Swarm – Page 89 – Iceland geology

August 23, 2014

Smallest of eruptions so far (Bárðarbunga update at 20:43 UTC)

This is a short update and this information might go outdated quickly.

It appears that the eruption that took place in Bárðarbunga volcano was a minor one. It also looks like that the eruption was so small that it didn’t even make dent in the glacier on top of it, but the glacier in this area is around 400 meters thick. Such minor eruptions are not common in Iceland, but they do happen once in a while.

Earthquake activity today (23-August-2014) in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquake today had the magnitude of 4,5 (EMSC information here) – 4,7 (USGS). Other earthquakes that have taken place today have been smallers, few earthquakes with magnitude above 3,0 also took place today.

The harmonic tremor that took place in Bárðarbunga volcano today. It makes a clear mark from the other magma movement that has been taking place during the past week. This is Dyngjuháls SIL station. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This harmonic tremor was also visible on Kreppuhraun SIL stations. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

GPS data showing current inflation on Dyngjuhjáls. More plots can be found here. Copyright of this image belongs to University of Iceland.

Current GPS data show that inflation to the north has stopped, while inflation to the west has increased and up to 2 to 3 cm a day based on newest GPS data. This means that more magma is flowing into the dyke on 5 to 10 km depth. The dyke continues to extent, but now it is moving more north rather then north-east as before.

The eruption that took place today was a minor one. I am not even sure it lasted a whole hour, but since it was under a 400 meter thick glacier that is only guess work on my end based on tremor data that I have. This might however not be the last eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano, far from it. Short eruptions like this one might happen on regular basis now in Bárðarbunga volcano and not all of them are going to take place under glacier in my view.

August 23, 2014

Minor eruption confirmed in Bárðarbunga volcano

Short update. This information is going to get outdated quickly.

A small eruption has started in Bárðarbunga volcano. So far this is just a minor eruption. So far the eruption is under the glacier.

I am going to post more information when I know more.

August 23, 2014August 23, 2014

Possible eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano

This is early information and it might be wrong! Eruption might not be taking place and this might be a trick of magma movement underground. It is hard to be sure in this case until a visual confirmation is in place.

It appears that an eruption is about to start or has started in Bárðarbunga volcano. The harmonic tremor is going trough the roof at this moment.

Harmonic tremor is going in Dyngjuháls SIL station at 11:09 UTC. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Harmonic tremor is also going up at Kreppuhraun SIL station. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Harmonic tremor is also going up at Mókollar SIL station at 11:10 UTC. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is unclear what is going on at this moment. Nothing has been confirmed yet when this text is written. This might not be an eruption at this point in time, but that might change without warning at any time.

August 22, 2014August 23, 2014

Bárðarbunga volcano update at 21:11 UTC

This is a short update. I am still a little sick (sigh) so it’s a bit hard for me to work properly.

Information here is going to get outdated quickly and without warning.

Few short points on current activity in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Earthquake activity is high today (22-August-2014). There is less earthquake activity today than was yesterday (21-August-2014).
Dyke formation continues at depth of 5 to 10 km. The push north seems to have stopped or slowed. Currently it is estimated that the dyke is getting wider. There also less resistance in the crust (appears to be), leading to fewer earthquakes taking place. This dyke is now estimated to be 25 km long.
Bárðarbunga caldera appears to have given away due to less magma holding it up. As magma has flowed into the dyke. It is now estimated that 200 million m³ of magma has flowed into the dyke.
Inflation so far is 20 cm according to news on Rúv with information from Icelandic Met Office.
So far around 5000 earthquakes have been recorded since this activity started on 16-August-2014.

There are also signs that this might be a start of a new eruption cycle for Bárðarbunga volcano. Not all events in this cycle are going to lead to an eruption. This is the same pattern as took place in Krafla volcano during it’s eruption cycle [Wikipedia information, University of Iceland information]. It remains to be seen if this idea is true in part or whole.

There is less earthquake activity today then yesterday. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquake activity remains stable, it goes up and down and currently there has been less activity then yesterday (21-August-2014).

Less earthquake activity clearly shows on IMO earthquake graph. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Harmonic tremor remains high even during less earthquake activity. The high harmonic tremor is most likely taking place due to magma inflow under ground. It does not appear to be connected with earthquake activity (for most part). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

GPS data clearly shows the inflation that has been taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Inflation to the north has slowed down, while inflation to the west continues. More GPS information can be found here. Copyright of this image belongs to University of Iceland.

The magnitude 4,7 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Heklubyggð. This image is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see CC Licence page for more details.

The magnitude 4,7 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. This image is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see CC Licence page for more details.

Largest earthquake so far is an magnitude 4,7 earthquake (EMSC information here) that took place yesterday (21-August-2014). A magnitude 4,3 earthquake (EMSC information here) took place today (22-August-2014) at 15:41. This strong earthquakes happened due to the lowering of the caldera as explained above. If the dyke intrusion continues, more earthquakes are going to start happening. It is not known how much magma, if any is coming from depth (mantle depth) at current time with lack of deep earthquakes in all this activity, it is impossible to know if any magma is coming up from the mantle.

