Waiting for Etna Part II & Riddles

/ December 6, 2013
Truly spectacular Etna photograph by Giovanni Basso.

Truly spectacular Etna photograph by Giovanni Basso.

While we are waiting for the expected fiery occurrence of Etnas Twentieth Paroxysm we can warm ourselves by watching expectantly the cams for Etna or go on a detour to Sakurajima. Or why not delve into the mysterious tremor encircling 20 percent of Iceland starting somewhere between Hekla and Katla reaching all the way around the Veidivötn Fissure Swarm.

It is heating up for a truly hot volcanic weekend, whatever ones interests are.

Riddles

And as usual there is two points to be had before I append the clues. In the top Sissel is tightening the grip on the lead.

Image for riddle one.

Image for riddle one.

  1. Surely you’re joking! A Swedish sounding volcano to be found at (image) – Ove Volcano on Simbo Island (Sissel, 2pt. Cryphia, bonuspoint for New Eddystone Volcano)
  2. The Black Pearl of hungry Carthaginians – Ustica Island (Shérine France, 2pt)
  3. Lava home of the smallest languages – Vanua Lava Island (Evan Chugg, 2pt)
  4. Here a Count counted Crocodiles, but not for Rudolf the red nosed reindeer – Central Island (Crocodile Island) Lake Turkana (Evan Chugg 1pt, Alison 1pt)
  5. If the Goats have made you into a nudist beware of the flying foxes. Here all you need is wine and a man. – Barren Island in Andaman Islands (Evan Chugg, 2pt)
Score board
14 Sissel
9 Evan Chugg
8 Diana Barnes
8 Harrie
7 KarenZ
6 Henrik
5 Shérine France
5 Talla		 4 Arjanemm
4 Graniya
4 Kelda
4 Matt
4 Stephanie Alice Halford
3 Alison
3 Cryphia
3 Michael Ross
3 Sa’Ke		 2 Dorkviking
2 Lughduniense
2 Lurking
2 Maggiemom
2 Spica´s mate, St. Ananas
1 Bobbi
1 Bruce Stout
1 Edward
1 Irpsit

Etnameter

Red hot spicy lava balls ( Original name: Gnochi)

Ingredients:

  • 1 kg floury, mealy potatoes
  • 7 spoons semolina
  • 3 eggs
  • some molten butter
  • flour

sauce:

  • onions
  • tomatoes( either fresh ripe ones or a tin)
  • salt, pepper, chili, and herbs.

Cheese: Parmigano Regiano or Gran Padano

Normal potato dough with more semolina than flour: Cook the potatoes, peel them and press them using a ricer. Add the eggs and the butter and the semolina . Add flour till you have a dough which can be formed. Try not to work on the dough for too long. The longer you need, the worse the dough will become.  The amount of flour you need depends on the sort of potato. Form balls and trim them using a fork.

For the sauce:

Cut one or 2 onions into small pieces and roast them in olive oil. Add a tin of tomatoes, best cut into small pieces as well and cook for a few minutes. Add salt, pepper, chili and some herbs. ( best origano)

Poor this over the potato balls which should be stored in a glass form fit to go into an oven. Place grinded Parmigino or (cheaper) Gran Padano on top and bake it in the oven till everything is hot and the cheese begins to melt. Serve with some extra cheese.

If you want to check for another version of this recipe, look for Gnochi.

CARL (The Evil Riddler) & SPICA (Hot Chef)

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368 thoughts on “Waiting for Etna Part II & Riddles”

  1. Some news from Nishino shima.
    Apparently the island continues to grow.

    here are 2 pictures courtesy of Japan coast guards dated from 4th december.
    On the first picture you can see the island growth, on the second there is an Infra red picture.

