Volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland
Today (28. November 2023) at 05:56 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,5 took place in Vatnafjöll mountain area. This is in a area that had a magnitude Mw5,0 earthquake few years ago. This might be an aftershock.
There was a small earthquake swarm following this earthquake. I haven’t seen any reports that this earthquake was felt by anyone.
This started on Monday (14-November-2022) with an earthquake of magnitude Mw2,0 at 25,6km depth. This depth is as deep as the crust goes in this location of Iceland. This earthquake activity has been followed by two micro-earthquakes of magnitude of Mw0,5 and Mw0,6 at 11,5 km depth.
There are no clear or obvious signs that Hekla volcano is about to do anything. But this deep earthquake activity suggests magma movements at depth or pressure changes maybe. This is clearly not a big activity and at the writing of this article I don’t expect anything to happen.
Today (21-December-2021) at 09:37 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,0 took place south of Hekla volcano.
This earthquake activity is an aftershock activity of the Mw5,2 earthquake that happened about one month ago. This earthquake activity is possibly going to continue for months.
Today (13-December-2021) at 16:04 UTC an earthquake swarm started in Vatnafjöll mountains. This looks like a aftershock activity from the Mw5,2 earthquake in this area few weeks back. Three earthquakes with magnitude above Mw3,0 took place. The earthquake magnitudes where Mw3,0 (at 16:04), magnitude Mw3,2 (at 16:07) and magnitude Mw3,5 (at 16:08).
There continues to be a risk of more aftershocks in this area. It remains a question if there is going to be a stronger earthquake activity in this area in next few weeks.
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At 03:17 UTC on 26-November-2021 an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,5 took place in Vatnafjöll mountains that are south of Hekla volcano. This earthquake was not felt or it was not reported to Icelandic Met Office.
Continue reading “Earthquake in Vatnafjöll mountain during the night”
The earthquake activity south of Hekla volcano is ongoing and the largest earthquakes in recent days have had a magnitude of Mw3,8 and Mw3,3. Other earthquakes in recent days have been smaller. The largest earthquakes have been felt in nearby farms and Hvolvollur town and in Hella town.
Continue reading “Ongoing earthquake swarm in Vatnafjöll mountain south of Hekla volcano”
Yesterday (13-November-2021) at 23:23 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,4 took place in Vatnafjöll mountain south of Hekla volcano. This looks like an aftershock of the main earthquake of magnitude Mw5,2 that took place on 11-November-2021.
Continue reading “Strong aftershock in Vatnafjöll mountains (south of Hekla volcano)”
The earthquake today (11-November-2021) at 13:21 UTC with the magnitude of Mw5,2 seems to align it self with faults that are part of SISZ rather than being part of Hekla volcano system. The high frequency tone on 2 – 4Hz that I did see on few nearby SIL stations has started to lower again after the main earthquake. Earthquake activity in the area is currently dropping but it might increase again without warning.
Continue reading “Update on the Mw5,2 earthquake south of Hekla volcano”
This is early information but it seems that a magnitude Mw5,2 or larger earthquake took place in Hekla volcano system at 13:21 UTC. This might be a start of an eruption in Hekla volcano, but currently it is too early to know for sure. This is inside Hekla volcano system in a area called Vatnafjöll that have regularly erupted.
It is not possible to know what is going to happen next in this area. But there is a risk of a magnitude Mw7,0 earthquake. If that is going to happens is impossible to know.
Around 06:00 few minor earthquakes took place in Hekla volcano. This is unusual since Hekla volcano normally doesn’t have earthquakes until an eruption is just about to start. No eruption happened and currently there are no signs that an eruption is about to start.
What is going on is difficult to know but this might just be a pressure change or a fault line giving in to pressure changes. The last earthquake had the time 09:36 UTC and since then there has been no additional earthquake activity in Hekla volcano. That might change without warning as has happened before in history of Hekla volcano.
Fagradalsfjall mountain eruption
I am delaying an article about the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain. There might be something going on there but I don’t know what yet, if there is anything going on to start with. The area has been hidden in fog all day making estimation on what is going on impossible.