World Volcano Activity UPDATE !!! MARAPI AGAIN!!! KATLA AGAIN!!! SWARM STARTING IN ICELAND DORMANT VOLCANO Bláfjoll!!!

Activity in Iceland’s Dead Zone
Posted on February 18, 2012 by volcanocafe

Photograph by Skúli Thor Magnusson. Stunning view of the Veidivötn Lakes.
The Dead Zone

In the area going from Vatnajökull down to Torfajökull and Myrdalsjökull there is normally almost no seismic activity. This has given the area the not so scientific name of the Dead Zone. It contains the fissure swarms of Bárdarbunga, Grimsvötn and Katla. Grimsvötns fissure swarm is called Laki and Katlas is called Éldgja.

Veidivötn

Bárdarbungas fissure swarm is called Veidivötn, and has had the largest lava-floods on the planet in the last 10 000 years. The largest of those is called the Thjorsahraun putting out an estimated 20 cubic kilometers of lava.


Photograph by Örn Óskarsson. Anybody who wishes to rent a cabin?
Rifting Fissure Eruption

When Katla, Bardarbunga or Grimsvötn has a major and sudden influx of magma from the hotspot, and the fissure swarm of the volcano in question suffers a rifting of the Eastern Icelandic Seismic Zone opening it up. Then what happens is a VEI-6 eruption at the central volcano, and a minimum of 10 cubic kilometers of lava erupts down a minimum of 100km fissure. It is the most destructive type of eruption likely to happen in the northern hemisphere.

The reason of them being that problematic is that it at the same time it releases a lot of ash into the atmosphere, about 100 times the amount from Eyjafjallajökull and also the fissure releases a lot of sulphuric gasses. This phenomenon is called dry fog, and was reported in most of northern Europe and the USA during the eruption of Laki in 1783.

The Laki eruption is the most deadly in European modern history due to the famine that followed. 1783 is also known as the year without summer.

Dead Zone activity of today


Image by IMO. Look at the line running up from Torfajökull/Myrdalsjökull, that is Veidivötn.
During the last 12 hours a series of small (1 to 1,8M) earthquakes happened inside the Dead Zone. They trend from Torfajökulls Landmannalaugar up along the Veidivötn fissure towards Skrokkalda.

What is remarkable that this phenomenon has never been recorded before.

At the same time there where harmonic tremoring in the SIL-station of Skrokkalda, Vatnsfell and also Snaebyli, shown here is the activity at Vatnsfell.


Image by IMO. Vatnsfell SIL-station showing harmonic tremor.
There has also been activity at the Dyngjufjöll, the principal SIL-station of the Bárdarbunga volcanic complex.

[link to hraun.vedur.is]

And here is a webcam of sorts for the Veidivötn area:

[link to helgi.dk]

Caveat for the press

Please dear all, it is still far from any possible eruption in the area. At most this is a signal of what can come, nothing more.

CARL
[link to volcanocafe.wordpress.com]

irpsit says:
February 18, 2012 at 18:44
Carl, great post.

But if I am not wrong in correcting you, this is what happened in 1783, accordingly to historic written reports in Wikipedia:

The Laki eruption started in June, and that summer of 1783 was deadly hot and dry in Europe, with the so called dry fog persisting over Europe, which created famine, people dying from breathing toxic gas when working long times outside (even in Europe), and the summer days were hazy, dry and very hot. Summer of 1783 was called the “sand-summer” in the UK. “.

