and running

The volcanoforum.eu is now up and running. I am still setting up and looking for bugs. But it is ready for people to start registering on it and take part in the discussions. A volcano and earthquake related sections on the forum are going to appear soon. I am not yet done fine tuning the forum. So be patient on that front. But for the most part, it should be working now without any issue at all. At least I hope so.

Moving back to Denmark

In the year 2012 I am going to move back to Denmark. For the moment I am collecting all my money (that I can spare) for the apartment costs, moving cost and all that needs to be paid when I move between countries. I also plan to buy me a new television when I move to Denmark. So I am also collecting for that. For this reason, I am a bit depended on donations for the moment. I not sure yet when I move back to Denmark. But the search for the apartment starts in the early months of the new year of 2012.

Because of that. I do not have any apartment in Iceland and after December I am not going to have any good internet connection. For that reason my main computers are going to be turned off until I can move back to Denmark. This is going to limit me a little bit on what I can work on. But I am going the best I can with this. At least I have my laptop to work on (I should not fail, I hope anyway).

School is finished

I am now finished with school. All that is left are two tests. After that I move from the dorm where I have been living for the past few months. When that is over I move back to my mom and dad until I can get a apartment in Denmark. This all takes few months from start to finish. I do not think that there is anything else to say in this monthly web site news about this blog.

If there is something that I forgot. I am just going to add it later in a update to this blog post.

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Activity remains low in Iceland. Eruption continues in El Hierro volcano

At the present time the earthquake activity remains low in Iceland. This goes for both Katla volcano and other areas of Iceland. This is the regular quiet time in Iceland, as it happens sometimes. For the next days, there is a risk of frost-quakes as the ground freezes over in a cold snap.

El Hierro volcano, Canary Islands

The eruption in El Hierro volcano continues as before. New eruption vents have been opening up at random in the south part of El Hierro volcano. Earthquake activity to the north has dropped. While at the same time, the earthquake activity seems to have increased slightly to the west part of El Hierro volcano. I am not sure why that is yet.

In the tremor data. I have been seeing several explosions taking place. But they create a spikes in the tremor plot, that is different then what happens when a earthquake takes place.


The current harmonic tremor from El Hierro volcano. Explosions are the spike activity (30 November, 2011). Some of this however might be sudden increase in eruption activity. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).

Other then that. The eruption in El Hierro volcano seems to be about the same for the moment as it has been for the past almost two months now. So far it is impossible to know when this eruptions ends. But eruption in La Palma volcano lasted about one month on average. Eruptions in Lanzarote volcano have lasted about three months (last eruption was in the year 1824). Based on this. This might be a eruption that lasts for about 3 to 5 months at the longest in my opinion. But what actually happens is just something that is a wait and see matter.

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Update on the weekend activity

Iceland

This weekend was quiet in Iceland. There was almost nothing going on. There was only one small earthquake swarm in Krýsuvík volcano. But this earthquake swarm was tectonic in nature, not volcanic. The largest earthquake in this earthquake swarm was about ML3.2 in size. Few earthquakes where in Katla volcano, but less this weekend then many others. But it is normal for Katla volcano to be quiet during November to March each year due to snow that is added to the glacier. But that increased the pressure of the glacier on top of the magma chamber (floating balance laws at work here).

Mainland Spain

There was a flurry of earthquakes on Mainland Spain during the weekend. None of this earthquakes where felt, from what I can gather at IGN web site.

Canary Islands, Spain

The eruption at El Hierro volcano continues as it has done for the past almost two months now. The harmonic levels are about the same as it has been, but there seems to be minor intermittent in activity from El Hierro volcano. IGN has setup a picture web site with images that show the activity since this eruption started clearly.

Erik at Eruption blog has good blog post about the magma mixing that appears to be taking place in the eruption in El Hierro volcano.

Other then this. Is is all quiet in Iceland for the moment. But frost-quakes should be expected in the next 48 hours or so in Iceland. As the ground freezes over in a really cold weather.

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Bogus news story going around about Katla volcano

There is a bogus news story about Katla volcano. The bogus news are that Katla volcano is just few days from erupting. This is wrong. At the moment there are no signs that Katla volcano is about to erupt. There is currently a relative quiet in Katla volcano, compared to the activity several weeks ago. But that activity started after the minor eruption in Katla volcano in July 2011 (this summer). This bogus news is also annoying the staff at Iceland Met Office, how are now getting phone calls about this news. Where other professionals are trying to get more information on this or just trying to figure out if the news is correct or not.

For the moment, it is all quiet in Katla volcano. If there are any changes. I am sure to write about it here with up to date information on what is going on. While the Yellow Press is looking for big-foot or something. So once again, the yellow press has it wrong and spreads minor panic following this poor news reporting.

News about this in Icelandic.

