Iceland's Eyjafjallajokull Volcano - Discussion Thread

[coldfingers]

An interesting change and increase in activity on both the god and hvo tremor charts. These are the two closest to Katla.

Worth keeping an eye on but probably just a minor thing. Worth checking both the below links to see the historic difference in the HVO charts which shows the recent (small) increase better.

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/stodvaplott.html

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/gosplott.html

[picog]

Is there something stirring? Maybe it's just the wind. The lupin-like flowers are nearly flattened on the webcam (http://www.mulakot.net/myndavelar.html).

http://hraun.vedur.i...todvaplott.html

Edited July 1, 2010 by picog

[coldfingers]

Is there something stirring? Maybe it's just the wind. The lupin-like flowers are nearly flattened on the webcam (http://www.mulakot.n...ndavelar.html).

http://hraun.vedur.i...todvaplott.html

The Iceland Met office is showing strong gales for today so can't be sure I think. Probably just a case of wait and see if the increase continues once the wind dies down. The quake activity has picked up very slightly after nearly dying out altogether but I think that also could be nothing unusual. Just interesting to keep an eye on it I reckon. One of these days (or even years) Katla is due to erupt but whether it would be small ot large is anyones guess.

[Argyllcraig]

a bit of activity over the last 24 hours

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/englishweb/myrjokull.html

[vortex_liam]

Top gear James drove up to it

[Nick L]

Top gear James drove up to it

With the help of some CGI...

[Paranoid]

Lots of tremors on the NW side of Myrdalsjokull.

[loobiloo]

Lots of tremors on the NW side of Myrdalsjokull.

I noticed that too... there were some yesterday as well....

Also, the weather is wild there at the moment judging by the webcams :-/. Brrr!

[The PIT]

Seems to have quietened down again. Gales will also play havoc with the seismic charts so expect erroneous noise to be present.

[Paranoid]

The Icelandic Met Office have a warning out for gales with gusts of up to 40 m/s (not sure what that is in mph but it's well over hurricane force i think). We'll probably see a lot of false readings from the seismometers as a result.

[coldfingers]

Lots of tremors on the NW side of Myrdalsjokull.

Looking at where those tremors are situated it appears to be a very steep drop so possibly ice fissures and melting causing cracking. Thorolfsfelli cam appears to be suffering from St Vitus' dance because of the very strong winds. Does anyone have any conversion chart for 40 m/s? I thought it meant metres per second but that would be a very high wind indeed although straight off the ocean in the South of Iceland probably not that unusual..

Edited July 6, 2010 by coldfingers

[Paranoid]

40m/s is about 90mph. We get that kind of weather in Scotland about once a year or so and as Iceland is right out in the north atlantic it's probably not surprising they get that kind of weather.

[coldfingers]

40m/s is about 90mph. We get that kind of weather in Scotland about once a year or so and as Iceland is right out in the north atlantic it's probably not surprising they get that kind of weather.

thanks paranoid. tremor charts seem to have been reflecting the wind increase anyway although Thorolfsfelli now has fog unless it's a dust storm from the high winds.

Edited July 7, 2010 by coldfingers

[coldfingers]

thanks paranoid. tremor charts seem to have been reflecting the wind increase anyway although Thorolfsfelli now has fog unless it's a dust storm from the high winds.

Nice view of her lake gently steaming this morning. (well very early morning!) All of the quake activity seems to have transfered to Katla now. Interesting.

[coldfingers]

Check out Thorolfsfelli cam now. Seems possible a new fissure has opened as definitely a plume coming from a little further down the glacier. very interesting indeed.

http://eldgos.mila.i...-thorolfsfelli/

Edit. Hmm, people on Eruptions blog seem to be getting a little excited about it.

http://scienceblogs...._4.php#comments

I can't see too much to get excited about myself as the tremors are very low at the moment.

Early this morning before the thermal cam gave up the ghost there was a large hotspot showing there.

