Iceland
catdynamics | December 22, 2011getting ready for the grand finale,
the eleventh of the elven comes sidling into town
Gáttaþefur
He is well endowed this lad, and his long and sensitive proboscis will sniff out the christmas baking and he will swipe it if he can
he is hoping for some Laufabrauð
nom nom nom
catdynamics | December 21, 2011bit naughty this half-troll is
Gluggagægir likes to peep through your window late at night and see wassup
he's a sweety, really he is, just checking on whether you've been naughty as we get closer to the big day
catdynamics | December 20, 2011and the jólasveinar march on with their stout staffs in their hand...
this morning
Bjúgnakrækir
he climbs the rafters looking for sausages being hung or smoked, he particularly like the thick fatty bjúgu - lamb or horse he'll eat them all
nom nom nom
catdynamics | December 19, 2011Oh dreadful son-of-a-troll!
Last night the most feared of all the jólasveinar came, and a true son of a troll is he...
Skyrgámur!
Curse you!
He steals your skyr, the last of the precious few hauled hundreds of miles across the mountains, in the snow, up hill, both ways...
and then he taunts you!
catdynamics | December 17, 2011If you wake tonight to the door slamming, it is probably just the wind,
or is it...
Hurðaskellir - he's a bother.
This explains it all...
catdynamics | December 16, 2011And the jólasveinar keep stumbling in, the pace ramping up as christmas approaches (actually it is steady at one per day, it just feels ever more frantic)
Askasleikir - he licks your Ask clean, natch.
No, this sort of Askur, silly - the sort you keep your skyr in!
catdynamics | December 16, 2011
Pottasleikir - cheap, but he licks the pots clean, saves on the washing up
catdynamics | December 14, 2011
Stúfur is the littlest jólasveinn, and, I am told, much beloved of the girls.
He is not so much a (half)troll as your very own Home Gnome.
Very stubborn, loyal, somewhat fierce and generous to a fault.
He rowed to our distant shores last night, bringing wee little treats, received with much joy this morning. As is his custom he also licked the pots and pans clean, mostly, refreshed for the journey back north.
catdynamics | December 13, 2011and the jólasveinar march on and on across the floor...
Giljagaur came this morning.
He likes to hide in the folds in the landscape, crawling towards your barn, where he will sneak up to the cows in the morning and skim the significance off your double blinded data set, leaving but a suggestion of a hint of the Higgs Particle on the pail of photons.
No cream for theorists on this morning.
catdynamics | December 11, 2011Yes, 'tis the season, and jólasveinarnir are headed for town:
Stekkjastaur - Lock up your sheep!
Icelandic media cautioned children last week that the jólasveinar were having a hard time this year, and to expect more socks and and underwear, and less overpriced plastic imported crap in their shoes this year...
austerity, it is also for half-trolls.
catdynamics | October 4, 2011Series of substantial earthquakes in the Katla caldera,
could be nothing could be sign of an impending eruption
there are multiple, relatively shallow earthquakes taking place now,
several with magnitude of 3+
earthquake map at 4:10 am (from vedur.is)
it is dark, no other evidence yet, eg no spike in water flow or conductivity in the glacial rivers
webcam at http://ruv.is/katla is down overnight
if the earthquakes continue and get larger, it is a robust sign of impending onset of eruption
Jón Frímann is on it
PS: still going strong, though the rate of earthquakes has tapered off
GeoLurking…
catdynamics | September 28, 2011On saturday Alþingi, the Icelandic Parliament, reconvenes.
Protests are planned on the square outside, and there are suggestions that a new wave of protests may build up, similar to the "Household Revolution" back in the winter of 2008.
But there will be some missing from the demos.
On Wednesday, at informal meetings, a number of Icelandic Police, both from departments in the south west, where Reykjavík is, and in the north, declared that they would not be serving on the Riot Police squad.
As I understand, call up to riot squad duty, is essentially, non-mandatory overtime shift work, beyond…
catdynamics | July 14, 2011Mystery flashflood reveals new hydrothermal system and probable small subglacial eruption this week, or two, or three...
Who the f#@k named a volcano Loki anyway...
The other night there were some gentle rumblings on the west side of Vatnajökull
Literally: small earthquakes and low frequency tremors characteristic of large volume fluid flows.
Fögrufjöll (click to embiggen)
From geographic.org
This was right under "Hamarinn" - aka Loki - Fögrufjöll
Hamarinn (click to embiggen)
From vedur.is
These are part of the complex of volcanic bumps and bits on Bárðarbunga, which is a ginormous…
catdynamics | July 9, 2011Cratering of ice sheet and possible small eruption under ice.
click to embiggen
Crater in ice over one of sites of the 1918 eruption - four of these formed overnight.
Lot of shallow quakes still in a line across the caldera - some might be ice-surface cracking, others are several km deep. Could be magma pushing into a fissure, angle is consistent with the general orientation of the mid-atlantic rift through there.
Or not.
Be quite spectacular if that whole line ruptures though.
click to embiggen
Nice picture gallery at visir.is
Video of flood here (ruv 32 bit wmv) - can't get it to…
catdynamics | July 8, 2011A jökulhlaup has started in Múlakvísl, the glacial river that comes off Mýrdalsjökull, that is the glacier that Katla is under.
No eruption at this point though.
RUV has a webcam on it (32 bit wmv) - not much to see at midnight EST
Lots of
small earthquakes in a line across the caldera though.
Some have a depth of less than a km, and are, most likely, just the ice shifting,
but there is steady activity down to 10-15 km depth, suggesting some magma movement.
Police are warning of strong H2S odour on the sands, and possibly lethal concentrations of the gas in low lying areas nearby.…
catdynamics | July 5, 2011News reports in Iceland of magma movements in Hekla.
Nope, not Katla, this is the prototype Northern European volcano - Hekla
No, that doesn't mean we have given up on Katla, or Hengill, or Askja, or Krýsucík, or any of the other hot spots on the mid-Atlantic ridge that have been rumbling recently.
There is still a steady stream of small earthquakes in a line going 1-10 km under the central caldera at Katla, and the area on Reykjanesskagi near Krýsuvík is both swelling and shaking.
But, Hekla erupts often, and usually with little or no warning. There was one small earthquake there, but GPS…
catdynamics | June 17, 2011Ruh-roh.
Katla is rumbling a bit.
Historically, Katla tends to erupt 1-2 years after any eruption in Eyjafjallajökull.
Katla eruptions are also, historically, very nasty, very dangerous and likely to have wide (continental scale) impacts.
But not always.
Katla is the primary motivator for Iceland's rather excellent Civil Defence System.
From vedur.is
Earthquakes in last 48 hours under Mýrdalsjökull.
Definitely something stirring under there.
Will need to keep an eye on that, could go burp.
Or not.
h/t Lára Hanna
PS: Jón Frímann is local and on it
catdynamics | May 23, 2011visir.is has some very impressive up close photos of the eruption
set of 38 photos from the glacier
video of the trip