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New Zealand – Kermadec island Mw7,4 earthquake detected in Iceland

Today at 12:49 UTC an earthquake with a magnitude of Mw7,4 happened on the other side of the world. This earthquake was clearly detected in Iceland because the P-wave reflected off Earth iro-nickel core and that directed the P-wave towards Iceland where it was recorded as a Mw4,1 earthquake but was later downgraded to Mw1,5 at 92km depth (this is a fake local earthquake, SIL does not properly deal with this type of earthquakes).

Here is how this earthquake was detected with my geophones in Iceland.


Because of the reflection of the earthquake signal the P-wave arrives at a strange time compared to calculated time.


Short trace of the earthquake due to local noise that was creating problems for me.

I normally don’t record earthquakes from the other side of the world because I am using short period geophones to record earthquakes and those are only used normally for local earthquakes with distances less than 500 km. I can record earthquakes properly up to a distance of 6000 km if the earthquake is large enough (Mw6,0 or larger).

Donations

Please remember to support my work. Currently I am broke but things are starting to look better from July since I no longer have high hosting costs to pay. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Work

I am currently working from 08:00 to 16:00. This is going to lower my response time if anything happens in Iceland until after 16:00 when I get home from work.

Future plans

In the future I am going to be adding Google Adsense back to this website if I get approved. That is going to lower the requirement for donations once that system is in place at the cost of more advertising on this website. I don’t know when that is going to happen but this is going to take several months until I put this place into working phase because its tied into other plans that I have.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (14-June-2020) an earthquake with a magnitude of Mw3,4 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is now the regular and usual earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and is connected to inflation in the volcano after the 2014 – 2015 eruption in Holuhraun.


Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is located normally either in the south-east part of the caldera or in the north-east part of the caldera. This earthquake was located in the south-east part of the caldera. More earthquake activity is going to happen in Bárðarbunga volcano in next few months to years and should not be a surprise to anyone.

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Sharp increase in earthquakes in Þorbjörn mountain (Svartsengi/Reykjanes volcano)

Since around 06:00 this morning (13-June-2020) a sharp increase in earthquake activity took place north of Grindavík town. The most dense earthquake swarm was located west of the Blue lagoon with other minor swarms in other nearby areas. The active volcano is Reykjanes and Svartsengi (no Global Volcanism profile). Map can be found here and here (go to Höggunarkort).


The clusters of earthquake activity close to Grindavík town. This map can be found here (Icelandic only). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Current earthquake activity close to Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquakes at the writing of this article have a magnitude of Mw3,5 (at 20:27 UTC) but since this earthquake swarm in ongoing that number can change without warning.

There was also considerable noise during the earthquake swarm earlier. Suggesting that something is going on but I do not know what might be for now. The noise results in the blue band thickens during the earthquake swarm.


The termor plot during the earthquake swarm. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Current GPS data (can be viewed here) doesn’t show any major changes at the writing of this article. That might change in next few days.

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Increased gas and hydrothermal activity detected in Grímsfjall volcano

It was reported yesterday (10-June-2020) in the news at Stöð 2 (Channel 2) that hydrothermal activity and gas output from Grímsfjall volcano has been increasing in recent months. This has been followed by increased earthquake activity in Grímsfjall volcano. There is now a risk of an eruption following a glacier flood from Grímsvötn lake but according to the Vísir news the lake is getting close to full or at the point where it can flood and empty the crater. That can start an eruption because of the pressure drop of the magma.


Seismic energy released by earthquakes in Grímsfjall volcano since last eruption in May 2011. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is expected by experts that next eruption in Grímsfjall volcano is going to be a normal eruption but the eruption in May 2011 was the largest eruption in Grímsfjall volcano in 138 years. Since last eruption of this size took place in the year 1873 and then it took 10 years before next eruption took place.

There has also been a minor increase in earthquake activity in Þórðarhryrna volcano but because of lack of data it is difficult to know what that means. Last eruption in Þórðarhyrna volcano ended in January 12, 1904. It erupted at same time as Grímsfjall volcano according to historical documentation.

Icelandic News in Icelandic

Merki um aukið útstreymi kvikugass úr Grímsvötnum (Vísir.is)

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Transfer to a new hosting finished

I have now finished transferring to a new hosting. This once is located in Iceland and has the name 1984.is. This transfer has mostly been trouble free for me but I am switching systems from what I had (cpanel/CentOs) for the last 10 years so some problems are to be expected while I am fine tuning everything. Please report any website problems here.