And fron England we have this written account:

“The summer of the year 1783 was an amazing and portentous one, and full of horrible phaenomena; for besides the alarming meteors and tremendous thunder-storms that affrighted and distressed the different counties of this kingdom, the peculiar haze, or smokey fog, that prevailed for many weeks in this island, and in every part of Europe, and even beyond its limits, was a most extraordinary appearance, unlike anything known within the memory of man. By my journal I find that I had noticed this strange occurrence from June 23 to July 20 inclusive, during which period the wind varied to every quarter without making any alteration in the air. The sun, at noon, looked as blank as a clouded moon, and shed a rust- coloured ferruginous light on the ground, and floors of rooms; but was particularly lurid and blood-coloured at rising and setting. All the time the heat was so intense that butchers’ meat could hardly be eaten on the day after it was killed; and the flies swarmed so in the lanes and hedges that they rendered the horses half frantic, and riding irksome. The country people began to look, with a superstitious awe, at the red, louring aspect of the sun.”

Then, the following winter o 1783-1784 was incredibly cold (and it arrived earlier), and so was the summer of 1784, which maybe could have been a year without a summer. The aberrations in weather continued for a few more years. In Iceland this was called as the “mist hardships” (translated into English of course), where many people died.

Here is a written account from Iceland, from Kirkjabaerklustur:
“This past week, and the two prior to it, more poison fell from the sky than words can describe: ash, volcanic hairs, rain full of sulfur and saltpeter, all of it mixed with sand. The snouts, nostrils, and feet of livestock grazing or walking on the grass turned bright yellow and raw. All water went tepid and light blue in color ”
It should have been terrific.

And from Wikipedia:
“The summer of 1783 was the hottest on record and a rare high pressure zone over Iceland caused the winds to blow to the south-east.[7] The poisonous cloud drifted to Bergen in Denmark-Norway, then spread to Prague in the Kingdom of Bohemia (now in the Czech Republic) by 17 June, Berlin by 18 June, Paris by 20 June, Le Havre by 22 June, and to Great Britain by 23 June. The fog was so thick that boats stayed in port, unable to navigate, and the sun was described as “blood coloured”.[7]

Inhaling sulfur dioxide gas causes victims to choke as their internal soft tissue swells – sulfur dioxide reacts with the moisture in lungs and produces sulfurous acid. [11] The local death rate in Chartres was up by 5% during August and September, with over 40 dead. In Great Britain, the records show that the additional deaths were outdoor workers; the death rate in Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire and the east coast was perhaps two or three times the normal rate. It has been estimated that 23,000 British people died from the poisoning.[12]“

[link to volcanocafe.wordpress.com]

if that happens, it will destroy north west europe.

back in the 1700s people could cope with harshness because their lives were harsh anyway. they just adapted.

today, in our mollycoddled little cocoons, it will be a VERY traumatic event!

irpsit says:
February 18, 2012 at 18:47
This is the following winter in North America:
“In North America, the winter of 1784 was the longest and one of the coldest on record. It was the longest period of below-zero temperatures in New England, the largest accumulation of snow in New Jersey, and the longest freezing over of the Chesapeake Bay. There was ice skating in Charleston Harbor, a huge snowstorm hit the south, the Mississippi River froze at New Orleans, and there was ice in the Gulf of Mexico”. I am not totally sure, but it seems that the extreme hot in summer 1783 was also mixed with summer frosts in the UK. There are accounts describing a great frost in late June, but this are controversial, might have been frost or might have been ash.

[link to www.buryfreepress.co.uk]



[link to volcanocafe.wordpress.com]

Yes, it's the end of europe and north america for shure, and don't forget that we have to had climate change to all this... the result is inimaginable!

i'll tell you something else too. i work as a courier, and my van is covered with what looks like ash, from the last rain i drove through.

the atmosphere is ALREADY saturated with ash.

one more big eruption, and the dominoes will start falling I reckon!

Serious??? Ash? The last volcano that trow a lot of ash to the atmosphere was the one from Chile... that's a very strange thing. Maby it's not volcanic...

i've noticed it a hell of a lot here since Grimsvotn last year.

You think it's still from Grimsvotn??? My God!