    Nishino shima island

    Nishino shima infrared picture

    Reply

  2. And this is probably the reason to have speakers in the Sauna… Yeah… See Ya’ll!’

    Listen to it and you will start to look like this…

    Image and video hosting by TinyPic

    Reply

      • I just celebrated my first few white hairs in my beard. Seems like I am going from black beard to white beard without passing grey. So, I decided to try living without a beard.
        Now I remember why I use to have a beard…
        In life; If your only choices are to either look like Billy Gibbons or scare the life out of children… Go with Billy. Okay, women of the female persuasion think I look better without, but to be honest… I look like someone who lurk in dark alleys… Boss Face…

        Reply

  4. Ref the 20 km value. Pulled that one out of my arse as a ballpark figure. (someone asked where it came from)

    Ref tech assist. I’m not an LLC, I’m an SP. I am legal to do business in Florida, but I only have one employee. Myself. Being an SP, there is a liability issue that I do not wish to take on, should I blow a server, so I stick with what I have now. Right now, the company I do work for deals with the liability issue and provides any replacement parts that I need. So far, I have only had one catastrophe when I fell off the back of a truck with a large color copier. I hit the ground first and was able to scramble out of the way.

    As for doing freelance work outside of the country, my concern is that I would get no support whatsoever from my government should some issue arise. Their track record proves my point. They wouldn’t even support one of their ambassadors so why the hell should I expect them to support me? I may be a tad crazy, but I’m not that stupid.

    I have always given each person their measure of due. That means that I judge and interact with someone based on my experience with them and their actions. I have always lived by that, and extend that to organizations, including the government.

    When I retired from the USN, one job prospect that I had open was to do field tech support for the systems that I have been working on for my whole career. One reason I got out was that I was always finding myself in odd corners of the world for holidays and such, away from my family. That led me to not pursue that as an employment path. Now I do pretty much the same thing but in an area the size of Connecticut. That means that I can always make it back to the house when I’m done. Yeah, it’s a lot of road time, but I like it. I don’t have to deal with collecting taxes to forward to the tax collector since most of the stuff I work on is for state agencies and I don’t deal with billing. (state agencies don’t pay state taxes).

    Could I solve whatever problem it is? Most likely. But I’m a tech, not an engineer. Engineers figure out why it broke and design solutions to that. Techs just figure out how to make the damn thing work. Some of our solutions are not “elegant.”

    Anyway, the last thing I need is to spend time in a foreign prison because I filleted a mugger.

    Reply

    • Filleting muggers is kind of allowed in Europe… But, I guess muggers are few and far in between in Iceland anyhow.

      Back to the 20 km figure, it is out of a paper on Icelandic fissure swarms. I have it some where on my server. I will look for it tomorrow.

      Reply

    • OK, no prob GL – Thanks for explaining, simple no is another good answer!

      Well. I have rebel in me. Today @16:47 UTC there was yet another Magmatic quake (likely close to JÖK) that did not get it into the IMO “auto” list. Yet the signature is very clear. Unusually clear over many SILS. I think there is possible fault in the IMO system that can not handle “wet” quakes. I say it, it must be a flaw and have hard time think why there be no such “vision” in the IMO system to allow for L-P quakes, Popcorn, Tornillos or such.
      After all they have plotted VISUAL signatures (don´t they?). I say visual because they make a certain pattern (on the drumplot or paper trace) that with a small APP could be analysed, cataloged and displayed in LAT + LONG and DEPTH, even an “Magnitude” (like Audio) Db assigned (or how Noisy they are/were), rather than strain to assign an Energie value to it.
      A warning scream is still a warning despite said in calm voise.
      I think there must be more complex systems designed, althou I am not capable doing so myself. But probably a good programmer/phycist could. Collective VC program even??
      “Over to the thinking group”.