News in English

Met Office: 25 km long dike formed (Rúv.is)
Strongest earthquake yet in Bardarbunga (Rúv.is)

Updated at 21:17 UTC.
Updated at 21:19 UTC.
Updated at 21:41 UTC.
Updated at 23:22 UTC.

August 21, 2014

Bárðarbunga caldera possibly lowering

This is a short no-picture update on the status in Bárðarbunga volcano. This information is going to get outdated quickly.

There are now clues that Bárðarbunga volcano caldera is getting lower. While there are no signs of imminent collapse such event might happen since this process has started. This explains the earthquake the activity in the caldera, that has been taking place for the past 48 hours. What this means in terms of an eruption I do not know, what I do know is that this type of event if it happens are never small and the following eruption might be huge. This is also going to change the landscape in Vatnajökull glacier forever (that is common thing in Iceland during an eruption cycles).

There has also formed a 25 km long dyke trench in the crust that goes north-east at the moment. There are clues that it might be getting wider at this moment. It appears to have stopped going north-east for the time being.

More details on this later when I know more (and my health is slightly better).

August 20, 2014

Update on Bárðarbunga volcano at 15:29 UTC

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This information are going to get outdated fast.

Please note that I have to split the coverage of Bárðarbunga volcano. The amount of information on what is happening is more then I can put into one post. This also allows me to post more detailed information on what this information means.

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano for the past 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake activity did drop a little yesterday (19-August-2014). Today (20-August-2014) it increased again. What is also a interesting development is that earthquake activity has increased in Bárðarbunga volcano caldera. The caldera is filled with 700 meter thick ice so an eruption in it would be extremely bad. Largest earthquakes today (when this is written) have the magnitude of 3,0. Other earthquakes have been smaller. Over 500 earthquakes have been recorded since midnight (best number that I have).

Earthquake activity remains dense as it has been since the start of this activity on 16-August-2014. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Harmonic tremor remains high as can be seen on Dyngjuháls SIL station. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This high harmonic tremor means that magma continues to flow into Bárðarbunga volcano at same rate as before. There is a small fluctuation in the flow of magma into the volcano, other then this minor drop in harmonic tremor. Earthquake data shows that the magma is pushing north-east at slow rate. It is unclear how much magma the sill that is now forming can hold or how long it is going to fill up. I however see clues that magma is already looking for paths up to the surface.

Long period earthquake that I did record today at 00:58 UTC. This image is released under Creative Commons licence. Please see CC Licence web site for more details.

This earthquake is a long period event. It is created when magma breaks into the crust and creates a pathway for it self. In doing so a gas is released under pressure, this also a creates earthquake and due to how this earthquake is created and due to influence of magma and gas the earthquake has long period signature. This means at some magma is breaking an path to the surface, if that magma is enough to start an eruption is not known at the moment. This magma is under high pressure, since the glacier on top of it is at least 600 meters thick.

August 19, 2014August 19, 2014

Update on Bárðarbunga volcano at 14:37 UTC

This is a short update on Bárðarbunga volcano activity.

Little has changed since yesterday (18-August-2014) in Bárðarbunga volcano. Earthquake activity has been moving east and north-east since yesterday but continues at same rate as before. It is not clear why that is, but is getting close to Kverkfjöll volcano, but at the moment the earthquake swarm is inside a fissure swarm that belongs to Bárðarbunga volcano. I do not know what happens if magma from Bárðarbunga volcano gets into contact with magma in Kverkfjöll volcano.

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano during the past 48 hours. During the past 24 hours (when this is written) no earthquake has had magnitude above 3,0. Copyright of image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

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

No major earthquake has taken place during the past 24 hours (when this is written). This means that no earthquake so far has reached the magnitude above 3,0.

Harmonic tremor remains high in Bárðarbunga volcano, even if there is no eruption taking place at the moment. Copyright of image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The harmonic tremor clearly shows the pulse activity that is taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano, when the earthquake activity drops, so does the tremor. When the harmonic tremor increases, earthquake activity increases soon after it. Sometimes earthquake activity increases before an increase in the harmonic tremor takes place.

GPS data from University of Iceland clearly shows the amount of magma that is flowing into Bárðarbunga volcano system at the moment. More plots can be found here. Copyright of this image belongs to University of Iceland.

The GPS data shows how fast this inflation now is. This data is just for few days. I am expecting more inflation to take place in the next few days. How much inflation is needed before an eruption starts I do not know.

Same pattern of change can be seen in GPS data on Grímsfjall volcano. More plots can be found here. Copyright of this image belongs to University of Iceland.

There are no signs of this activity stopping. When this is going to results in an eruption I do not know. For people looking for web cameras of Bárðarbunga volcano, a new web camera has now been set-up by Míla communication company in Iceland. It sends out live from Bárðarbunga volcano (as close they can get to it). The web camera can be viewed here.

August 18, 2014August 18, 2014

Orange alert level declared for Bárðarbunga volcano

This is short update on Bárðarbunga volcano. Due to ever changing nature of this events this information is going to get outdated quickly.

