Posts

Posted on

Wave form picture of the ML2.5 earthquake in the South Icelandic Seismic Zone (SISZ)

Here is a wave form picture of the ML2.5 earthquake that took place west of Hekla volcano. This earthquake is part of the the SISZ. Not Hekla volcano. But it remains to be seen if this is related to Hekla volcano, but Hekla volcano location appears to have some effect on SISZ. Normally during or after a eruption in Hekla volcano it is followed by a small swarms of earthquakes in SISZ. In the year 1878 there was a eruption in Hekla volcano that was pre-seeded by large earthquakes in SISZ. The eruption that followed was a fissure eruption near a peak named Krakatindur. This area also erupted in the year 1913, but that time on two new fissures.

The wave form data. This picture is released under CC licence, see the legal section for more information.

I was going to setup the location and distance data. But IMO has not released that data at present time.

Historical accounts of Hekla eruptions (Icelandic). GVP information on Hekla volcano.

Posted on

Update on Advertisement

Here is a little update on advertisement for this web site. I have removed all the Google Adsense advertisements due to difficulties in changing my home address with them. But Google sets up a technical barrier when it comes to move address on the fact that Iceland and Denmark don’t use the same currency (yea, just silly. But I am considering forwarding this issue to the EU Commission as this is against EU law far as I can tell). I was also unable to setup a new account with my new home address due some rather odd message from Google Adsense.

As people did notice I was testing out Adbrite advertisements. But as it turns out there was some bad behaviour going on there that I as a web site owner do not approve of. So they got removed. But they where also not placing ads on this web site for unknown reasons.

Because of all this I have switched back to Amazon ads. Due to the fact that most of visitors on this web site come from Europe I am going to display ads from Amazon UK and Amazon DE (in process). For others the web store is good place for people to look for volcano related stuff to buy. The Web Store is currently work in progress, but U.S and Canada is going to be added soon on that web site.

I hope that people show me understanding in regards to this issue.

Posted on

Update on the quiet time

It currently is quiet in Iceland, both in volcano and earthquakes. But it is not all without earthquakes. Few earthquakes have taken place in Krísuvík volcano, the largest being ML2.6 and in Kverkfjöll volcano. Few earthquakes have also appeared in TFZ, but all of them where small.

Besides this small activity. Everything remains quiet.

Posted on

Eyjafjallajökull volcano ash – Pictures

As it is quiet time in Iceland and I currently don’t have a lot to write about volcano activity and earthquake wise. So while that is I am going to put up two pictures that I got of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano ash from last years eruption.

Eyjafjallajökull volcano ash. I release this picture under Creative Commons Licence (see page for more details).

Eyjafjallajökull volcano ash. I release this picture under Creative Commons Licence (see page for more details).

To get full size, click on the picture.

The pictures where taken by Birgit in Austria. With many thanks to here for this great pictures of the volcano ash from Eyjafjallajökull.

Posted on

Increased geothermal activity in Grímsfjall volcano

According to a news by Morgunblaðið (mbl.is) there is a increased geothermal activity in Grímsfjall volcano. The news reports that in fields close to the houses (hud or something like that) that research and mountain group have in the area there is increased geothermal activity. There is hard to know from the news report how much increase in activity there is. But but this increase appears to be significant as it got noticed by a group that was travelling in the area few days ago.

The group that did go there few days ago where from the Icelandic glacier research society. They did agree that they never had seen so much geothermal activity in the area. The inflation in Grímsfjall volcano is now more then it was before the eruption in 2004 according to the news. There is a good chance that the ML3.5 and ML4.2 earthquakes few days ago did change pathways in the ground and allowed the hot water to rise to surface in this location.

Thanks to Fireman to find this news.

Icelandic news about this. Use Google translate at own risk.

Mikill hiti í Grímsfjalli (mbl.is) – There is a picture in this news of the new geothermal activity.

Posted on

Earthquakes between Grímsfjall and Bárðarbunga volcano. Earthquake swarm in Krísuvík volcano

Since Week 52 in the year 2010 there have been strange earthquakes between Bárðarbunga volcano and Grímsfjall volcano. It is hard to know exactly what this means. But it is clear that tension is rising fast in Grímsfjall volcano, as is evidence by the ML4.2 and ML3.5 earthquakes in Grímsfjall volcano few days ago. But this might be something, or this might simply be nothing at all. Only time is going to tell us what this means.