Nice picture of plume earlier today. http://www.ruv.is/frett/gufustrokur-your-eyjafjallajokli

Edited July 9, 2010 by coldfingers

[loobiloo]

Thanks for the update coldfingers. It's difficult to see an plume at the moment because of the mist but I have been wondering about the possible quake activity - how likely is it that the readings have been caused by the weather? There does seem to be a pattern to it, edging nearer to Katla :-/

Video of the day's events:

Edited July 9, 2010 by loobiloo

[coldfingers]

Thanks for the update coldfingers. It's difficult to see an plume at the moment because of the mist but I have been wondering about the possible quake activity - how likely is it that the readings have been caused by the weather? There does seem to be a pattern to it, edging nearer to Katla :-/

Video of the day's events:

Thanks for posting that video loobiloo. it does show quite well what some on the Eruptions website were getting a bit excited about. Too early morning for us unfortunately although I did see a good amount of steam around 3:45 this morning. This website does suggest weather conditions rather than seismic activity could have contributed to height of steam plume.

http://grapevine.is/Home/ReadArticle/Steam-rises-from-Eyjafjallajokull

[Iceberg]

Check out Thorolfsfelli cam now. Seems possible a new fissure has opened as definitely a plume coming from a little further down the glacier. very interesting indeed.

http://eldgos.mila.i...-thorolfsfelli/

Edit. Hmm, people on Eruptions blog seem to be getting a little excited about it.

http://scienceblogs...._4.php#comments

I can't see too much to get excited about myself as the tremors are very low at the moment.

Early this morning before the thermal cam gave up the ghost there was a large hotspot showing there.

Nice picture of plume earlier today. http://www.ruv.is/frett/gufustrokur-your-eyjafjallajokli

Reading around the internet and looking at the latest graphs etc the risk of Katla going off seems to be increasing.

You've got the below report from the UCL which mentions about increase tremors being an important precursor to a Katya eruption

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1005/10052702

Then you've got the below earthquake activity in the last few days.

http://iceagenow.com/Katla-14_earthquakes_in_48_hours.htm

Which could well show the Eyjafjallajokull/Katla relationship in working action, since all the quakes are the linkage between the two volcano's

No increase in the tremor magnitude yet though so it looks like anything is still awhile away, but certainly interesting.

It could just be that the volcanos are settling down, but history would suggest it's probably not the case.

[masheeuk]

There has been plenty of activity at Askja Today. Things are definately still interesting!

[The PIT]

Fairly quiet at the moment http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/myrdalsjokull/

Katla sleeping on like a babe still with the odd snore ever so often. nothing to worry about at the moment.

[coldfingers]

lovely views of Eyja steaming away on both the Throlfsfelli and Hvolsvelli cams. Nice to have a clear view for a change.

Katla activity is certainly well worth keeping an eye on in the coming months I think. Very interesting indeed the way the focus of quakes has move there and Eyja seismic activity has decreased.

Looking at the long term tremor charts shows the significance of the hvo charts and the relatively high peaks shown there compared to the original activity.

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/gosplott.html

[picog]

lovely views of Eyja steaming away on both the Throlfsfelli and Hvolsvelli cams. Nice to have a clear view for a change.

Katla activity is certainly well worth keeping an eye on in the coming months I think. Very interesting indeed the way the focus of quakes has move there and Eyja seismic activity has decreased.

Looking at the long term tremor charts shows the significance of the hvo charts and the relatively high peaks shown there compared to the original activity.

http://hraun.vedur.i...9/gosplott.html

Excuse the ignorance coldfingers, but what is the significance of the hvo plots — I can clearly see that they are relatively high compared with the other plots? I see there has been a spate of quakes near Katla in the last 24 hours.

[coldfingers]

Excuse the ignorance coldfingers, but what is the significance of the hvo plots — I can clearly see that they are relatively high compared with the other plots? I see there has been a spate of quakes near Katla in the last 24 hours.

HVO is the seismic station closest to Katla (I think), GOD is also a very close one, in fact probably closer to the recent spate of quakes. My point was that the HVO station seemed to be keeping a relatively higher tremor rate than the others. As someone else on here wrote, those quakes are something to keep an eye on, It may not be too significant but could be.

http://en.vedur.is/e.../myrdalsjokull/

The above link shows a map of the quakes in the area. If you click the link down the left hand side saying 'Tremor measurements' it will take you to a map with all the siesmic stations marked as red squares. Click the squares to see the tremor chart for that station.

I hope that helps a bit picog.

[

Edited July 12, 2010 by coldfingers

[picog]

Thanks for your help coldfingers, that makes sense to me. All looking rather quiet and misty at the moment.

[coldfingers]

Tremor charts are rising again but as they are already at an extremely low level that isn't particularly significant unlless they continue rising for a long time.

Eyja covered in cloud again, what lousy weather this mountain experiences.