The Iceland Volcano Thread

alibabba · 22-04-2010 07:20AM

Sponge Bob wrote: »

Seismic Activity Rising at Katla

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

:eek:

woolymammoth · 22-04-2010 07:43AM

alibabba wrote: »

:eek:

i assume from your gasp that you understand these hieroglyphics. So, what are the 5 different graphs of precisely? I mean, why not just one! And which frequencies indicate what about the activity!?

peasant · 22-04-2010 07:46AM

May I be allowed to point our resident chart fetishists cum panic merchants to the fact that the page where this graph stems from http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/Katla2009/ does mention Katla in the website name but nowhere on the actual graphs does it say "Katla".
I don't speak Islandic, but the only volcano they mention in the chart descriptions there is Enya.

May I further point out that there was an article from the Islandic volcanolgists somwhere (no time to search for it now) that did point out that as the eruption changes from ash to magma, the seismic activity would increase. They basically took this to be a good sign

forkassed · 22-04-2010 07:59AM

The charts indicate seismic activity from 5 places around Katla

God = Godabunga
Esk = Eskri Skogar
Hvo = Lagu Hvolar
Mid = Midmork
Hau = ??

Chardee MacDennis · 22-04-2010 07:59AM

woolymammoth wrote: »

i assume from your gasp that you understand these hieroglyphics. So, what are the 5 different graphs of precisely? I mean, why not just one! And which frequencies indicate what about the activity!?

Jesus get off your high horse, it was a simple eek in response to the text "seismic activity rising" and a chart with data points rising, why don't you hve a go at that post?to most people both of those would make you think something is happening, and if you know better why don't you explainthe situation

woolymammoth · 22-04-2010 08:03AM

BastardPrince wrote: »

Jesus get off your high horse, it was a simple eek in response to the text "seismic activity rising" and a chart with data points rising, why don't you hve a go at that post?to most people both of those would make you think something is happening, and if you know better why don't you explainthe situation rather than be c**k

you, sir, will find that if you read it again, I was the ignorant one asking questions, because i do not know any better. It looked to me like you did.

krankykitty · 22-04-2010 08:04AM

BastardPrince wrote: »

Jesus get off your high horse, it was a simple eek in response to the text "seismic activity rising" and a chart with data points rising, why don't you hve a go at that post?to most people both of those would make you think something is happening, and if you know better why don't you explainthe situation

Was he/she not just wondering what the charts were about? I'm certainly interested if anyone could explain them.

Chardee MacDennis · 22-04-2010 08:06AM

woolymammoth wrote: »

you, sir, will find that if you read it again, I was the ignorant one asking questions, because i do not know any better. It looked to me like you did.

Well I can only apologise! I read it with a heavily sarcastic tone...

woolymammoth · 22-04-2010 08:08AM

BastardPrince wrote: »

Well I can only apologise! I read it with a heavily sarcastic tone...

no worries!! :pac:

moving on, anyone care to tell us lay people what the difference in the seismic frequencies are?

maquiladora · 22-04-2010 08:17AM

For those wondering, "Hau" on that graph is from a location which is just off the map posted above, to the northwest I think.

Figuramatyi · 22-04-2010 08:19AM

woolymammoth wrote: »

no worries!! :pac:

moving on, anyone care to tell us lay people what the difference in the seismic frequencies are?

Everything you need is on the chart:

"10 minute, median-averaged tremor (vertical component)".
The measurement is in hertz (as frequency), and the color represent different frequencies. The height of the line shows the vertical displacement of the land mass as per 10 minutes.

Pretty straightforward imho.

22-04-2010 08:26AM

OK, what the charts display is one thing, but the real question is,
What does it mean?
Does it mean magma is on the move, or that pressure underground is rising/falling.
Can the readings be used to predict when and how big the next eruption will be.

Those are the real questions to be asking & getting answers for.

/goes to google it.

edit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prediction_of_volcanic_activity#General_principles_of_volcano_seismology

Figuramatyi · 22-04-2010 08:28AM

Deleted User wrote: »

OK, what the charts display is one thing, but the real question is,
What does it mean?
Does it mean magma is on the move, or that pressure underground is rising/falling.
Can the readings be used to predict when and how big the next eruption will be.

Those are the real questions to be asking & getting answers for.

They mean movement of the ground, that can be caused by anything. Mostly magma movement below ground, new eruptions would appear as high spikes (this much we know). But anything can cause ground motion, a big human-made explosion, a meteor hitting the ground etc.
Of course, in this case (this time) it's mostly magma movement.

krankykitty · 22-04-2010 08:28AM

Thats pretty clear, yes, but what do the different frequencies mean in terms of eruption? If there's high seismic frequencies does that mean the Katla likely to erupt, or does it simply mean that Enya is doing something?

