Category: Earthquakes

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Earthquake activity continues in Eyjafjallajökull volcano

Minor earthquake activity has continued since last week in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. This earthquake activity is so small that none of the earthquake have had the magnitude of 1,0. This earthquake activity is also shallow, less than 5 km depth. So it’s clearly not magma (at least not new one) that is creating this activity. I am not sure what is creating this activity in Eyjafjallajökull volcano at this point and I might never know.

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Minor earthquake activity in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

At current time there is no risk for an eruption from Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Since there is no new magma flowing into the volcano at present time. If you want to watch Eyjafjallajökull volcano you can do so here (jonfr.com) and here (mila.is) web cameras.

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Earthquake swarm on Tjörnes Fracture Zone

On 14-October-2013 (Monday) an earthquake swarm started in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. This earthquake swarm has so far just been a minor one, with the largest earthquake being magnitude 2,5. The earthquake swarm appears to be currently ongoing.

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Earthquake swarm in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It’s hard to know for sure if this earthquake swarm is going to continue, but this area of TFZ has seen earthquake activity over the past few months. So there is a chance of more earthquake activity in the next days to weeks even months in this area.

Blog post updated at 23:25 UTC on 15-October-2013.

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New earthquake swarm on Reykjanes peninsula and Reykjanes ridge

Today (15-October-2013) at 01:43 UTC a new earthquake swarm started on Reykjanes peninsula and Reykjanes ridge. So far the largest earthquake has the magnitude of 2,5. At the moment no larger earthquakes have taken place. This earthquake swarm is currently ongoing, but the rate of earthquakes has dropped over the day and is currently low.

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge. It’s just off the coast. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This area of the Reykjanes has been seeing a lot of activity in recent days and its possible that more earthquake activity is going to take place at this location in next few days to months.

Blog post updated at 21:42 UTC.

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Earthquake swarm in Torfajökull volcano

Today (10-October-2013) there was an minor earthquake swarm in Torfajökull volcano. The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude 2,2 and the depth of 0,4 km. Earthquakes like this are common on Torfajökull volcano and have so far not been connected with any other activity.

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Earthquake swarm in Torfajökull volcano (to the north of Mýrdalsjökull glacier). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is possible that more activity is going to take place in this area in the next few days to weeks. It’s unlikely that it is going to be larger than what took place today.

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Earthquake swarm in Eyjafjallajökull volcano

Today (10-October-2013) an minor earthquake swarm took place in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. This is the first earthquake swarm in Eyjafjallajökull volcano since the eruption stopped in May-2010 [link, Wikipedia]. This just appears to be an earthquake swarm, currently there are no signs of new magma getting into Eyjafjallajökull volcano. I am uncertain on what is creating this earthquake activity, but this might be old magma starting to move again or just stress changes in the volcano, the reason remains unclear as is. It is also important that this earthquake activity is minor, none of the earthquakes so far has reached the magnitude 2,0. The largest earthquake recorded had the magnitude 1,0 at 4,3 km depth.

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Earthquake swarm in Eyjafjallajökull volcano today (10-October-2013). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

There are no signs that any volcano activity is about to take place in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. So far it’s just earthquakes and nothing else. If this is old magma on the move there is a slight chance it might reach the surface via old transport tubes , such events would never be anything more than just minor explosion. It would not be anything like what happened in the year 2010. The only reason why this earthquakes are being detected today is because there is now a dense SIL network around Eyjafjallajökull volcano that measure it’s every earthquake and change that takes place. At the moment I doubt this is going to be anything like what happened in the 19th century eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano [link, wikipedia]. Currently there are no signs of such event is about to take place at current time. There are also no signs that show an imminent or possible eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

I do not expect anything more to happen in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. It might, but I am not expecting anything at this time of writing.

Blog post updated at 23:12 UTC on 10-October-2013.

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Earthquake south of Hekla volcano

Today (08-October-2013) at 04:48 UTC an earthquake with the magnitude of 1,9 took place south of Hekla volcano, it’s depth was 7,3 km. A second earthquake took place at 04:59 UTC and had the magnitude of 0,8, it’s depth was 5,8 km. This earthquakes where not felt. It is also unclear what is creating this activity, the most likely reason is change is magma pressure inside Hekla volcano plumbing system. This does not mean an eruption is about to take place in Hekla volcano.

