34,000 Earthquakes Rock Iceland In Weeks As Volcano Threat Elevated

Via ZeroHedge

The number of earthquakes is rapidly increasing since Mar. 4, when we first told readers a volcanic eruption could be brewing in Iceland. According to Financial Times, in the last few weeks, more than 34,000 quakes have been recorded on the Reykjanes Peninsula as the country is on “high alert” for the next volcanic eruption.

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Iceland Buried in 30 foot Snowfall

Guest Post by Martin Armstrong

The biggest snowstorm in recorded memory has hit Iceland. The Emigration Center is under 30 feet of snow. It has never snowed like this so horses typically remained outside and not in barns. This snowstorm has killed up to 80 horses. Nobody has ever seen a winter like this before. They must be calling this “global warming” just as insurance companies sell death insurance by calling it the opposite – Life Insurance. They certainly do not pay if you never die.

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Iceland’s Biggest Volcano Is “Ready To Erupt” As Europe Faces A Disaster

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

Iceland’s biggest volcano has been rocked by the strongest earthquake since it last erupted in 2014.

With swarms of earthquakes occurring in the French Alps too, Europe is facing what could be one of the largest natural disasters in history.

Last week, the 6,591-foot tall Bardarbunga, a “powerful and versatile” volcano, was rattled by the four largest earthquakes since it last erupted in 2014.  The earthquakes, measuring in magnitudes of 3.9, 3.2, 4.7, and 4.7 on the Richter scale, struck the caldera region over several days last weekend. Another magnitude 4.1 earthquake hit the 200km long and 25km wide volcanic system earlier last week and several tremors struck in September.

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Iceland Today, the US Tomorrow?

undefinedDuring the 2008 economic crisis, Iceland’s government froze offshore accounts held by foreign investors in that country’s currency, the krona. Recently, the government of Iceland announced it would unfreeze the accounts if the account holders paid a voluntary “departure tax,” which could be as high as 58 percent. Investors who choose not to pay the departure tax would have their investment “segregated” into special funds that only invest in CDs issued by Iceland’s central bank. These CDs are expected to only provide a rate of return of at most 0.5 percent a year. So investors in offshore accounts can thus choose between having their money directly seized via the departure tax or indirectly seized via the inflation tax.

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Travelogue: Open Borders

Guest Post by The Zman

Whenever an American is required to go out into the provinces, he is inevitably forced to hear some harangues from the locals about the doings in the Empire. Europeans believe themselves to be worldly sophisticates and they invest a lot of effort into maintaining that delusion. At this point in history, it may be the only thing Europeans are good at doing. They really are a bunch of ridiculous posers and they are so endlessly smug about it. This suggests it is a studied and cultivated habit, not just a weird quirk.

In Iceland, I was subjected to a long boring lecture by an Icelandic woman over the wonderfulness of open borders. She was unaware that I am a FOP (Friend of Pepe) so she was operating under the impression I was sympathetic. It was hard to keep a straight face, given that Iceland is a rocky island in the North Sea. Even if they welcome the world, the world will not be moving to a barren moonscape that is cold in the dead of summer.

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Case Closed: Iceland’s Criminal Bankers Released From Jail Years Early

Tyler Durden's picture

How very ironic.

Over the weekend, just hours before the Panama Papers were released, we wrote a post that took “A Look Inside Iceland’s Kviabryggja Prison: The One Place Where Criminal Bankers Face Consequences.”

And then, minutes later, the Panama Papers were disclosed by the ICIJ, which had a clear target: to “expose” the “circle of friends close to Putin”, and of course, to reveal the dirty laundry of the Iceland Prime Minister, who resigned just two days after his shady offshore tax dealing were revealed to the world.

There was some “conspiratorial” speculation whether the explicit hit on ex-PM Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson was precisely due to Iceland’s crackdown on the country’s criminal bankers. As a reminder, Iceland is the only nation that sent bankers found guilty of crimes resulting from the financial crisis, to prison.

It turns out there may have been something valid in said speculation, because moments ago, Iceland Monitor reported that three bankers from the defunct Iceland bank Kaupthing are to be released from jail today – after serving just one year of their 5-year sentences.

Magnús Guðmundsson, Ólafur Ólafsson and Sigurður Einarsson were one of four men jailed in 2015 in the so-called ‘Al-Thani case’ on charges of breach of trust and market abuse.Sigurður Einarsson, former chairman at Kaupþing, received a sentence of four years, while Magnús Guðmundsson, former CEO of Kaupthing Luxembourg, and Ólafur Ólafsson, who was the bank’s second largest shareholder at the time, both received a sentence of four and a half years.

