Hljóðmynd - Soundimage

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Earthquake at Seltúnshver (Geothermal area)




It was in the beginning of mars, earthquake hit my house.
Almost nonstop earthquakes shakes landscapes south and east of Reykjavik capital so I was sure my recorder had picked up some earthquakes previous years. I searched in my mind where it was most likely it could have happened. After some research I found one, in almost forgotten recording. It was recorded in april 2011, when I and my pal at work went a day trip to Reykjanes peninsula. Reykjanes is very well known for earthquakes and geothermal activity. The main reason for this trip was to look at the changes of some geothermal area because of increasing activity last decade. As usual, my recorders followed me in this trip, but I was not satisfied with these recordings…until now.
Hereby I mix together five of these recordings as a travel log for this day trip.
First one is a hot spring that for centuries has been under water in Kleifarvatn Lake until the lake started to shrink after big earthquake at the year 2000.
The second one is also a hot spring recording but it contains the earthquake at very low frequency (10Hz). The third one is another hot springs close by, but with different mics and they did not detect earthquake as clearly. Both this recordings are recoded at Seltúnshver (Seltúns-hver=Seltuns-hotspring).
The fourth one was recorded at Gunnuhver close to Reykjanesvirkjun, a power plant that has changes a lot the geothermal activity on Reykjanes peninsula.
The fifth recording is waves of Atlantic Ocean hammering the cliffs at Reykanestá.

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 22Mb)

The earthquake. Speed up version about 2x octave of the second recording above (Almost 3 minutes shrink to 37 sek). Subwoofer or quality headphones recommended

Download mp3 file (192kbps / 0,9Mb)

Recorders: Korg MR1000 and Sound devices 552
Mics: Rode NT4 (XY) and Rode NT2a/Sennheiser ME64 (MS)
Pix: Canon 30D (see more pictures and information)
See more and listen at: www.fieldrecording.net