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Iceland volcanoes chat

#1 User is offline   jcdorset 

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Posted --

The old thread was massive and is lost somewhere in the past, so i thought i'd start a new thread, and have it include all Icelandic volcanoes, as there has been a fair bit of activity at the Vatnajokull glacier recently as well as the watch on Katla. Any one of these erupting has the potential to have a significant effect on the UK.

 

I'll start with an update on Katla. Although it has been relatively quiet recently with just minor earthquakes daily, the GPS readings for the Austmannsbunga station have just been made available publicly and are a bit concerning!

 Austmannsbunga is on the NE rim of the caldera (crater) and as you can see from the data below, it has shown significant inflation for some months and this continues today. As is obvious, this cannot go on forever and indicates that Katla erupting is still a case of when and not if.

 

 

 

 


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#2 User is online   Bazmundo 

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Posted --

Indeed, that and GOLA have also been wobbling a bit recently - are we to assume that the data gaps in the SOHO output are because it was knocked off it's perch?

Jade, do you know of any sources of GPS data for these stations pre-Eyja?
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#3 User is offline   Martyn Wells 

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Posted --

Notable indeed. Presumably given the caldera location this sensor is based in a glacier.

Jade doesn't this happen every year in response to isostatic rebound (?) from summer glacial melt? If this is new station, presumably we have no historical data to compare to, but wonder how other glacial GPS stations have responded to the summer melt season?
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#4 User is offline   jcdorset 

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Posted --

Glyn, i think that the gaps in data are caused by a variety of issues, anything from equipment maintenance to computer link downtime. I don't know of any sources pre-eyja, at least not available to the public, most of the GPS stations however have been monitoring more or less continuously for many years.

Martyn, it is not a new station, it's been there a long time but they have made it public only this past week or so. Isostatic rebound is a good thought, but none of the other glacial stations show the same pattern and certainly not to this extent. If i recall correctly the stations are calibrated to take into account mean annual fluctuations due to the glaciers, so that only actually ground movement is represented.

However i stand to be corrected as this is only a vague memory of something i read about some time ago. :)
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#5 User is offline   markh 

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Posted --

Driving and shooting around Vatna last weekend. Shame it never went kaboom, would have made my trip. Lots of eyja ash still lying around and plenty of Tonka toy construction vehicles still at work.
M
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#6 User is offline   jcdorset 

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Posted --

Just found something interesting a quote from an old summary (Approx. 2005)

Quote

The rate of uplift at the Austmannsbunga GPS point increased markedly between the 1993-2000 measurements and the 2000-2003 measurements, from a few mm per year to about 2 cm per year

Well according to the chart i posted previously, Austmannsbunga has been uplifted by about 8cm in the past 7 months alone! That is a remarkable rate of increase!!


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#7 User is online   Bazmundo 

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Posted --

That is quite an increase, and judging by the summary quote a notable one. Thanks for finding that Jade, and for your insight. It would appear that you were quite correct about Katla being "when" rather than "if".

It's about time that more money was invested in the monitoring of this area, perhaps the InSAR, considering the potential cost of an eruption.

http://www.esa.int/e...FG_index_0.html
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#8 User is offline   JCW 

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Posted --

Some more quake activity at vatnajokull from earlier this morning.

Is this a prelude to something significant or just more "normal" glacial movement at this time of year?

http://en.vedur.is/e...es/vatnajokull/

 

Joe


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#9 User is offline   EllyTech 

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Posted --

There has been a Mag 4.8 quake. It happened very recently so is yet to be reviewed. Not on the mainland though. Details -

http://earthquake.us.../us2010ctcb.php
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#10 User is offline   Andy H 

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Posted --

Quote

RSOE EDIS
On 2010-11-01 at 15:52:15 [UTC]

Event: Volcano Eruption
Location: Iceland Grimsvotn Volcano

Situation:

Meltwater flooding is from the Grimsvotn glacial lake in Iceland and could signal the volcano underneath is about to erupt, a spokeswoman at the Icelandic Civil Protection Department reported on Monday. In April, clouds of ash from an eruption under the Eyjafjallajokull glacier grounded flights across Europe for a week, causing billions of dollars in losses for airlines and other industries. Water now pouring from Iceland's biggest glacier, Vatnajokull, which sits on top of a number of volcanic hotspots, could be a sign of fresh geological activity, Civil Protection Department spokeswoman Gudrun Johannesdottir said. Eyjafjallajokull is about 100 km southeast of Vatnajokull. "We have to check if there will be an eruption," Johannesdottir said. "Sometimes it initiates an eruption when a glacial outburst flood starts, but not every the time. So we are monitoring the situation closely." The latest eruption at Grimsvotn, in 2004, caused short-term disruptions to airline traffic into Iceland.