Fuji cranking up too?
[link to volcanoscience.blogspot.com]
Japan’s Mount Fuji (Fujiyama) volcano is showing signs that it is getting ready to erupt. While translating Japanese to English using Google translate leaves much to be desired in terms of readability, the news story (in Japanese) appears to be saying that fumerolic activity and steam emissions have increased, with an unclear anecdote about a 50m wide “new” crater. The only picture I was able to find (below) was a bit grainy, and appears to be showing a snow-less crater on a very snowy mountain.

[link to www.volcanodiscovery.com]
link to original

[link to hraun.vedur.is]

i'm not liking the tremor charts in the south of the country around Katla

very odd signals!

[link to hraun.vedur.is]

[link to hraun.vedur.is]

[link to hraun.vedur.is]

[link to hraun.vedur.is]

that last one is getting more and more intense

:smiley2:

I do not remember precisely, approximately so like:
"Es ist die Theorie, mein Freund trocken
Aber es ist der Baum des Lebens ewig jung" ))

Something is piking up... or bad weather.

i think if it was bad weather they'd all be displaying the same sort of signal. the tremor is ramping up on the last one, and REALLY dipping on the others. almost as if there's been a breakthrough of magma somewhere deep down?

??? What's this?

I can't tell you for shure... i hask to someone with more experience than me to comment!

I think, from J.W. von Goethe, "Faust")

Last Edited by Tramp on 02/18/2012 04:28 PM

[link to www.youtube.com]

Carlos says:
February 19, 2012 at 17:48
About Eyjafjallajökull…

By 26 February 2010 the Global Positioning System (GPS) equipment used by the Iceland Meteorological Office at Þorvaldseyri farm in the Eyjafjöll area (around 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) southeast of the location of the recent eruption[15]) had shown 3 centimetres of displacement of the local crust in a southward direction, of which a 1 centimetre displacement had taken place within four days. (See the GPS Time Series page of the Nordic Volcanological Center’s website for detailed information on the degree of movement detected in the Earth’s crust in the Eyjafjallajökull locality.)

This unusual seismic activity along with the rapid movement of the Earth’s crust in the area gave geophysicists evidence that magma was flowing from underneath the crust into the magma chamber of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano and that pressure stemming from the process caused (in geophysical terms) the huge crustal displacement at Þorvaldseyri farm.[18] The seismic activity continued to increase and from 3 to 5 March, close to 3,000 earthquakes were measured having their epicentre at the volcano. Most of these were too small (magnitude 2) to be interpreted as precursors to an eruption, but some could be detected in nearby towns.[19]

The most recent scientific observations are on the website of the Institute of Earth Sciences which details the current situation for the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull. The Nordic Volcanological Center also maintains an Eyjafjallajökull status page

[link to volcanocafe.wordpress.com]

3 cm?

my arse.

look at these charts..

[link to hraun.vedur.is]

that's between 10 to 20 cms of UPLIFT since 2003. look at SOHO recently. shooting right up.

[link to hraun.vedur.is]

that one is showing up to 12 cm southerly movement, again SOHO is the biggest mover

taken from..

[link to hraun.vedur.is]

it would be interesting to see the GOLA measurements on those charts. combined with SOHO you'd have a pretty good idea what is going on. oh well.

This movement is local or regional? My God...

[link to www.youtube.com]


[link to www.youtube.com]


Have you guys checked this NEW Super Volcano out yet?

27 cubic Ft. per second growth.

Yes i know about it... it's impressive! Thank's for the videos!

Spike in Godabunga and other stations... [link to hraun.vedur.is]

but no quakes... [link to en.vedur.is]

yeah, it's on a few. this one looks interesting..

[link to hraun.vedur.is]

wonder where smj is?

And now: islander says:
February 19, 2012 at 19:23
Heads´up. Strange tops showing at “sly”, “mjo” etc. for last hours.
No quakes showing in region and not much weather in region.
I wonder if something is up.

[link to hraun.vedur.is]
[link to hraun.vedur.is] [link to volcanocafe.wordpress.com]

it's 3 miles north of eyjafjallajokull

interesting