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How donations help me II

This is a off-topic blog post.

The earlier background information can be found here.

The saving project for the next 14 or so months

After what I call a rather expensive (more then expected and more what I liked) August. I am going to freeze my spending for the next 14 or so months. That means I am going to limit my spending as much that I can do during this time. But that is until I move back to Denmark in February 2013. I have to spend some money on food, maintenance on my computer and all necessary stuff. But I am going to limit that as I can possible do. I just hope that nothing dies or fails computer wise during this period.

My debt paying down plan is running good at current time. I do not expect any problems with it, at least nothing that I cannot balance out in the budget during the paying down period. At least that is what I hope actually happens. But I have to wait and see what happens actually.

How the donation button works

This might be obvious. But I am going to write it down anyway.

The “Donation” button is a single donation. It is what you want to donate. It is a free range of what people want to donate. The “Subscribe” donation button is fixed at €10, but that is $14.17, 8.7GBP, 74.51 DKK, 93.29 SEK (current exchange rate, this is a estimate). It runs for 6 months and then has to be renewed. I did not want to last for 12 months or longer. I did not find it to be fair to the people how donate, as things change change a lot in 6 months. This option was for people how might want to donate regularly. But not a large amount each time they donate.

People how want to donate in other currencies the Euro can do so. I support SEK, DKK, USD, GBP. If requested I can add more currencies that I can support. But it has to be a currency that might be used every once in a while. I do not want to support a currency that is never used for a donations.

The income problem

As I have told people before. I just have my income from social welfare. Something that I am to get my self off with income from e-book sales when the time comes. But at the moment this blog and a new blog that I am going to create are my work and provide a little bit of income during the month. This extra income helps in that sense it allows me to pay down my debt faster. But I would not go as far saying it allows me to collect some money in the long run. But I am going to do my best with saving money during this winter, as I need to do if if I want to move back to Denmark.

It is also a problem in Iceland in regards to income how prices are going up in regards to food and other stuff. I do however not expect this to be too big of a problem during the next 14 months or so while I am living in Iceland. I just hope that I make it out in time before the economic mess starts in Iceland. If people want to talk about it, they can do so here on my main Icelandic blog where I write about this in English or Icelandic if they fancy Google Translate errors.

I hope that my income problems gets less annoying when I start to publish my e-books. But I plan to release few short stories in few weeks time. Those are not long stories and won’t be expensive. At least I hope for the best when it comes to e-book sales.

As always I thank you for the support that I get with donations. 🙂

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Earthquake swarm on the TFZ

There is currently a earthquake swarm taking place on the TFZ. This earthquake swarm appears to be rather small at the moment. The largest earthquake so far has been a ML3.2 according to the automatic earthquake list on Icelandic Met Office earthquake list.

There is no volcano activity connected to this earthquake swarm, as there are no volcanoes in this area off the coast of Iceland but there are volcanoes in part of what is considered part of TFZ. This area has its earthquakes from a slip faults. But they move in both north-east to north-west, but also in south-north direction in some cases.


The Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this picture belongs to it’s owner. Picture found here.

Here is the latest earthquake image from Icelandic Met Office about this earthquake swarm.


Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is impossible to know how this earthquake swarm behaves. It is also known for the TFZ area that one earthquake swarm can start a new earthquake swarm nearby if a large enough earthquake happens. This happens sometimes, but not always. It is not a common thing to take place in the TFZ from what I remember about activity in TFZ.

I am going to update this blog post if this earthquake activity becomes something larger then it already is, or if a large earthquakes takes place in the TFZ.

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Earthquake swarm north of Langjökull glacier and volcano, new hole found in Selfoss town

This is a short update.

Langjökull glacier: Yesterday there was a minor earthquake swarm north of Langjökull glacier and volcano. This area did last time was last year when a good sized earthquake swarm did happen in this area, but last year it did start around this time of year and lasted until November. It remains to be seen if that happens now. So far all the data suggests that this earthquake swarm is just tectonic in nature. It also appears that earthquake swarms in this area start slowly with long breaks between them. So I am expecting more earthquakes there. Unless this has just been a single event with no repeats.

SISZ: On Selfoss town they have just found a new strange hole in the road. The opening of the hole is about 1.5 meter in size. But the depth is about 6 meters (guess?) and area that is hollow under the hole is few hundred meters (guess?) according to the news. It is believed that this did happen because of the SISZ Mb6.3 earthquake that did happen in this area in the year 2008.

Here are news about, with pictures of the hole.

Jarðskjálftahola á Selfossi (Rúv.is, Icelandic, Picture)
Hola myndaðist í jörðinni á Selfossi (Vísir.is, Icelandic, Pictures)

Katla volcano: I think that something might be about to start in Katla volcano. But that is just a speculation that I am doing now. I am far from sure about it. But it should be clear in few hours if something is happening in Katla volcano or not. I base my assessment on rather odd changes in the tremor plot. They are hard to spot, but still there and appears to be growing it seems. But I am going to check and see what happens in few hours time. This might be nothing. But only time is going to tell us that for sure.

