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Quiet scene goes into third week

The quiet scene that has been taking place in Iceland over the last two weeks is still ongoing and is now entering it’s third week. Over the last two week there have been less then 300 earthquakes during a single week. In Iceland that is quiet.

All volcanoes in Iceland have mostly been quiet. But there was a unconfirmed earthquake swarm in Grímsfjall volcano. But due to extremely bad weather it was not observed properly by the SIL network. North of Iceland there also has been a unconfirmed earthquake swarm. This earthquake swarm is somewhere north of Kolbeinsey volcano. But due to distance and bad weather it is unknown how big it was. But the largest earthquakes that have appeared on the SIL network did manage to go up to ML3.0 in size. But that is mostly a underestimate on the size of this event. But underestimate on a earthquake size happens when it is far from SIL network and not properly recorded due that.

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How to get Icelandic media in a case of a eruption in Iceland

When a eruption starts in Iceland. All media in Iceland covers it. Both in there news web sites and on the radio stations on the internet that publish information in english and other languages if needed. Here is a list of the main media stations in Iceland.

Radio stations:

Rúv Rás 1 – Public radio station. Needs Windows Media Audio player to listen to this radio station. It is also possible to listen to Rás 1 over satellite on 1W.
Rúv Rás 2 – Public Radio station. Needs Windows Media Audio player to listen to this radio station. It is also possible to listen to Rás 2 over satellite on 1W.
Bylgjan FM 98,9 – A radio station with news. A flash might be needed to listen to this radio station.

Tv stations:

Rúv Sjónvarpið – Can be watched on-line here. Both with flash player and Windows Media Video capable player. In Europe Rúv Sjónvarpið can also been watched over satellite on 1W if you have Conax access card to view the channel (only available in Iceland to Icelandic citizen living in Iceland, don’t ask me for it). But Teletext information is still available even if the channel is scrambled and cannot be viewed because of that.
Stöð 2 – Can be viewed on-line on the web-site Vísir.is. But at that web page only news can be viewed. Flash player is required to view it. Stöð 2 does not broadcast over satellite.

When a eruption starts in Iceland. This are the best options to get into touch with Icelandic media that broadcast live video or audio. But other news web sites are mbl.is, dv.is. But this are only news papers that don’t offer any direct and live coverage when a eruption starts in Iceland.

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Update on the crack in Þingvellir (Thingvellir), Almannagjá fissure

Tonight Rúv did have a news about the fissure that did open up in Þingvellir (Thingvellir) few weeks ago. Now scientists have started to explore this new fissure. So far they have measured that it is about 10 meters deep. It is still unclear how long it is. The current theory is that this new fissure started to open up after the Mw6.8 and Mw6.7 earthquakes in SISZ in the year 2000, or the Mw6.3 earthquake in the year 2008. But that is however unclear at this time.

What appears also to have happened is that ground water have cleaned out loose material in this new fissure. This might possibly have deepened the fissure. But this aspect of this new fissure is still a bit unclear one. But what is the most amazing thing is that the road has not started to collapse earlier then it did. Due how big this new fissure appears to be.

News on Rúv about this. Use Google translate at own risk, as Google does not know what Icelanders are saying.

Furðulegt að ekki hafi hrunið fyrr (Icelandic, video (Windows Media Video), picture, Rúv.is)

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Extensive research into Eyjafjallajökull volcano ash cloud

According to news on Rúv. The British government is starting a major research into the ash cloud from Eyjafjallajökull volcano. The size of this research is big and the cost is around 3 million pound. The aim of this research is into how ash cloud behaves, how it spreads and to compare models to reality. This research might also aim to improve satellite detection of ash clouds. But it proved to be not quite reliable in the Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption that took place in the year 2010.

Icelandic news about this. I have not found any english news about this yet. Use Google translate like when you play the lottery. Hope for the best.

Viðamikil gosrannsókn (Rúv, Icelandic)

News in english about this. Thanks to Erik Klemetti how did point this out.

£530,000 to study Icelandic volcano (Press Release)
New Class of Ceramic Coatings Could Protect Jet Engines from Volcano Ash (Related press relase)

Post updated at 19:49 UTC on 22 April 2011.

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Risk of volcano ash flood in Eyjafjallajökull volcano

Almannavarnir in Iceland did send out this warning earlier tonight. There is a heavy rain going over south of Iceland. This means that there is a risk of ash floods from south side of Eyjafjallajökull volcano. As that area is still covered in heavy ash after the last year eruption. People traveling in this area is advised to monitor the news or the website vegagerdin.is and vedur.is for more information. The area in the most risk of flooding is Þórsmörk and other rivers that come from Eyjafjallajökull volcano. The most heavy rain is forecast to start from 22:00 UTC and last until 12:00 UTC on 22 April 2011. But this forecast can change without any warning at all. So it is important to monitor the weather forecast for changes.

News about this in Icelandic. Use Google translate if you want to solve a puzzle.

Varað við vatnavöxtum undir Eyjafjallajökli (Icelandic, sunnlenska.is)
Varað við vatnavöxtum á Suðurlandi (Icelandic, Rúv)
Vara við úrkomu og vatnavöxtum (Icelandic, mbl.is)

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Few earthquakes in Iceland, interesting events at Kverkfjöll volcano

Currently it is quiet in Iceland when it comes to earthquakes. It is also quiet in Icelandic volcanoes. As no volcano shows clear signs that is about to start erupting. But in this quiet period it is easy to miss the earthquake signs that appear in Icelandic volcanoes.