Icelandic Met Office has moved the warning level for air traffic up to Orange level (see here). GPS measurement have confirmed magma movements inside Bárðarbunga volcano and this movement is fast.

GPS data from University of Iceland. This data shows how fast the change has been in the past few days. More GPS data can be found here. Copyright of this image belongs to University of Iceland.

Earthquake activity has remained about the same, with regular fluctuation in activity. Overall however the activity has remained constant.

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

The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano has been migrating to the north-east over the past 10 to 18 hours. The activity close to Dyngjuháls appears to be stable at that location for the moment. Earthquake activity in other parts of Bárðarbunga have quieted down for the moment, that might change without warning.

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

Harmonic tremor levels have remained stable since this started. They do drop a little in sync with the drop in earthquake activity.

The harmonic tremor at Dyngjuháls SIL station. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Kreppuhaun SIL station shows the harmonic tremor also. Along with interesting jump in the past hour of harmonic tremor activity. I am not sure why that is. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Vonaskarð SIL stations shows pattern that is close to what appears on Kreppuhraun SIL station. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I am not sure why the harmonic tremor levels are what they are at the moment. Since no eruption has started. This might be due to changes in hydro-thermal areas under the glacier, or there might be some other reason for this that is not known to me.

Drum plot that Icelandic Met Office has on-line are showing interesting activity. Around 11:00 UTC there is a string of earthquakes, following this activity a increase in harmonic tremor takes place. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This can also be seen on Dyngjuháls SIL station. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This also appears clearly on Kreppuhraun SIL station. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

As for amount of earthquake detected today, so far the amount recorded today is around the same as yesterday, might even be slightly higher.

Updated at 16:43 UTC.

August 18, 2014August 18, 2014

Magnitude 3,3 earthquake in Kverkfjöll volcano

A minor earthquake swarm took place in Kverkfjöll volcano today (17-August-2014). This earthquake swarm might have been triggered by the earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano that is next to it, that is however not confirmed and can be considered a speculation. Since connections between volcanoes is difficult to prove. The earthquake had the magnitude of 3,3 and depth of 9,5 km. This earthquake was felt by summer tourists in the area of Kverkfjöll volcano.

The green star in the Kverkfjöll volcano system shows the location of the earthquake. Kverkfjöll volcano are located were the “W” shape of the Vatnajökull glacier appears. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

No other activity has been detected from Kverkfjöll volcano today and that volcano appears to be quiet, even if it has a noise neighbour at the moment. I am not expecting more activity in Kverkfjöll volcano, but it cannot be ruled out at this moment.

Update at 23:27 UTC.

August 17, 2014

Update on activity in Bárðarbunga at 18:13 UTC

This is a update on the activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. This information might get outdated quickly as things change.

Earthquake activity continues in Bárðarbunga volcano with no signs of stopping. Since midnight the total earthquake count for Iceland has now reached 578 (at 18:14 UTC) this number gets outdated quickly due the continuous earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. The total amount of earthquakes recorded yesterday was around 480 for the whole day, so it seems that earthquake activity has increased today from what it was yesterday. It is possible to see the largest earthquakes on my geophone website here. I want to note that my geophones are both more then 100 km away from Bárðarbunga volcano, so only the largest earthquakes appear on my geophones.

The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. It has now moved into two groups of activity. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The earthquakes are forming an line south-south-east in Bárðarbungu volcano. I don’t know why that is, but this might be a feature of the SIL network, rather then actual alignment of the earthquakes. There also chance that the earthquakes really are aligning them self into a line like this.

Earthquake activity continues to be dense. A minor drop in activity was seen around 12:00 UTC, but it increased again around 13:00 UTC. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There has been little drop in activity, besides the drop in activity seen around 12:00 UTC, that drop in activity however only lasted for about one hour, maybe less. There has overall not been much change in activity during the past 24 hours. I don’t know if that is going to change, but for the moment there are no signs of the activity slowing down.

Harmonic tremor at Dyngjuhálsi SIL station. It moves up and down with the earthquake activity. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Harmonic tremor at Vonaskarð SIL station. It shows the changes in activity as other SIL stations around Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There are interesting theories on why the harmonic tremor is as it is. Currently there is nothing to suggest that an large eruption has taken place, there is a chance that a small eruption started all this, but I expect by now that it is over if it took place. It has not been confirmed. There is also a chance that earthquake activity is so high in Bárðarbunga volcano that it is registering as continuous harmonic tremor. It does not happen often, but it can happen. There is also chance that the harmonic tremor is due to boiling of hydrothermal systems in Bárðarbunga volcano, or something other related to magma under heavy pressure. Whatever the reason for this tremor, it’s there and an eruption does not seems to be the reason behind it.

Visual observations have now been made of Bárðarbunga volcano and nothing has been seen on the surface of the glacier. Scientists are also installing new monitoring hardware and a web-camera on Bárðarbunga volcano in order to get proper visual observations of the volcano when something happens. I don’t expect the web-camera to be a public at the moment.

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