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Overview of Hamarinn volcano current activity

Here is a short overview of the Hamarinn volcano activity this summer. From what I can gather in the current data this is most likely not over. During the past few days there have been at least suspected two minor eruption in Hamarinn volcano. But it hard to confirm it due to glacier that is covering this area.

This all starts on 12. July 2011 at 07:30 UTC with this event here.


The tremor spike on 12. July 2011 at 07:49 UTC. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

When the clock is around 19:10 UTC the same day the tremor chart looks like this.


The tremor spikes are now three on 12. July 2011 at 19:09 UTC. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

On the 13. July 2011 the tremor plot looks like this. But at that time the glacier flood had started and broken from the Vatnajökull glacier.


The tremor chart at 13. July 2011 at 01:10 UTC. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


The tremor chart at 13. July 2011 at 12:59 UTC. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Then there was a short period of break when nothing interesting happened in Hamarinn volcano. That break did last until 16. July 2011 when a new, but smaller spike did appear on Skrokkalda SIL station.


The tremor at 16. July 2011 at 15:22 UTC. It is not fully clear what did happen at this time. But this was most likely a earthquake in Hamarinn volcano. But that is yet unconfirmed at this time. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Then there is a new break that lasts until 1. August when a earthquakes happens deep under Bárðarbunga volcano. But the deepest earthquake had the depth of 25.2 km. But it is also important to notice this earthquake that took place on 13. July 2011 and it is from Hamarinn volcano.


The earthquake from Hamarinn volcano. This picture is released under Creative Commons licence. Please see licence web page for more details.

On the 3. August 2011 around 02:00 UTC a new harmonic tremor spike starts to be visible on Skrokkalda SIL station.


The tremor plot at 01:55 UTC on 3. August 2011. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This day two minor harmonic tremor happens. A change in Skaftá glacier river is noticed. That is higher conductivity and slightly more water. It was announced in the news that a Skaftá glacier river flood was about to start from the eastern glacier cauldron that is formed above the Hamarinn volcano. Today however that does not seem to be the case. As no glacier flood has taken place so far.

Today (5. August 2011) there was a new harmonic tremor spike on Skrokkalda SIL station. It did follow the same pattern as before. It started and lasted for about 20 to 60 minutes or about that long.


The tremor chart 5. August 2011 at 17:38 UTC. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

So far today only one harmonic tremor has been detected. But given the past experience that is unlikely to hold for a long time now. But it is impossible to know when a new event starts or how big it is going to be.

The original event on 12. July 2011 did create new cauldron in the glacier. This map from Icelandic Met Office shows the location of those new cauldrons. But it has been marked with a star on the map. The coloured dots are earthquakes in this area over the past few years.


Map of the area that is currently active in Hamarinn volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Given the current data I am expect a full scale eruption in this area soon. When is hard to know for sure. But until that happens there are going to be more smaller eruptions in this area. I do not know why there is a lack of earthquakes following this events. I cannot explain it. But because of that this can only be seen after it has started on the tremor charts.

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Hekla volcano earthquake from early this morning

Here is the earthquake that took place in Hekla volcano this morning. This earthquake was small, just ML2.02 with the depth of 4.8 km. Because of how close this earthquake was to my geophone at Heklubyggð it did appear clearly on it.


The earthquake at Hekla volcano this morning. This picture is released under Creative Commons License, see License web page for more details.

No aftershocks where recorded after this earthquake and nothing suggests that a Hekla volcano is about to erupt at present time. But that can change without warning at any time.

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Earthquake swarm starts on the Reykjanes Ridge

It appears that a earthquake swarm has started on the Reykjanes Ridge. This earthquake swarm appears to have started with a earthquake that is ML3.6 to ML4.0 in size or larger. But I don’t think it is a Mb5.0 in size. On the earthquake list on the Icelandic Met Office web site there are several ghost earthquakes. But I did just record one earthquake on my geophones.


The current area of activity on the Reykjanes Ridge. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This looks like a normal earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge. So far nothing suggests that this means a eruption is about to start in this area. But that might change without warning since this is a volcano area.

I am going to update this blog post if there are any more strong earthquakes on the Reykjanes Ridge.

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Sharp rise in harmonic tremor on Skrokkalda and Grímsfjall SIL station (among others)

There is a sharp rise in harmonic tremor on the Skrokkalda and Grímsfjall SIL station. I do not know yet what volcano is responsible for it. But the Hamarinn volcano is a suspect at the moment.

Current tremor plot.


The tremor spike is at the end of this tremor plot. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


The tremor spike is at the end of this tremor plot. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I am going to post more information about what is going on when I know more. This blog post might get updated soon if needed.

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How donations help me

This is a off-topic post.

Here is a little background information on how donations help me in the long run and the short run.