      Reply

      • I think that they have a fairly advanced system. Problem is that we are not seeing what they are seeing as you know. Popcorns would not be an advantage to have on the quake list, LPs would though.
        I guess that the best they could do would be to put up a page that show the drumplots in “realtime”, and perhaps with the Gaussian frequency shift too.
        And fix the server so we get the regular automatic quakes of course. 🙂

        Something tells me that this will be coming sooner or later, I guess they are just waiting for the next batch of cash from EU, and that wont be coming untill the next volcano erupts…

        Reply

        • Ok, each and every snowflake is not depicted on weather Maps. But Popcorns could be localized, “sonded” (I think) and shown as “snowflakes” (and then perhaps be in separate list). I recon Tornillos too, or do we not want Auto analyses on if quake is “wet” or “dry” (and perhaps listing beach-balls types too?) But are there not other types of “disturbance” that could be colour coded on “auto” maps. Its heck of a long time wait 24 hrs for next update (as it seems hav been past week or so) when it can go from nothing to full eruption in 2,5 hours (Grimsvötn or Hekla).
          *Saturday rant off*

          Reply

          • Tornillos or LP event as they are also known should be shown. But I admit that they are hard to tell apart from a few other things. My guess is that even the best auto system would only get it right 50 percent of the time, and that is both ways. We would get many false positives, and many that would not show. But… I guess it would still be better than nothing as it is today.
            Popcorn… hm… I think those are better to just leave as they are. There are quite a few in here who could teach the crowd how to detect them on drumroll.

            Reply

            • And with that I say traditional EQ maps are obsolete. Artificial Intelligance Systems are here, already used for spying on us – and likely this blog too – why not turn them on the ground instead..
              I would like see “new” maps for the upper crust that are like those made and called “significant weather” (but not only air pressure, fronts, wind or precipitation charts.)

  6. & while we are waiting for Etna et al, a shot of Vs for earthquakes from 01/11/2013 to 07/12/2013 for El Hierro (matched P and S waves only):

    Reply

  8. Stolen from an article I wrote. (The Dead Zone)

    From “IAVCEI General Assembly 2008 Conference Field Excursions, Excursion 1: Historical Flood Lava Eruptions The 1783-84 Laki and 934-40 Eldgjá events” August 14-17 2008

    “In 1783 the people of south Iceland had enjoyed a favourable spring and were looking forward to summer. However, their destiny was about to change. Weak earthquakes in the Skaftártunga district in mid-May were the first sign of what was to come. The intensity of these earthquakes increased steadily and on 1 June they were strong enough to be felt across the region from Mýrdalur and Öræfi. The earthquake activity escalated up until 8 June when a dark volcanic cloud spread over the district, blanketing the ground with ash (Figure 18a). The Great Laki eruption had begun.”

    So… from that, steadily increasing quake strengths over about a month’s period of time. Then the main show. As long as the Dead Zone quakes stay pretty weak, and don’t start increasing in frequency. Things should be fine there.

    Reply

    • I would look at this from the point of view, very little stays in equilibrium with volcano’s\fissures. If we know that these events will happen again, then I see this quakes increasing in amount and strength. Time is the piece of the pie that I am missing, could be 50 years or 50 months.

      Would a satellite not be able to pick up the increase heat, in the future fissure area?

      Click to access Current%20Status%20of%20ALOS-2,%20M.Shimada.pdf

      http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/news-events/press-releases/2012/taking-the-lsquopulsersquo-of-volcanoes-using-satellite-images

      GL, they used your writings? I do not like that, without asking or something. 😦

      Reply

      • I think Lurking was just pointing out that he was using himself as a reference, a time honoured academic way of saying… “I am the shit”. And justifiably so with that tour the force of post. Lurking owned bragging rights on that one. Big time.

        Reply

        • I didn’t write that. Just having another go at reading it. I had not noticed that there was a clue to the sequencing of the start. That’s something we haven’t really noticed, though we have yammered back and forth about it, and lamented not having much of a clue. All I did was point out a clue that the IAVCEI General Assembly 2008 Conference had recorded in their texts.

          Yeah, I wrote the article that first recorded it here, but anyone could have done that. All I did was go back an notice it.

          As for citing myself… even though it is in an incorrect format, at least I can’t be accused of blatantly plagiarizing myself. I’ve seen papers shot to hell because of that.