Known problems

Resolved problems

If you go the website and go to https://www.icelandgeology.net there is a ssl error. This error can be safely ignored. I am not sure on how to resolve this problem for now but I am searching for a solution. Update. This ssl error seems to have been corrected by an update to the ssl certificate. I now see that ‘www’ is included in the ssl certificate and everything should then be working normally.

Currently offline

Webicorders are offline because I need to create subdomain for them and run that from a server that I host at home. Currently that is not possible for me to do. I might be able to resolve this by August at the earliest. I might be able to resolve this by September at the latest’s.

Updated 16-June-2020 at 19:32 UTC.

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Weekend long earthquake swarm in Reykjanes volcano (both of them)

This is the first article on the Iceland geology new domain and new hosting location. I’ve resolved most problems but few remains that I am working on resolving. Please report any problems in a comment here or send me an email to volcano [at] icelandgeology [dot] net. I have updated the email postlist for those who use it. Please check your spam folders and update your rules for the new addresses that are now being used.
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Over the weekend there has been a earthquake swarm in the Reykjanes volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw2,6 on Saturday 06-June-2020 at 01:01 UTC. Other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude. Around 220 earthquakes have been recorded at the writing of this article.


The earthquake activity in the volcano called Reykjanes and Svartsengi (Þorbjörn). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The reason for this earthquake swarm is inflation that has been increasing in recent days according to GPS data that is not yet corrected or verified. That GPS data can be found here. This inflation increases the risk of larger earthquake in next few days.

Donations

If people want to they can support my work with donations. The help me with running this website. I have now lowered my hosting cost considerably from what it used to be and June is now the last month I pay expensive dedicated hosting. Currently however I am really broke because of this and other factors. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Moving hosting providers

In June I am moving to a new hosting provider. This is going to save me a lot of money because the new hosting provider (1984.is) is a lot cheaper then my current host provider (Hostdime U.S). This is rather complicated move because I am moving completely new system. This can result in technical problems and downtime. I hope to minimize this but it might not be possible avoid this.

The new hosting provider is located in Iceland and I now only pay $9,91/month (sign-up offer, its $10,75/month from next year) for the hosting compared to $235/month that I have been paying.

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Earthquake swarm north-east of Grindavík town

Today (30-May-2020) at 01:07 UTC an earthquake swarm started north-east of Grindavík town in the volcano of Reykjanes (Svartsengi part). Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw2,7 and other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude. This earthquake swarm is currently ongoing and this information is going to get outdated quickly. Current activity doesn’t suggest that an eruption is about to happen.


The earthquake swarm north-east of Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This signals that the inflation in this part of the volcano has started again at earlier speed possibly but this requires a confirmation from GPS data and such confirmation takes a few days. This is information that I don’t have access to because its from satellites that NASA runs to monitor volcanoes. Only Icelandic Met Office and University of Iceland has access to this type of information.

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Magnitude Mw3,5 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano during the night (30-May-2020)

A single earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano at 01:20 UTC. This earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,5 and no other earthquakes took place following this earthquake. This type of earthquake has been followed by stronger earthquake activity later but this is not always the case. This earthquake activity is due to inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano after the eruption in Holuhraun in August 2014 to February 2015. This earthquake was in its normal place in north-east part of Bárðarbunga volcano.


The green star shows the Mw3,5 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This activity is normal and does not signal any eruption risk because after the eruption of 2014 and 2015 it is going to be a while until next eruption happens in Bárðarbunga volcano, probably.

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Inflation resumes at Þorbjörn mountain on Reykjanes peninsula

According to Icelandic Met Office and news at Rúv.is the inflation at Þorbjörn mountain seems to have started again after few weeks of no inflation being detected. The inflation now seems to be small but that might change without warning. There might not be a lot of earthquake activity connected to this time of inflation because the area already is inflated and there was a lot of earthquake activity earlier in the year when this started. Earthquake activity might be more common on the edges and at those location the risk of magnitude Mw6,0 earthquake is highest, but is impossible to be certain about this due to how many faults there are on the Reykjanes peninsula, both from volcanoes and rift faults due to the rift valley that is there (its just full of lava).


There was a earthquake swarm yesterday (28-May-2020) north of Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

How this is going to change and evolve over the next few weeks is not something that can be predicted with any certainty for now. Since there have not been any eruption in this area for close to 800 years it is not known how this volcano systems behave in a eruption and inflation phase.

GPS data can be found here.

Icelandic News

Land virðist farið að rísa við Þorbjörn á ný (Rúv.is)
Vísbendingar um að landris sé hafið að nýju við Þorbjörn (Vísir.is)

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Thanks for the support. 🙂

I am going to start working I hope next week in order to increase my income and making things easier for me when it comes to money from July to September. This means slightly less time to update this website if anything happens during the work day.