Nágrannaþjóðir óttast Kötlugos á næstu dögum (DV.is, Icelandic)
Norskir miðlar: Óttast flóðbylgju í kjölfar Kötlugoss – Getur gosið hvenær sem er – Kötlu illt í maganum (Pressan.is, Icelandic, Picture from the 1918 eruption in this news)

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Earthquake swarm in Grímsey Island (TFZ)

Today there has been a earthquake swarm in Grímsey Island. But this tiny Island is off the north coast of Iceland. Around 100 people live on the Grímsey Island. This earthquake swarm is small. But its location makes sure that it is felt. But it is directly under the village on the Grímsey Island. So far the strongest earthquake recorded is a ML3.3 in size with the depth of 9.1 km.


The earthquake swarm in Grímsey Island. The Island is located where the earthquake swarm is on this map. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Met Office.

The largest earthquake so far was recorded on my Hvammstangi geophone clearly.


The earthquake as recorded on my Hvammstangi geophone. This trace is filtered at 4Hz. This picture is released under Creative Commons licence. See top bar for more information.

The earthquake swarm appears to be ongoing. I am sure that this earthquake swarm is felt in the village because it is directly under it. But depth of the earthquakes might however play a role in it how well the earthquakes are felt in the village. So far there have not been any news reports on this earthquake swarm in Icelandic Media.

Blog post updated at 00:25 UTC on 25 November, 2011

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Rare earthquake close to Hvammstangi geophone

A rare earthquake took place yesterday close to my geophone in Hvammstangi village. But that village is located in north-west Iceland. This earthquake was small and I do not have location at moment, as I only have one geophone at this location for recording earthquakes.What I do know about this earthquake was around 25 km away from my geophone, with the default depth at 10 km. But this distance is a bit inaccurate due to default depth factors. So this is just a best effort guess. But what I do have is the wave form of this earthquake.


The vertical (Z) component of the earthquake. This picture is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see the top bar for more information.


The North-South component of the earthquake. This picture is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see the top bar for more information.


The East-West component of the earthquake. This picture is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see the top bar for more information.

All the pictures here above show the 20 seconds wave form signal of the earthquake. I have marked the P and S wave of the earthquake in order to figure out the distance this earthquake took place from my geophone.

In this area I get around one to two earthquakes a year that are local and do not appear on the Iceland Met Office earthquake list. But that happens because there are few to none SIL seismometers in this area and IMO can only detect earthquakes that are larger then ML1.5 to 2.5 in size.

If I get a location on this earthquake, I am going to update this blog post.

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Update for the eruption in El Hierro volcano

As the eruption in El Hierro volcano moves closer to the second month. Information on what has been going on has gone bit hard to come by (for me anyway). As people settle with there new reality (erupting volcano). But that does not stop me from reporting on it.

The current status of the eruption is that nothing much has changed since last blog post. But yesterday there where reports of new vents opening up off the south coast of El Hierro volcano. But this is the area where current eruption has been taking place the past month and a half. It remains to be seen if that is going to change or not. But earthquake activity has continued in north part of El Hierro volcano. This earthquake activity seems to be a mixed one. But that means there are both earthquakes due to dike intrusions and local tectonic earthquakes. I now think that this earthquake activity is going to continue all the eruption. I am not sure why a eruption has not started in north part of El Hierro volcano yet. But for the moment it is just earthquakes. The strongest earthquakes in this area can go up to Mb5.0 in size. But I base that on what type of rock makes up the area, along with the thickness of the crust. But that is from 10 km thick.


The earthquake activity for the past 48 hours in El Hierro volcano (picture from 22 November, 2011). Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).


Earthquake activity in El Hierro volcano for the past 4 days. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).


The earthquake activity from July 2011. This earthquake activity maps out well where the magma lies in the El Hierro volcano. But as the magma expands in the crust, it creates earthquake activity. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).

The harmonic tremor tells me what is going on in the eruption, when I lack all other visual data on what exactly is going on. But the harmonic tremor increases or drops depending on the strength of the eruption. But that aspect of the eruption is based on how many and how large fissures are open at the time.


The harmonic tremor as it is today (22 November, 2011) at 21:11 UTC. The eruption as can be seen is around the same level as before. But this is not the strongest the harmonic tremor has been. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).


The harmonic tremor when the eruption was more active then today. This can clearly be seen by how the harmonic tremor is stronger then the scale of the harmonic tremor plot. This happens when a new fissure opens up and its eruption is at the strongest. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).

The IGN web site on El Hierro volcano eruption can be found here. But it is in Spanish.

I am continuing to monitor this eruption. Even if it is a long term eruption, but that are eruptions that are longer then 1 month. As the for the eruption as a whole, little change has taken place in terms of strenght and location of the eruption. But that might change without warning as before.

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The weekend earthquake swarm deep out on the Reykjanes Ridge

During the weekend there was as earthquake swarm deep outside on the Reykjanes Ridge. It was about 700 km south of Reykjavík city. It was not felt on land and was only noticed on instruments. The last earthquake to be recorded was at 22:04 UTC, on 20 November 2011. It’s size was Mb4.4 according to EMSC. The largest earthquakes in this earthquake swarm had the size of Mb4.8, but there where several earthquakes recorded with this size.