          Reply

    • The quakes were like these:
      Mid May 1783: ~M2 to M3 quakes
      1 June 1783: ~M4 to M5 quakes
      8 June 1783: eruption starts

      Question is: how many unfelt ~M1 to M2 quakes and swarms took place, and how long before?
      There can be years to decades, before an eruption.

      Eyja was having earthquakes since 2000; Askja has also been having earthquakes for years.

      But if the activity would start suddenly, that means 1 month between the first major swarms to an eruption.

      I reckon (this is my huge speculation) that the first intrusions towards the Laki event, started in the 1720s. At that time, there was plenty of hotspot activity, plenty of Grimsvotn eruptions and at other Vatnajokull volcanoes, it was a sort of hotspot pulse. That must have injected large amounts of magma under the dead zone too, and the intrusions probably remained there for decades (about 60 years) until the final sequence of events. Just like between the intrusion at Eyja in 2000 and its final eruption in 2010.

      I think, that we might start to see the dead zone alive with earthquakes in the next decades, and then perhaps an eruption by the mid or end of this century.

      Seriously, before that, we will have eruptions of Katla, Hekla, Askja, Kverfjoll, and probably Hamarinn, as these have been having quakes and signs of magmatic placements for years. I don’t think that the dead zone might erupt anytime soon. Nor Oraefajokull. I even think we would be closer for an eruption at Reykjanes or Krisuvik.

      Reply

      • I wont guess at a year or anything like that, but I am certain Irpsit has a point that is pretty accurate. If we had the records from then taken by todays equipment I am dead certain we would see intrusions of magma in the form of smaller earthquakes some time before the larger earthquakes started.
        I would though not feel comfortable with comparing a rifting fissure eruption with let us say Eyjafjallajökull since the magma conduit and magma arrival is so very different between them.
        This is why I am saying that we have a huge task on our hands to understand what the signs would be years in advance. We do not really understand how a GPS would react, we do not know how and if there would be tremoring before, and we do not know how and where earthquakes would start to show up.
        For instance… Normally in a central volcano we know that deep earthquakes (below 20 – 30 km) often heralds magma starting to move up into a volcanic system. But, since this is rifting the earthquake pattern could start in the middle (just saying this to make a point) at 10 km and work its way down. Or, even start at the top and go down. We just do not know. Also, there is quite the possibility that those few earthquakes would be geographically far apart, unlike the central volcano quakes that come in tight nit groups.
        But… I think we will learn and understand more as time goes by. And I agree with Irpsit, we will most likely see the signs in advance, and if we are bright enough we might even understand them at least a month or two in advance (I would be happy if I we did “only” that).

        Reply

        • I’m gently contrarian there.

          In rifting the predominant mechanism is decompression melting. I think that’s likely to be a process that self-propagates and happens in a *relatively* rapid and highly non-linear fashion; once started the decompression and ascent rapidly generates further jacking open of the fissure, further decompression melting, and so on… there isn’t a long slow accumulation of magma, with magma having a substantial residence time in a linear fissure-reservoir for any significant period of time AFAIK. Or have studies of the Laki lavas suggested otherwise?

          What does the evidence from research on observed rifting events in other portions of the MOR system show? Granted Iceland is not exactly like the other portions of the MOR, but there could be some useful data there.

          Weeks or months seems about right to me.

          Reply

          • I generally agree with you. I would though not rule out a dule scenario where during normal times magma calmly pools there and when a rifting fissure eruption closes in things speed up exponentially.

            Sadly there is not to my knowledge any data like this available for another rifting fissure. Remember that this was collected during a prospecting campaign, and as such is way to expensive for normal researchers to have done. I was just lucky to have a peak at the data.

            And the data would not discern if it was calmly pooled or quickly massed since the height of the pool would be to low for colon-fractioning to take place, and besides that it the melt would be to hot and convective for fractioning to begin with. One can only say that it comes from below the crust and rose rapidly without sitting in a magma chamber, ruling out that the magma would have passed through a volcanic chamber. None of the samples pointed towards that.