They will be taken to a halfway house today, where they will be fitted with ankle tags and released under electronic supervision.

Hreiðar Már Sig­urðsson , Sig­urður Ein­ars­son and Magnús Guðmunds­son.

* * *

Case closed, but the question lingers: is the Panama Papers merely a warning to anyone in government who dares to put bankers in prison to make sure that their own financial documents are in pristine condition, or else?

 

Iceland does what the US won’t: 26 top bankers sent to prison for role in financial crisis

'Businessman lighting cigar with $100 dollar bill' [Shutterstock]

Reykjavík, Iceland – In stark contrast to the record low number of prosecutions of CEO’s and high-level financial executives in the U.S., Iceland has just sentenced 26 bankers to a combined 74 years in prison.

The majority of those convicted have been sentenced to prison terms of two to five years. The maximum penalty in Iceland for financial crimes is six years, although hearings are currently underway to consider extending the maximum beyond six years.

The prosecutions are the result of Iceland’s banksters manipulating the Icelandic financial markets after Iceland deregulated their finance sector in 2001. Eventually, an accumulation of foreign debt resulted in a meltdown of the entire banking sector in 2008.

According to Iceland Magazine:

In two separate rulings last week, the Supreme Court of Iceland and the Reykjavík District Court sentenced three top managers of Landsbankinn and two top managers of Kaupþing, along with one prominent investor, to prison for crimes committed in the lead-up to the financial collapse of 2008. With these rulings the number of bankers and financiers who have been sentenced to prison for crimes relating to the financial collapse has reached 26, and a combined prison time of 74 years.

Massive debts were incurred in the name of the Icelandic public, to allow the country to continue to function, which are still being repaid to the IMF and other nations eight years later by the citizens of Iceland. In contrast to the U.S., Iceland has chosen to hold the criminals that manipulated their financial system accountable under the law.

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Guess What Happens Next

Courtesy of Keith Dicker of IceCap Aset Management

Well, if you’re not Greeked-out by now you should be. After all, the Greek debt crisis has been spinning in and out of control for 5 years and counting.

Why should it be any different this time?

Everyone knows there is no way on this earth that Greece will ever be able to repay these debts. Unless the Greek economy can grow faster and longer than it has ever grown before, AND it can avoid the political temptation to never again spend more money than it collects in taxes – then just maybe it stands a chance of paying off some of the over $400 Billion it owes.

In today’s age of money printing, negative interest rates, and bank bailouts, many have become somewhat desensitized to “billions” and “trillions”. Yet, we assure you $400 billion for Greece is a lot of money.

For perspective, Australia owes about $1.3 trillion in various loans. If Australia suddenly entered a debt crisis on the same scale as Greece, its debt owing would skyrocket to nearly $2.5 trillion, or put another way – about $106,000 for every man, woman and child.

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VOLCANIC ERUPTION FLOWING ALONG CHANNELS OF DISTRESS

“Imagine some national (and probably global) volcanic eruption, initially flowing along channels of distress that were created during the Unraveling era and further widened by the catalyst. Trying to foresee where the eruption will go once it bursts free of the channels is like trying to predict the exact fault line of an earthquake. All you know in advance is something about the molten ingredients of the climax, which could include the following:

  • Economic distress, with public debt in default, entitlement trust funds in bankruptcy, mounting poverty and unemployment, trade wars, collapsing financial markets, and hyperinflation (or deflation)
  • Social distress, with violence fueled by class, race, nativism, or religion and abetted by armed gangs, underground militias, and mercenaries hired by walled communities
  • Political distress, with institutional collapse, open tax revolts, one-party hegemony, major constitutional change, secessionism, authoritarianism, and altered national borders
  • Military distress, with war against terrorists or foreign regimes equipped with weapons of mass destruction” 

 The Fourth Turning – Strauss & Howe


IT’S NOT NICE TO FOOL MOTHER NATURE

The alert warning for the area surrounding Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano was kept at orange on Tuesday, indicating that it is showing increased unrest with greater potential for an eruption. Since August 16, a series of earthquakes in the area have created breaks in the Vatnajokull glacier, which is northeast of the volcano. The tremors have created cracks in the glacier, allowing streams of lava to pour through. In the past 72 hours, the volcanic activity has increased dramatically, with the lava now covering an area of more than four square kilometres.