Due to the location it is impossible to know if there was a eruption in this area or not. The ocean depth there is greater then 1 km (if my memory is correct). This means that if a eruption is taking place in this location. Nothing is going to appear on the surface of the ocean. So why this earthquakes are taking place are only speculation everything besides normal tectonic activity in this area. But the Reykjanes Ridge is a rift zone that often has earthquakes without any eruption taking place. There have however been several earthquake swarm during the year in this location. But what the actual reason remains a mystery due the location.

Other then this it is now quiet time in Iceland. This is the type of quiet time that I always worry about. But lets wait and see what is up with this lack of activity in Iceland.

Note: Update on the eruption in El Hierro volcano eruption is due tomorrow. This is now a long term eruption as explained few blog posts ago. So there are only updates on what is going on once in a while.

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Possibility of a new fissure has opened up in El Hierro volcano eruption

It seems by the harmonic tremor data that a new erupting fissure has opened up somewhere in El Hierro volcano. But given lack of visual observation I do believe that this fissure is at really great depth, and is not leaving any signs on the surface that a new eruption is taking place. Where this new fissure might be is unknown to me at present time. But based on the harmonic tremor data this new eruption seems to be powerful one. It should be expected that new fissures opens up a random while El Hierro volcano is erupting. So far the fissures that have been opening up have been short and out in the ocean. It should also be expect that erupting fissures stop erupting for no reason and with no warning at all. This seems to have happened as I am writing down this blog post.


The harmonic tremor from the eruption in El Hierro volcano yesterday. It can be seen on this harmonic tremor chart that the eruption was powerful all yesterday. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).


The harmonic tremor around 22:07 UTC. At that time the eruption was in full power as can be seen. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).


The harmonic tremor at 22:46 UTC. Notice how the drop is sudden when the new eruption fissure stops erupting. What happens is that the magma source that fed the erupting fissure did dry up. Why and how that happens in unknown to me. Copyright of this picture belongs to IGN (Instituto Geográfico Nacional).

This might mean that a new fissure might open up in the next few hours to days. Where that might happen is impossible to know. But as the fissures have been open up so far, it is going to be in a North – south line (about) in El Hierro volcano. What has however become a problem in my opinion is that the magma might have “boiled” the rock and made it soft. So it might not make a earthquakes before a eruption starts in it. This might be the case if the magma has been in the crust for the past 5 weeks. But the only example of that type of event that I know of was in Eyjafjallajökull volcano last year (2010), when a new fissure did open up suddenly and without any earthquakes or warning after 4 weeks of eruption. The reason for that was the same one on what I think might be happening in El Hierro volcano.

From what I can tell, based on data and earthquakes it does not seems that the eruptions in El Hierro volcano are over. As new magma continues to flow in from depth (the mantle). Until that flow stops, El Hierro volcano is going to continue to erupt. However there might be breaks from few hours and up to several weeks between eruptions, in that case no eruption would be taking place. This has its origin in the fact that this is a fissure rift events of shorts, a similar eruption took place in Krafla volcano in Iceland for over a 10 year period. Movement and flash inflation and deflation are also to be expected during this period in El Hierro volcano eruption. As it has many similarities of the eruption in Krafla volcano in Iceland. But it is not exactly the same, just similar. As Krafla volcano is on the inter-plate rift zone. While El Hierro volcano is on a hot spot rift zone, far inside the Africa Plate.

Update on the forum: There have been some technical difficulties with the whois registration. How that works out is not yet clear. I am going to short that issue out before I set-up the forum on the domain. In the case I have to register a new domain name. What happens in this case should be come clear next week I hope.

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Katla volcano newest earthquake swarm

During the night of the 16th of November, 2011 there was a new earthquake swarm in Katla volcano. This earthquake swarm is a part of ongoing pattern in Katla volcano. This pattern started after the small eruption that took place in Katla in July 2011. It was observed yesterday that there was a deep earthquake in Katla volcano, with the depth of 28 km. This earthquake did most likely did happen due to a dike intrusion deep inside Katla volcano, but it might well be that this was just a normal earthquake. It is hard to know that for sure. But deep dike intrusions are well known in Katla volcano. Sometimes they are followed by a harmonic tremor for few moments or minutes.


The earthquakes from Katla volcano can clearly be seen on this tremor plot from Iceland Met Office. But they make the spikes that are on it. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Met Office.


The location of last earthquake swarm in Katla volcano. Most of the earthquakes are inside the caldera of Katla volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Met Office.


The largest earthquake in this earthquake swarm. Its size was ML2.35 and it had the depth of 4 km. This picture is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see the top bar (there is a link there) for more information on this.

This was a long period earthquake. But this is the only clue at the moment that Katla volcano is going to erupt soon. But when is still a unknown question at present time.


The frequency analysis of the ML2.35 earthquake. As can be seen here this earthquake has really low frequency component. But most of the energy goes into about 2Hz frequency. This picture is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see the top bar (there is a link there) for more information on this.

It is impossible to know how many earthquake swarm Katla volcano is going to have before it erupts. But this is a one way street that Katla volcano is now on. For us humans, we just have to wait and see what happens next. Nothing else can be done when it comes to forces of nature. When the time comes, get out of the way of Katla volcano.