            Reply

      • I think all three of you are in the grove.

        Mag 2.0 is about where a quake is just detectable by a human… standing right on top of it. Remember the Hekla scamper idea. The quakes crossed above M 2.0 about 15 minutes before it when FOOM! back in it’s last eruption.

        Mike Ross points to a belief in a non-linear event. For the general populace, this is a fancy way of saying that at some threshold, progressing events will reach a tipping point, and from then on it will rapidly cascade into a full on rip it open and go sort of event. If I remember correctly, one of the more well known volcanologists pointed to behaviors similar to a Sigmoid function in some of the more standard volcanoes. A sigmoid gradually moves toward the other state then rapidy drives through the transition and then settles down again into a more sedate curve region.

        Almost forgot… Since this is a plate boundary, you have to keep in mind that the stresses on this boundary can originate thousands of kilometers away. The average result of all those stresses, is about 18 mm/yr here. That doesn’t mean that it’s a constant. Who knows, the Cascadia Subduction zone could let go and allow the N American plate to slide a bit faster… likewise, the region of the Kamchatka could do the same to the Eurasian plate. All of the various interfaces along the borders of those two monster plates can affect what goes on along the region of the Dead Zone.

        Wickerpedia has this to say on the Sigmoid Function:

        Many natural processes, including those of complex system learning curves, exhibit a progression from small beginnings that accelerates and approaches a climax over time. When a detailed description is lacking, a sigmoid function is often used

        Reply

    • From mid may to 8 june is but three weeks (give or take two days), but it seems escalate in mere two weeks. Eyjo was two-three months of final quaking before Fimmvörðuháls erupted. I am not holding my breath, but there is slight chance maybe a precursor phase was before quake phase – if my hunch is valid – In last few weeks (since mid November) there has been steady signs of unrest, alternating between areas. Some are inflating, others are having periods of “unrest” (ie FED three days ago) but the traditional Volcanoes stay silent. Is that saying us something?

      Reply

  9. And some holiday humor from across the pond for you Euro Critters…. provided I can get the thing to run.

    … bah, someone made it into a youtube vid, that will do.

    Reply

  11. Before anyone wonders… I was the one fiddling with the amount of comments viewed per page. The reason for this is that viewing had started to become seriously slow. So I wanted to know if lowering the amount of comment per page made a difference.
    The reason before to have many comments per page was that it did not lip over between pages that well, something that has now been fixed.

    Reply

    • I like it,due the fact gthat l am able to,in my opinion, find comments easier. Now for my weather report ,: wind 340@20kt
      Gusts 25 .temp -24c will get to-28c no problem. Very nasty.
      Shudder to think about. January…😐

      Reply

    • No body can answer that with a 100% either way. However, my take from reading on this site and other books\paper\sites, the event you might be typing about is a fissure happening soon?

      No, If one happens in my life time, I will be happy to see it, 10-50 years away, if that. Minus any lost of life/way of life, oh and sheep.

      Reply

    • No, we area talking about what could be the start of signals that might tell us that the beginning can come in months or years or decades…
      Bur while waiting we have 37 other eruptions to mind about 🙂

      Reply

  14. Good morning everyone! Interesting facts and speculations…
    My only question, if I quite understand, is that, with the so called “Dead Zone” things progress differently from the “livelier” ones because supposedly the crust is less brittle than elsewhere, that being the reason for less quakes in the area, correct? Thus our speculations fall into a great chasm of lack of knowledge of this kind of behaviour, am I correct?
    Irpsit, I hope all the fine discussion is bringing you back to your healthy self… 🙂
    Although I think a visit to your warmer motherland, closer to relatives would be really a good idea. Um abraço amigo! 🙂

    Reply

  16. Good morning all. Very interesting posts. Woke up to -20c
    Not quite as cold as forecast, other areas were -25c and one
    Town , Meacham -30c . Early for that kind of cold but not
    a record. Oregon ‘s covered by Arctic air coast never broke 0c.
    No city in Oregon got above freezing…

    Reply

    • TG: I have experienced 10°C below in Ann Arbor last March and I cannot understand how you people can cope with that kind of cold in a daily basis. Also been through extreme temperatures while working in Germany back in the 80’s and had to abbreviate my stay, believe me! Try to get warm! 🙂
      In Rio is now 30° C, but unfortunately the sun is hidden behind thick clouds. So, no beach for today.