Far as I know, nothing like this was recorded before the Gjálp eruption (SIL earthquake data from 1996) between Grímsfjall volcano and Bárðarbunga volcano in the year 1996. But it is a important factor that the SIL network was a lot smaller back in those days.

Krísuvík volcano

This morning there has been a micro-earthquake swarm in Krísuvík volcano. The largest earthquakes have gone up to ML2.0 (automatic SIL data), with the focal depth of ~4 km. So far around 20 earthquakes have been recorded by the SIL system that Icelandic Met Office runs. This morning the earthquake swarm has quieted down a bit. But it is hard to know if it is over or not. But this area of Krísuvík volcano has been having a lot of micro-earthquakes swarms over the past few weeks. This has been followed by a uplift in the volcano (inflation). But that did start early last year after a short period of deflation.

Other then this, it remains quiet in Iceland volcano and earthquake wise.

Posted on

Minor earthquakes where seen after the large earthquakes in Grímsfjall volcano

Following the two large earthquakes (ML3.5 and ML4.2) there was a swarm of small earthquakes in that area. The earthquakes where seen on Grímsfjall SIL station, but do not appear to have been strong enough to be recorded on other SIL stations around Vatnajökull glacier. This appears to have lasted until around 13:00 UTC on 13th of January 2011. But after that it did quiet down.


Plot is from IMO web site.

Icelandic Met Office tremor plot that shows the two large earthquakes and following minor earthquakes. This area in Grímsfjall volcano has been quiet since the two earthquakes took place few days ago.

Posted on

Two earthquakes in Grímsfjall volcano

Earlier this morning there where two earthquakes in Grímsfjall volcano. There size was ML3.5 at 09:06 UTC and ML4.2 at 09:22 UTC. I am currently unsure about the depth of this earthquakes. This earthquakes take place in a area north-east in the Grímsfjall volcano system. But according to news this area has been seeing a increased earthquake activity in recent weeks.

No aftershocks have been detected since this earthquakes took place. But currently the weather is rather bad in this area, so that might be the explanation for the absence of earthquakes that should have followed this two earthquakes. According to the news the Icelandic Met Office is monitoring the area for more earthquakes or signs that a eruption might be starting. So far nothing indicates that a eruption is about to start in Grímsfjall volcano.

The area that was active today (13th of January 2011) in Grímsfjall volcano.

Icelandic News about this. Use Google Translate at own risk.

2 jarðskjálftar við Grímsvötn (Rúv.is)
Snarpur jarðskjálfti við Grímsfjall (Vísir.is)
Fylgjast náið með Grímsfjalli (mbl.is)
Jarðskjálfti við Grímsfjall (mbl.is)


Blog post updated at 13. January 2011 at 22:51 UTC. Picture has been added to the blog post.

Posted on

A magnitude ML3.5 and ML4.2 (IMO) and ML4.0 (EMSC) earthquake hits Grímsfjall volcano

A magnitude ML3.8 earthquake has hit Kverkfjöll volcano. This earthquake had the depth of 14,4 km according to the automatic SIL system.

This earthquake appears to have triggered earthquakes in Grímsfjall volcano. But two earthquakes appeared imminently after the ML3.8 earthquake in Kverkfjöll volcano. – This is not the case, the earthquakes happened before (09:06 UTC) the ML3.8 earthquake in Kverkfjöll volcano.

I have been going over the reviewed data on this earthquake. The web site EMSC is reporting this to be a ML4.0 earthquake that took place at 09:22 UTC, with the depth of 10 km. While IMO is reporting this earthquake to have the size ML4.2 (depth unkown). There was a earlier earthquake that took place at 09:06 UTC, it has has the size of ML3.5 (depth unkown). Both of this earthquakes took place in Grímsfjall volcano. There is a good chance that Icelandic Met Office is underestimating the size of this earthquake, given the data from EMSC and the fact that this earthquake was recorded on remote seismometer networks in Europe.

I am going to post updates on this if anything more happens.

Text updated at 09:49 UTC on 13th January 2011.
Text updated at 10:21 UTC on 13th of January 2011.
Text updated at 12:55 UTC on 13th of January 2011.