SOMETHING IS GOING TO BLOW

In one day you have the largest earthquake in California in 25 years, the Iceland volcano ready to blow, a 7.0 earthquake hits Peru, a 6.4 earthquake hits Chile, and a 5.4 earthquake hits Iran. It seems Mother Earth is angry. Pressure seems to be building below the surface of the earth, matching the pressure building among the people’s populating this planet. Something is going to blow. 

 

120 injured, state of emergency as California hit by largest quake in 25 years

Published time: August 24, 2014 11:12
Damage is shown to a downtown building in Napa, California August 24, 2014. (Reuters / Jim Christie)

Damage is shown to a downtown building in Napa, California August 24, 2014. (Reuters / Jim Christie)

At least 120 people were treated at hospital and a state of emergency was declared in the city of Napa, after California was shaken by a 6.0 magnitude earthquake.

Local officials had to set up a triage tent at the Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa to handle the influx of the people injured in the earthquake, AP reports. According to hospital’s CEO Walt Mickens, most of the injured had cuts, bumps and bruises. Three people were also admitted with broken bones, and two for heart attacks.

The 6.0 quake struck at 3:20 am (10:20 GMT), the US Geological Survey said. Its epicenter was 6 kilometers from American Canyon and 9 kilometers from the city of Napa, at a depth of 10.8 kilometers from the surface.

Residents of the cities of San Francisco, some 40 miles away, and Davis, just over 70 miles away, quickly took to Twitter reporting feeling the quake.

View image on Twitter

View image on Twitter

Damage to a downtown building is seen after an earthquake in Napa, California August 24, 2014 (Reuters / Stephen Lam)

Two quakes shake Icelandic volcano’s area, govt restricts airspace

ARCHIVE PHOTO: Smoke and ash bellow from Eyjafjallajokull volcano as it is seen from Asolfsskali, Iceland, on April 23, 2010 (AFP Photo / Emmanuel Dunand)

ARCHIVE PHOTO: Smoke and ash bellow from Eyjafjallajokull volcano as it is seen from Asolfsskali, Iceland, on April 23, 2010 (AFP Photo / Emmanuel Dunand)

Two small earthquakes shook ground around Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano Sunday. Earlier, the country’s government closed the airspace around the area triggering fears of air chaos.

READ MORE: Iceland evacuates area near volcano amid eruption fears

Two earthquakes measuring at 5.3 and 5.1 in magnitude — the biggest yet — shook the volcano beneath Iceland’s vast Vatnajokull glacier early Sunday.

Following the quakes and a reported eruption, the Icelandic Met Office issued aviation red alerts over the Bardarbunga eruption on Sunday morning. However, later in the day the agency lowered the risk from the highest possible to orange, which means “heightened or escalating unrest with increased potential of eruption.”

7.0 quake strikes southern Peru

A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck southern Peru on Sunday 38 miles (61 km) east-northeast of the town of Puquio, the U.S. Geological Survey reported. There were no immediate reports of damage or injury. The quake struck at 23:21 GMT at the depth of 36.6 miles (58.9 km). The nearest city to the epicenter is Tambo, located just 26 miles (42 km) away. USGS revised the magnitude of the quake upwards from 6.9. An earthquake was triggered by a subduction of Nazca plate, located off the west coast of South America, RT Spanish cited experts as saying. No tsunami warning has been released by the authorities. Some network and electricity outages are being reported.

 

6.4 tremor hits central Chile

A 6.4-magnitude earthquake rocked the region around Chile’s Valparaiso port at 7:32 PM Eastern time, the US Geological Survey reported. The epicenter of the quake was about 18 kilometers from Hacienda La Calera community and some 117 kilometers from the capital Santiago at a depth of 30 kilometers. Initially the tremor was estimated at 6.6 on the Richter Scale, with three aftershocks subsequently registered in the area. No casualties or damage have been registered, although electricity and phone communication was interrupted in some areas.

 

Western Iran hit by 5.4 magnitude earthquake

The western Iranian province of Kermanshah was rocked by a 5.4 Richter Scale tremor at 00:36 local time (GMT +4:30 hours), reported Iran’s official IRNA news agency, citing the seismography center affiliated with the Tehran University Geophysics Institute. No casualties or damage have been reported so far. The earthquake struck 15 kilometers underground.