      Reply

      • Renato l actually enjoy the cold. Low humidity , clear
        northern cobalt blue sky. Roaring fire,hot chocolate,wife
        and l snuggled up in front of said fire.. Not enjoying healing pain my hip,but it is much better.

        Reply

      • “In Rio is now 30° C, but unfortunately the sun is hidden behind thick clouds. So, no beach for today.”

        Seriously Renato, it is bad enough with my fiancé sending pictures of warm weather… You ontop of that talking about 30C and a few clouds preventing you from going to the beach… That is just rubbing it in 😦

        Only reason we can take these temperatures is the general concept that everyone is equaly miserable. :mrgreen:

        Reply

  17. Interesting little quake near Surtsey.
    Saturday
    07.12.2013 23:05:02 63.351 -20.414 6.7 km 1.3 99.0 10.2 km ENE of Surtsey

    Reply

    • Yes , also them L-P-quakes here (note resonding thrugh all frequencies) yet none of them actually shows or has location on ordinary quake maps..
      I have question, are we seeing decompression melt already there or other precursor like system is pressing up (i.e. area basically south of Laki, Eldgígur, Thórdarhyrna, Háabunga & Grimsvörn line) as there Kálfafell lies. And this does ot show all that well on other stations.
      I think we can not entierly rule out we can get one rift more south than Laki lies, althou Eldgjá lies to SW of it, and my main concern lies in Langisjór region (longest since last eruption).

      Reply

      • I do not know, it could be related to decompression melt, it could also be friction as magma is moving about. Or pretty much anything. I must admit to having done a lot of head scratching on that particular subject.

        I would think that the oldest non rifting one is not Langisjór, that would be Tungnafell swarm that has not rifted after glaciation.

        Reply

        • Aw.., have reason not mention Tungnafellsjökull swarm in this context.
          It likely does not have the chemistry that caracterizes the “main Dead Zone areas” but then I could be wrong. Besides its already rifted in parts, but no eruption followed. Look for strange new of this surface rifting some years back.

          Reply

    • Yepp, would be cool if 2013 became the year when 3 islands sprouted out of the water. Except for the islands this has been one of the dullest volcanic years in history…

      Reply

  18. Etna calm but degassing:

    Image and video hosting by TinyPic

    Is this the NEC on the right? Or maybe NEC + the central crater? – Not yet completely familiar with the location of the different craters.

    Reply

    • Not sure either, except that it does not appear to be from the NSEC or SEC. There are been remarkably little snow on the summit so some action may be imminent.

      Reply

  20. We were bopping along at about 29°C, then last night it dropped to 7°C. Today, persistent wind with 27°C temps.

    The annual Snowball derby is running, and I can hear the cars from about 7 km away…. mainly due to the reflection of the sound off of the sporadic cloud cover.

    Why they call it the “snowball” derby is beyond me. I’ve only seen it snow once here. Usually we get ice conditions at worst… and that’s about as rare as the snow.

    Here is the minuscule track. 30.503920°N – 87.308180°W. Much smaller, and they would have to call it a gokart track.