Edit.. Thanks, see you answered the question

forkassed · 22-04-2010 08:30AM

http://scienceblogs.com/eruptions/

Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland is slowly settling into a pattern of strombolian-to-surtseyan (depending on meltwater access to the crater) explosions that have been sending ash up to 2-5 km above the summit. We can see this new, more diffuse plume in the recent NASA EO image of the eruption taken April 19. There is still abundant ice to melt at the summit as there have been a number of floods overnight and this morning near the volcano, betraying the continuing production of meltwater by the eruption. The Icelandic Met office points out two important tidbits: (1) Eyjafjallajökull has become to deflate, which might mean less vigorous eruption for the time being and (2) there are no signs of any impending eruption at Katla. Volcanic tremors are also down at Eyjafjallajökull. If you want to see a day's worth of volcanic activity at Eyjafjallajökull in, oh, less than a minute and a half, check out the timelapse video made by Eruptions reader Philipp from the Vodafon webcam on April 20th.

maquiladora · 22-04-2010 08:31AM

Deleted User wrote: »

OK, what the charts display is one thing, but the real question is,
What does it mean?
Does it mean magma is on the move....

From the Iceland Met Office website :

seismic tremors indicated that lava flow might have begun in Eyjafjallajökull...

maquiladora · 22-04-2010 08:32AM

The graphs show average vertical movement per minute for each seismometer, in three frequency ranges (Hz).The vertical axis has the same scale for each station. The main purpose of these graphs is to monitor changes in intensity of seismic wave motion. The absolute value of the scale has no meaning. Many phenomena can influence the intensity, for example wind, ocean waves and traffic. Sometimes floods and volcanic tremor can be detected. Earthquakes appear as spikes on the graphs....

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

alibabba · 22-04-2010 08:33AM

woolymammoth wrote: »

i assume from your gasp that you understand these hieroglyphics. So, what are the 5 different graphs of precisely? I mean, why not just one! And which frequencies indicate what about the activity!?

:rolleyes:

The_Saint · 22-04-2010 09:41AM

some fairly big pieces of ash falling on west coast of Galway this morning... sporadic though definite ash fall here... sometimes obscures the sun with cloud making it look red... very hazy weather in general yesterday and today... can really see ash in the sky in evening light

Sponge Bob · 22-04-2010 09:54AM

The chart I linked above updates every few minutes. If the seismic means there is more lava and less ash that is good news. Enya and Katla share the same sensor array in a ring around them and the data above comes from that common array which is primarily a Katla sensor array seeing as Katla is historically more of a nuisance than Enya.

The big spike on the left ( the original eruption last week ) was probably when the ice cap on top made contact with rising magma leading to a bang at the beginning. That ice cap has largely melted now.

peasant · 22-04-2010 10:46AM

Semi-OT ....anyone old enough to remember Heimaey?
http://volcano.oregonstate.edu/oldroot/volcanoes/volc_images/europe_west_asia/heimaey/heimaey.html

I remember watching that as a kid on the telly ...people fighting the lava flow with pumps

red menace · 22-04-2010 12:16PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-N5_e7LeQg

scary stuff

krankykitty · 22-04-2010 12:29PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLOynMwwMWA

Time lapse animation of one day in the life of Eyja!

maquiladora · 22-04-2010 03:27PM

Current events

Eruption similar - 22 April 2010 11:15

Volcanic tremor increased in the afternoon yesterday but after midnight it decreased again and has been relatively stable since then.

The plume rose up to 3-4 km high yesterday afternoon and seems similar this morning according to IMO's radar.

- http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/articles/nr/1884

Live view of the plume through the clouds here : http://eldgos.mila.is/eyjafjallajokull-fra-thorolfsfelli/

djhaxman · 22-04-2010 04:28PM

Sorry if they've been posted before but here are some good photos of the volcano and ash cloud. I love the way they generate their own lightning.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/more_from_eyjafjallajokull.html

kevin12345 · 22-04-2010 05:36PM

haha just looked at the webcam there a few minutes ago and this woman appeared out of nowhere...frightened the bejaysus out of me

Webmonkey · 22-04-2010 05:50PM

kevin12345 wrote: »

haha just looked at the webcam there a few minutes ago and this woman appeared out of nowhere...frightened the bejaysus out of me

Thats hilarious. Its good way of getting instantly famous. Half world watching it.

maquiladora · 22-04-2010 08:16PM

Half hidden behind that cloud but the plume is looking good in the evening sunlight right now. Pretty high compared to the last few days :

mickger844posts · 22-04-2010 08:19PM

maquiladora wrote: »

Half hidden behind that cloud but the plume is looking good in the evening sunlight right now. Pretty high compared to the last few days :

Definitely the highest its been in a few days, luckily for us the wind is changing to a southerly direction.

maquiladora · 22-04-2010 08:34PM

And as the wind changes, Iceland airports due to be closed tomorrow.

The Iceland Volcano Thread

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