Something's on the move!!
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#11 User is offline   Scoggy 

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Posted --

Please see my link on the other Iceland thread for Erik Klemetti's 'eruptions' blog.

http://www.ukweather...5867&posts=1740


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#12 User is offline   Martyn Wells 

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Posted --

Harmonic tremor has hit a huge spike at Grimsfjall, along with a 1.9 mag EQ recently.  Mostly higher frequencies, which probably indicated that floodwater flow is increasing sharply.  0.5Hz rate also up, which might indicate further magma intrusion.  A swarm in the next 24 hours would now almost certainly indicate impending eruption.


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#13 User is offline   Martyn Wells 

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Posted --

2 more recent quakes now at Grimsfjall. Reports from Iceland showing jokhallup now 40cm up on yesterday, with a flow rate exceeding 2,000cubic metres/second. tTe 2004 eruption and jokhallup reached 5,000.
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#14 User is online   Dave W 

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Posted --

Have you the url for above info Martyn? Does look like an eruption is immiment now from all the signals doesnt it..
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#15 User is offline   markh 

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Posted --

Scientists aboard a coast guard plane are now en route in attempt to investigate.
M
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#16 User is offline   Chris Alder 

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Posted --

It does look an eruption is potentially quite close. Also I see Mount Merapi has erupted again this morning.
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#17 User is offline   Sam Jowett 

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Posted --

And don't forget Katla... that's still having periodic rattles!
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#18 User is offline   Martyn Wells 

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Posted --

Quote

Dave W - 3/11/2010 10:57 Have you the url for above info Martyn? Does look like an eruption is immiment now from all the signals doesnt it..

Taken from a new item on www.mbl.is http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=www.mbl.is

Flow of the West is now at 2,600 cubic meters per second, as measured hydrographic service men with harps. Rennslið hefur tvöfaldast á hverjum 17 klukkustundum í þessu hlaupi. Flow has doubled every 17 hours in this race. Það gæti því farið yfir 5.000 rúmmetra næstu nótt ef vöxtur hlaupsins heldur áfram svo lengi. It could go over 5,000 cubic meters next night if the gel growth continues as long.

Gígja byltist fram kolmórauð undir brúnni. Fiddle byltist kolmórauð under the bridge. Vatnsflaumurinn ryðst fram enda á milli undir öllu brúarhafinu sem er nær 340 metra langt. Vatnsflaumurinn ryðst front of the entire bridge between the sea which is almost 340 meters long. Vatnamælingamennirnir Gunnar Sigurðsson og Hilmar Hróðmarsson hafa verið við mælingar á hlaupinu frá því það hófst. Hydrographic men Gunnar Sigurdsson and Hilmar Hróðmarsson have been tracking the race since it began. Þeir taka aursýni nokkrum sinnum á dag og mæla rennslið í ánni. They take aursýni several times a day and measure the flow of the Nile.

Leiðnin er enn að aukast og var leiðnitalan 516 í morgun sem er rúmlega fimmfalt venjulegt gildi í Gígju. Conductivity is still increasing and was a leading figure 516 in the morning, or more than five times the normal value in the West. Leiðnin er mælikvarði á magn uppleystra efna en nóg virðist vera af þeim í vatninu sem nú hleypur fram úr Grímsvötnum. Conductivity is a measure of the amount of dissolved substances, but seems to be enough of them in the water which now runs out of Grímsvötn.

Af og til berast ísjakar með straumnum en þeir eru koksgráir og varla ná upp úr flaumnum. From time to receive a stream of icebergs, but they are coke gray and barely get out of Whistler away in the flood. Einn slíkur  „kafbátur“ rakst í vír mælingarmannanna í gær og hélt síðan för sinni áfram og lenti á raflínusamstæðu sem var úti í ánni. One such "submarine" came across the wire tracking the men yesterday and held since their movement forward and hit the electrical group that there was a river. Sverir staurarnir kubbuðust í sundur að sögn Hilmars mælingamanns. We are stakes kubbuðust the wires apart, according to Hilmar metric people.

Samstæðan hélt uppi þremur rafstrengjum og hanga leifarnar af staur og þverbita í tveimur raflínum en sú þriðja slitnaði í nótt. The group held up three power line and hanging remains of stakes and cross pieces in two electrical but the third was down last night. Hjólaskófla og skurðgrafa eru nú að treysta bakka Gígju til að verja aðra staura í raflínunni. Wheel loader digging and cutting are now relying West bank to defend the other stakes in raflínunni.


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#19 User is offline   Sam Jowett 

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Posted --

Quote

Dave W - 3/11/2010 10:57

Have you the url for above info Martyn? Does look like an eruption is immiment now from all the signals doesnt it..


Dave,

Tremor graphs avilable via http://hraun.vedur.i...najokulsvoktun/
Earthquake data available via http://en.vedur.is/e...es/vatnajokull/
Last Grimsfjall eruption: http://hraun.vedur.i..._grimsvotn.html

Looks like harmonic tremor has now increased above that in the eruption in 2004!
Now: http://hraun.vedur.i...n/oroi_grf.html vs 2004: http://hraun.vedur.i...kal_oct-nov.jpg
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#20 User is online   Dave W 

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Posted --

Cheers Sam [y]
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