    Reply

    • Here, -10C and snow falling. Rather average weather for the season. Nothing to write home about. During last night we had -20C and boreal lights, also not anything to write home about. Just boring drudgy winter weather. Blekh…

      Reply

  21. Several years ago, some of the classified military systems were re-purposed to provide research data to scientists following the collapse of the USSR. I haven’t seen how the data was used after it was sanitized, but at the time, there was much talk of using SOSUS to track down whale migration. (I think that they have since shutdown that cooperative agreement)

    Here is another technology that is perfectly designed to provide insight as to what the Dead Zone is up to… but it would require a lot of government cooperation to make the asset available to the researchers in Iceland.

    Per the video, the system is fully capable of detecting disturbed terrain. Two or three InSAR missions over a few days along the area of the Dead Zone would likely answer a lot of questions.

    But, with the way the US Government is nowadays, this is as likely as a snowballs chance in hell. (Not Hell Michigan, or Norway.)

    @Carl. This might be a candidate for the topic that you brought up in the Dungeon. With an organic asset such as this, it could be deployed as needed to look at deformation.

    It doesn’t even need lawn darts… but it could drop wiffle balls.

    Reply

      • Hmm … not so sure ZPY-1 has an inverse SAR function, which is what you really need. SAR gives you a nice targeting-quality ‘god’s eye view’ patch map, but not the 3D detail that ISAR gives you. If you want a really neat mini radar then the Selex Picosar is probably the best out there.

        Mind you, the really clever stuff with all these UAVs is the change-detection algorithms that are employed to analyse the data: fly the UAV along the same route every day and let the computer pick over the ‘take’ to find things that have altered since the last time you flew – a new mound of earth by the side of the road, new tyre tracks in the sand etc.

        That’s how they have been saving quite a few lives out in the sandbox … maybe they could be used to monitor subtle changes in the earth, although I think the kind of changes we are talking about would be so small that they would only show up if you flew the routes monthly rather than daily.

        Reply

        • Those displays they were showing looked a lot like iSAR. Near photo quality B/W images. Never ran the gear, my tasking was to try and defeat it. Though my efforts had an effect, they were able to see past it with ease.

          By the way, if you ever ask an HT to fabricate something, be very clear about what you want it made out of. By failing to do so, I wound up with my design being made out of 1/4 inch plate steel. It took three people to lift it.

          Reply

  22. One quake was at least picked by the IMO. Southwest of Grimsvotn. It was around M1.5 to M2

    But there have been plenty of other quakes, but less strong, and probably deep ones.

    Wonder if the source is around there. Southwest of Grimsvotn.

    If it would be, it could be well a run-up for an eruption within days or weeks. Because well, its near Grimsvotn. That would mark a new spot for an eruption not erupted since the early 1900s. And it could be a fissure larger than Gjálp96, this time..

    Reply

      • And since I have gotten an Icelandic Cod hitting my face…

        I apparantly forgot to update before answering, so I was looking at an 8 hour old quake. In reallity it was a long wet one. Most likely magma entering Thordharhyrna.
        Thordharhyrna is a central volcano of its own, and as have recently been found out, it is on its own little fissure swarm. And that begs the question if Eldgigur and Geirvörtur are on that swarm too?

        Reply

        • I think they are deciding when to sart the show. Rehersal period might be over soon. Qouting one off on similar likes to King Lear (*) “To Spew or not to Spew, that is not the question, but when”
          *Totally wild guess

          Reply

        • I have had the annoyance of being hit in the nose by Icelandic cod. When I was in the navy P3 squadron in the mid 70’s we deployed to Iceland frequently and i really did not like it at kef there was a fish processing facility north of the air field when the wind was from the north the aroma of decomposing fish entrails was enough to cause instant vomiting

          GL Edit: I assume that “hit” is what you intended. The other form didn’t make much sense. (noun instead of a verb) If you wish the original, I can change it back. I’m not a spelling nazi, but the original seem like a faux pas

          Reply

          • The last time I worked with a P-3, was in the Adriatic. Our ship was the controller, and the P-3 got whacked by lightning. Immediately the pilot sought altitude. On each side of the Adriatic, the terrain is not forgiving. They made it back to base after the flash blindness subsided.