A volcano named Kverkfjöll has been showing increased signs of unrest over the past few years. So far the largest earthquake swarm took place few years ago. When a cluster of ML2.5 to ML3.5 earthquake took place in it. But since then it has been rather quite. But it is my opinion that Kverkfjöll volcano are on the path to a eruption. But so far it is unclear how and when it might take place. As Kverkfjöll volcano is continues to be a rather quiet volcano, even it is showing slightly higher activity then compared over the last few years. A better SIL network in this are accounts for some of the few earthquakes. But not all of them far as I can tell. In the last 48 hours there have been two earthquakes at rather uncommon place in Kverkfjöll volcano. Both events where small, less then mag 2.0 in size. But those events are part of a pattern that did start in Week 12 of 2011. But even it doesn’t look like a lot. There has been continues activity in Kverkfjöll volcano over the past few weeks and this activity appears to be continuing. I am going to write a better post about it later, when I have better picture of what is going on in Kverkfjöll volcano.

Last earthquake swarm that was in the larger size took place in October 2010. My review of it can be found here, Kverkfjöll volcano shows sign of activity (2010).

Other then this it remains quiet in Iceland. That is why I don’t have a lot too write about at the moment.

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Quiet time continues in Iceland

The quiet times that have been ongoing in Iceland for the past few weeks continue. It has been been my experience over the past few years that when this type of long quiet happens. Usually there is a medium to large event that follows it. Sometimes it is volcanic. But in most cases it is a medium (Mb5.0+) sized earthquake that follows it.

But while the quiet time continues I am going to write a short story and publish it on Amazon as a e-book. More on that when I set-up a special blog about my story publishing.

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One year since the second phase of Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption started

When the Hawaiian phase of the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano finished many people did believe and think that the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano was over for a long time. But they where to proven wrong about 23:30 UTC on the 13. April 2010 when a new phase started in the Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption. For the first few hours of the eruption nothing did happen on the surface. As the eruption had to melt the glacier that was on top of it. That did finish around 06:00 UTC on the morning of 14. April 2010 and the eruption broke up to the surface around that time.

The eruption up to this day had just been Hawaiian type eruption with slow moving lavas and with little to no volcano ash at all. The second phase of the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano was mostly of Strombolian type of eruption. With little to heavy ash fall. But in the early start of the eruption and specially when a water got into the crater the ash fall was heavy. The volcano ash cloud did at it’s highest peak go up to 10 km high.

This eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano is not among the Iceland biggest or the longest one. But during the six weeks of eruption it did manage to shut down Europe air-space down to Spain creating a billion euro worth of pure loss to the economic in Europe. But the ash fall did not just create problems in Europe. In Iceland farmers living close to the Eyjafjallajökull volcano got there own share of problems. Most of the problems where due to the ash fall (A video player that can play wmv file required) and the flooding that took place around Eyjafjallajökull volcano that took place because of the melting glacier on top of Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

Other things that where seen in this eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano was a smoke ring, something really rare and most often found in Etna volcano in Italy. But shock waves where also seen and heard across Iceland during this eruption. But it was also recorded when the eruption was throwing up large rocks from the main crater. Some people also made really cool videos of the eruption. Here is one of it.

Among the many things that did happen was the fact that a lava did flow into the glacier and destroy the glacier in the process. This happening in a eruption in Iceland had not been recorded or observed until the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano in the year 2010.


Picture of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano smoke ring. Picture captured from Vodafone IS web cam that was observing the eruption. Copyright of this picture belongs to Vodafone IS. Click on this picture for a full size.

Update: A meeting at University of Iceland tomorrow since it has been one year since the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

Tomorrow from 17:00 to 19:00 UTC at Askja, room 132 and central space. Please see the pdf file for more information about this even. I was asked by a geologist working at University in Iceland to publish this here for anyone how is interested in going to this event.

Eyjafjallajökull one year on at University of Iceland
Click to read this pdf file.

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Overview of Hjofsjökull volcano activity

Hofsfjökull volcano is not among the most activate volcanoes in Iceland. It has never erupted since Iceland got inhabited. The last eruption that took place in Hofsjökull volcano is undated, but took place sometimes in the last 12.000 years or so.

Here is a short overview of the activity since the year 1999 in Hofsjökull volcano. All pictures are from the web site of Icelandic Met Office and copyright of them belongs to them.

Last earthquake swarm took place in Week 47, in the year 1999.

In Week 21, in the year 2008 a harmonic tremor pulse was detected from Hofsjökull volcano. This started at 13:30 UTC on the 24. May 2008.

SIL stations in Iceland showing the harmonic tremor pulse. Picture number one.

SIL stations in Iceland showing the harmonic tremor pulse. Picture number two.

Spectrograph from the SIL station Saurbær (south Iceland, located on the SISZ).

Spectrograph from the SIL station Skrokkalda. This station is located closest to Hofsjökull volcano, along with the SIL station at Hveravöllum hydrothermal area.

During this episode of harmonic tremor one earthquake was detected in north Hofsjökull volcano.

The one earthquake detected in Week 21 in the year 2008. On the week overview for Week 21 in the year 2008 they think that this might have been a swarm of small earthquakes that they where unable to locate. But I do not agree with that, given the data that is published on this event.

Other then this there have been few earthquakes every now and then in Hofsjökull volcano. But besides that it remains quiet and is most likely to be so for the time being.

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Possibility of dike intrusion in Hamarinn volcano

It appears that there is a chance of a dike intrusion in Hamarinn volcano (Loki-Fögrufjöll area). What suggest that there is a dike intrusion starting in Hamarinn volcano is a earthquake swarm that is unusually dense and has a really narrow area. But normal earthquake swarms usually spread over a small area in the align of the fault line.

How this is developing is a good question. But due to lack of earthquakes it is hard to know for sure at the moment. But at the moment it is worth to keep eye on Hamarinn volcano area.