First some background information

First when I did start the donation route. I was unsure about it. As it is not custom to ask for money in Iceland and in Icelandic culture it is short of shame. I do not know why that is. That is why it did feel uncomfortable doing this for the first time around. At current time my main stable income is social welfare that is around 150500 ISK, 910€, 1293$, 794 GBP, 6785 DKK at current exchange rate. It has moved up a little since I moved back to Iceland as it was due to some extra that I get on top of the basic social welfare when I am living in Iceland.

As can be seen this is not to live on. It is even less when I am paying down my debt as fast that I possible can. But I am going to try and pay down my debt in around 7 months. If I can do that, I can move back to Denmark in early in the year 2013. Then I can move without much problems.

Now the main story

But in order for all this to work up. I need slightly more income then I get from social welfare. As it turns out that I need to buy food (we human apparently need to eat to survive). But I also need to pay my bills. Both in Iceland and Denmark (mobile phone) but also what I need to buy to eat. Now, because I am going to school and I am going to be living in a dormitory (with a lot of 16 to 17 year old kids) I won’t have to buy food from Monday to Friday. Except snack and something of that nature. But I also plan to buy subscription to DR 1 to maintain my Danish while in Iceland.

Donations help me to pay the bills and buy food. But they also help me pay down my debt faster then I otherwise would have done.

What you get in return for donating

Endless supply for blog posts on what is going on in Iceland. I also give in details when I can what is going on in Iceland, and if I can why. People how donate also get a free e-book (only pdf format) if they want. But that is just e-books about past eruptions in Iceland. I also maintain this blog and do all the service parts that need to be done (that I can anyway) myself. I also answers all the emails that I get when I have the time to do so. I also provide live information from my geophone (started years earlier, but have now been integrated into this now).

The work behind each blog post

I do not know if people release this. But I put a great work into each and every blog post I make. I try to do my best when a eruption suddenly starts to get information on what is going on. This is also what people get when they donate. My work on each blog post about Icelandic volcano that is making it self heard in Iceland. But you also get blog post about earthquakes, harmonic tremors, glacier flood and everything else if it is related to Iceland geological activity. Sometimes if I have time I try to write about the history of Iceland past eruptions. But it takes me from 1 hour and up to 8 hours to write one blog post, depending on size and details of the blog post in question.

What about the advertisement ?

While advertisements is a attempt to increase my income with something else then donations. It is has not been going to so good, as the income is somewhat irregular and I might only get paid 1 to 4 month or not even that often. They do help, no doubt about that. But they depend on traffic and I only get high traffic when something interesting is happening.

What is planned for the future ?

This blog is going to be free as it has always been. I am considering opening up a forum with Invasion Power Board. But that also costs money, so I might not know when I get around to buy it. As it expensive and I am trying to save money to move back to Denmark. So it has made it into my todo list for now. When it might become a reality is a question. But no later then 2013 if everything goes according to plan.

I want to make a living of writing. This is just a step in that direction.

I also want to thank everything for the support so far. It helps more then you know! 🙂

P.S: I am going to publish my first short story soon as a e-book. When it might happen I am not sure yet. But it is just going to a really short story that I am about to publish.

Blog post updated at 18:13 UTC on 2.08.2011.

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Interesting earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano system (Hamarinn volcano)

At 02:06 and 02:07 UTC there where interesting earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano system. What makes them interesting is that fact they did happen at 0.6 km depth one of them. But this area did see some volcano related activity (speculated) earlier this summer, that did result in large glacier flood. But it has been suggested that a minor eruption took place there around 10. July 2011.


The two earthquakes can be seen as spikes at the end of this tremor plot from Icelandic Met Office. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

What makes this earthquakes so interesting is that they seem to have a low period component in them. But it was seen on the Kálfafell SIL station, and other SIL station that was decent distance from the source of the earthquake.


The two earthquakes can be seen as spikes at the end of this tremor plot from Icelandic Met Office. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Currently there is nothing that suggests that a eruption is about to start in this area. But that can change without warning given the current status of Hamarinn volcano system.

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Glacier flood has started in Skaftá river

The latests news is that a glacier flood has started in Skaftá river. At the moment this glacier flood does not appear to be big, as there was also a glacier flood in this river last year. Because of this short time, there has not been a lot of water collected in the western cauldron that is emptying now. It was clear today that it was the western cauldron that had emptied when scientists did fly over the area earlier today.

This glacier flood is often early event and has been since the year 1955. Following this glacier flood there is often spike in harmonic tremor because magma goes on the move due to sudden pressure release in this area. So far it has not been able to trigger a eruption in Hamarinn volcano. It remains to be seen if that has changed or not.

Icelandic News about this

Hlaup hafið í Skaftá (Rúv.is, Pictures, Icelandic)
Rennsli eykst í Skaftá (Vísir.is)
Hlaupið komið í Skaftá (mbl.is)