            Reply

            • P3 is a durable plane not much plastic in it’s construction made it more difficult to harm with lightning, i have had flights over the Atlantic with St Elmo’s fire (ball lightning) running in the cabin nose to tail freaky stuff. didn’t do any harm unless yon touched it and were grounded then blamm kicked across the cabin really fast. I flew the a,b and update c mods as a flight engineer mostly in the Atlantic with side trips in the med. Iceland was a kicker could not get accustomed to the daylight swings, mid summer light 20+ hrs a day and winter the total opposet with snow storms that would pack 2-3 feet of snow on one side of a 3 story barracks building ground to roof and the lee side nothing

            • Oh no… Islander have have split into two…

              Now we are truly done for, The Islanders are here with fishes… Help!

            • I… am dumbfounded. This is obviously a comedy, but most of it is lost in translation.

              I did find what one would presume to be a cross cultural gag. Upon getting slapped in the face several times by an older gentleman, the Scott pulls out what appears to be the fish equivalent to a claymore, dispatches the prancing guy, and then declares his disdain for Iceland.

              I picked up on the many jabs at bankers, but I do not know what the theme for the Good the Bad and The Ugly has to do with a half destroyed house with a couple peering at if out of a travel trailer. Means.

            • That sketch predated the 1970s Cod Wars. My understanding is that, behind the scenes, the US told the UK in no uncertain terms to back down when Iceland threatened to throw NATO – including the US – out of Keflavik, which was the main anti-sub base in the north Atlantic.

              A case of a “bigger fish to fry”

  25. An experiment for Carl. It may not be worth the trouble, but its something that could be played with.

    In the past, I have taken quake waveforms obtained via IrisBuds, and extracted a wave file version. I have then taken an audio application and piped those waveforms into an audio track that I then listen to with headphones. One of the odd things, is that sometimes you can spatially recognized the movement of the wave as it approaches and passes by the station.

    Something similar could be done with the tremor signal from two SILs, if you could get the waveform into wav format. place one station’s signal on the left, and the other on the right. You may have to upconvert them to get them into the human auditory range, but what you would have is a virtual head, with each SIL being on ear. It might allow you to rough out the direction that the tremor is coming from by whether it is left or right of a baseline equidistant from each SIL.

    The human brain is much more adept than most people give it credit for. (such as resorting to primal behavior and climbing a tree to get away from a threat… only to realize after the fact that the threat can climb trees also. Another manifestation of “Him” that I spoke about a while back.) Localizing auditory clues is one of the brains strong points.

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    • Hm…
      Has more merrit than one might think. Even though a modern sub has equipment worth many million to locate ships and other subs you still have a dude sitting with a pair of headphones… reason is that he will most likely be able to spot things that the equipment misses.

      If I could just get to the live feed I could probably one up it a bit. Why not have all of them, and then you select a virtual listening point that you could “move” around in the soundscape?

      Have to ponder this one.

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      • Ponder done.

        I can do a doable version that is entirely analogue, but would give a nice surroundsound version where the brain would be able to follow wave propagation and such. That could be step one. Would still though require the actual raw waveforms and octaving the shit out of the data to get it into the auditory range.

        Step two would be to give it 3D feature, that means a computer give the sound a solution for location in 3D-space. This would be totally awesome with 12 speakers, for above, four at earlevel and four below. With this you could be and hear a volcano at say 2 km depth… This would of course be Nerdvana…

        Step 3 would need someone able to program things so you can stop the recording at any time and get pinpoint locationing. Either of where a quake started, or where the wavefront is within a cube. This would have scientific merrit and be usefull beyond the point of achieving Nerdvana if you are an Audiophiliac like me.

        Any good programmers out there with a bit of audio experience?

        Ontop of that I have an idea for a seismograph/low frequency-3D audiograph that would kick butt with todays toys.

        Reply

    • Oh, I got snapped… 🙂

      Does not seem to have started the paroxysm though… But, that will probably come in a few hours.

      Reply

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