iceland Bárðarbunga and Askja - Volcanic Activity

[SteveB]

Another 5 quake in the early hours

 

 

 

Saturday
27.09.2014 02:00:14 64.689 -17.497 3.8 km 5.0 99.0 5.7 km NNE of Bárðarbunga

[SteveB]

It looks like it's snowing in Iceland at the moment on mila cam1..... or it could be ash

[karyo]

It looks like it's snowing in Iceland at the moment on mila cam1..... or it could be ash

It is the first snow of the season. The low that came from the west overnight has engaged with some lovely Arctic air! I am so jealous!!!

[Polar Maritime]

It is the first snow of the season. The low that came from the west overnight has engaged with some lovely Arctic air! I am so jealous!!!

 

Yes nice to see K!

[karyo]

Yes nice to see K!

I can't wait for the system to move away so that we can view the pristine snow against the lava flow and plume from the fissure! Hopefully, we will be able to in a few hours.

[SteveB]

4.5 @1.5km

 

 

Saturday
27.09.2014 08:11:04 64.667 -17.445 1.5 km 4.5 99.0 4.9 km NE of Bárðarbunga

 

I wonder if the webcams shake when these quakes happen. Never been watching them at the time of the quakes.

 

Anyone noticed them shake at the time of the bigger quakes?

[karyo]

4.5 @1.5km

 

 

Saturday

27.09.2014 08:11:04 64.667 -17.445 1.5 km 4.5 99.0 4.9 km NE of Bárðarbunga

 

I wonder if the webcams shake when these quakes happen. Never been watching them at the time of the quakes.

 

Anyone noticed them shake at the time of the bigger quakes?

The webcams are bound to shake when the earthquakes take place but I haven't noticed anything. The truth is that the shake with the wind also so it can be hard to tell what is causing the shake.

 

I've noticed once the webcam near Popocatepetl in Mexico shake during the volcanic eruption. There is not much wind in that area so it is easy to detect volcanic camera shaking.

[SteveB]

Yeah, I guess the wind will shake the cams making it hard for the quakes to move the cam also.

[karyo]

I guess today's snowfall will make the GPS a bit unreliable!

 

http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Bardarb/BARC/

[karyo]

The Mila webcam has cleared and the view is amazing with all the snow on the ground!

More snow to come though later on.

[john pike]

  Photos of the 1961 Askja Eruption shown for the first time By Benedikt Jóhannesson September 26, 2014 22:38 Updated: September 26, 2014 22:39

A roll of photos taken of the Askja eruption more than half a century ago is finally published. Photo: Reynir Zoega

On October 26 1961 the Askja volcano suddenly started erupting. Even though the volcano had brought misery to the nation a hundred years earlier, not many were afraid this time. Two days later, on Saturday afternoon, a group of men in the fishing town of Norðfjörðyour in the Eastfjords of Iceland decided to travel to the once dreaded volcano.

The Chevrolet was the perfect vehicle for a trip into the Icelandic highlands. Photo: Reynir Zoega

Now more than half a century later the public sees the photos taken on the journey by a father and son, Reynir and Jóhann Zoega.

The glowing lava. Photo: Reynir Zoega

The group was lucky enough to find a driver and a car. Jens was an experienced driver and his four wheel drive Chevrolet was both big enough and strong enough to make it to the highlands. It had already started snowing on the mountain roads, so it was by no means certain that the car would make it. Not one country road in Iceland was paved. Even now the highland trails are gravel roads, but they have improved greatly in the half a century since then.

The Askja eruption.

After midnight the group made it to the glowing lava. Snow covered the ground and the molten rocks were a great contrast to the cold ground. The crater was in the vicinity of Vítí, the crater in which many foreign tourists choose to bathe naked. After parking the car the group marched towards the crater and came quite close. When the glowing rocks seem to get uncomfortably close they stopped. Three craters spewed fire; they may have been within 100 meters from one. On the way back the lava had flowed over the car’s track and they had to swing around the glowing tongue of magma.

The tracks from a few hours earlier disappeared under the lava. Photo: Jóhann Zoega.

Early in the morning they left the fine display of nature and headed back. They planned to stay at Grímsstaðir, but there was no vacancy so they went on to Möðrudalur á Fjöllum, the most isolated farm in Iceland. The farmer Jón lived there alone after he lost his wife and he gladly allowed the group to stay. They finally had a place to sleep after staying awake for more than 36 hours.

Jón the farmer lived alone in Möðrudalur after his wife passed away, on the most isolated farm in Iceland. Photo: Reynir Zoega

The discussion among the group was which way to go back. It had snowed even more and they feared that the road might be closed. Then a car from Seyðisfjörðyour appeared. It turned out that the driver knew the roads well, and they decided to join forces, which was just as well. On a few occasions the group had to push, pull and dig the cars out of the snow.

The cars had to be dug out, pushed out or pulled out of the snow. Photo: Reynir Zoega

Finally, after midnight on Monday (on Tuesday in fact) the nine tired men finally made it back to Norðfjörðyour after an exciting trip. They are both still alive and well. Reynir is 94 and Jóhann is 72. They have not been to Holuhraun yet, but Reynir celebrated his 94th birthday in the highlands, just as he always does.

Reynir is the uncle of the author and Jóhann his cousin.

 

 

http://icelandreview.com/news/2014/09/26/photos-1961-askja-eruption-shown-first-time

 

 

[swebby]

Yay snow! Makes the lava field very easy to see.  If it stays I think it will illuminate the view come night fall.

[john pike]

27 September 2014 18:50 - from geoscientist on duty

Earthquake activity under northwestern Vatnajökull is similar to the activity in recent days. Just over 50 earthquakes have been located at Bárðarbunga today, somewhat more than at the same time yesterday. Two earthquakes were over three in size; first at 02:00 M5.1 and then at 08:11 M4.5, both at the northern rim. About 20 earthquakes were located in the dyke under northern Dyngjujökull, as yesterday. One of these reached 2 in size, others were smaller.

 

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/articles/nr/2947

 

 

 

http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes/vatnajokull/

 

looks like a higher quake total around bara although smaller in size

wait and see what size now

[john pike]

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=401768

 

4.4 here

 

likely to be around 5

 

http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/alert/?id=UIW84;BGSG&date=2014-09-27

[john pike]

Saturday
27.09.2014 19:31:46 64.687 -17.514 7.1 km 5.2 99.0 5.2 km N of Bárðarbunga

 

 

at 99 so has been checked

 

 

uptake again there

 

and there too

Edited September 27, 2014 by john pike

[karyo]

Barda seems to love the number 5.2! Lol

[john pike]

 

got a jolt on there

 

 

but nothing showing yet

 

seems very quiet

 

 

but looking at this

 

i reckon it wont be for long

[karyo]

i reckon it wont be for long

 

It might take till the morning for IMO to update properly.

[john pike]

hi karyo

 

thats my thinking too

 

so im off to bed now

 

have a good evening

 

back tomorrow

[john pike]

not sure if this has been shown

 

Holuhraun seen from the MODIS satellite

• September 26, 2014 12:49 pm

The picture below is taken by MODIS satellite at 03:46 tonight. The red colour shows a heat deviation and the white colour maximum heat radiation. According to scientists in the field the lava flow did cross the track into Holuhraun tonight. The lava field is growing to north east. The picture is compiled and published by the Institute of Earth Sciences University of Iceland. 

 

http://avd.is/en/?p=461

 

[Filski]

Just eyeballing the graph below, but it would seem that large quakes are growing in number, but reducing slightly in strength. Have been reading comments that they are increasingly shallow.

 

There are several conclusions one could draw from that I imagine.

 

[SteveB]

A couple of big quakes, one at very shallow depth again.

 

 

Sunday
28.09.2014 02:03:55 64.669 -17.468 0.1 km 3.4 99.0 4.3 km NE of Bárðarbunga

 

Sunday
28.09.2014 04:44:05 64.670 -17.479 7.9 km 4.1 99.0 4.0 km NE of Bárðarbunga

 

Sunday
28.09.2014 07:52:29 64.616 -17.480 6.7 km 3.4 99.0 3.6 km SE of Bárðarbunga

[karyo]

Another 5.2 just took place in Bardarbunga!

[Gael_Force]

A very brief window this morning to see a reasonably clear shot of the lava against the backdrop of fresh, white snow.

 

[SteveB]

Another 5.2 just took place in Bardarbunga!

 

At a depth of 1700m as well!