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The earthquake south of Hekla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquake activity in Hekla volcano has been unusually high for the past few months. Improvements have also been made on the SIL network close to Hekla volcano, this means that more smaller earthquakes have been recorded now then in the past. So far there are no signs of this connecting to an imminent eruption in Hekla volcano, the volcano has remained quiet so far and it’s unlikely to change at the moment.

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Fewer earthquakes taking place on Tjörnes Fracture Zone at the moment

Donation note: I still need donations for October. I currently have no money for anything and that is rather bad. This bad situation that I am having is going to last for several months according to an excel document that I have set-up to figure out my total debt repayment. I can repay my debt (or buy replacement hardware if anything fails), but not buy food at the same time. The exchange rate of ISK to DKK is also bad at the moment. I hope for improvement but that won’t happen for next several months at least.

Activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone continues as it has been doing for the past week. There is not a lot of other activity taking place in Iceland at the moment. The largest earthquake today (03-October-2013) had the magnitude of 3.5, a second earthquake with the magnitude of 3.1 also took place in TFZ today. Depth of this earthquake swarm remains the same, around 5 to 15 km at current time.

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The largest earthquakes in this earthquake swarm in TFZ. Image in original context can be found here (Icelandic). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Today (03-October-2013) there were fewer earthquakes in this swarm than yesterday. The drop is currently around half of less activity than yesterday. I am not sure why this is as currently the earthquake swarm is ongoing. Even if there are fewer earthquakes taking place. This might just be a short time drop in earthquake activity, or this might signal an end of this earthquake swarm. Currently it’s too early to know for sure. The only thing that can be done is to wait and see what happens next in this earthquake swarm.

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Earthquake activity today on Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

So far there are no signs of any magma having reached the surface, if that is the reason for this earthquake swarm in this area of Tjörnes Fracture Zone.

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Update on Tjörnes Fracture Zone earthquake swarm

Donation note: I still need donations to survive this month as any other months while I am just on social welfare from Iceland as I have explained here. This month I just have around 24 DKK (3.21€) for food this month after paying all the bills and my debt. I have already got some donation, but they just allow me to buy food for about one and half week if I am smart. Thanks for the help.

The earthquake swarm on Tjörnes Fracture Zone continues. The earthquakes are getting stronger, with the largest one today having the magnitude 3.8 (automatic results) and five other earthquakes with the magnitude 3.0 to 3.2. Currently the depth is around the same, it remains at 5 to 15 km and at the moment it doesn’t seems to be changing. Rate of earthquakes is around the same today (02-October-2013) as it was yesterday (01-October-2013), with no major changes in earthquake rate from what I can see currently taken place.

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Earthquake activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Green star show earthquakes larger than magnitude 3.0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

All earthquakes above magnitude 3.0 have been felt in Siglufjöður and Ólafsfjörður towns and other populated areas that are close to this earthquake swarm. There are no signs of this earthquake swarm slowing down as is. It still has not been confirmed if this earthquake activity is connected to magma injection at depth, or if this is just normal tectonic earthquake activity in this area. It’s going to remain difficult to confirm this idea until an eruption starts in this area and that simply might just not happen at all. The largest earthquakes appear on my webicorders website here, on the geophone station named Böðvarshólar.

Blog post updated at 22:33 UTC on 02-October-2013.
Blog post updated at 22:39 UTC on 02-October-2013.

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Earthquake deep on the Reykjanes Ridge

Yesterday (01-October-2013) at 19:41 UTC an earthquake with the automatic magnitude of 5.2 took place deep on the Reykjanes Ridge. This earthquake was around 1171 km away from Reykjavík so it is deep on the Reykjanes Ridge.

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Regional view of the earthquake on the Reykjanes Ridge. Nothing but ocean here. Copyright of this image belongs to EMSC.

It is impossible to know if this was one off event or part of an earthquake swarm in the area. It is just too far off any seismometer network for us to know. It is my guess that this earthquake was part of local earthquake swarm in the area, but that is just a guess. More information about this earthquake can be found here on EMSC website.

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More earthquake activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone

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Today (01-October-2013) there has been a lot of earthquake activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Current area of activity is same as for the past week, what is now changing is the rate and magnitude of earthquakes. This morning an magnitude 3.2 earthquake took place in this area. That earthquake and at least two other smaller ones where felt in Ólafsfirði, the town closest to this earthquake swarm. Earthquake activity is currently ongoing and with no signs of stopping.

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Earthquake activity in TFZ today. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It has been reported by Rúv and other news media in Iceland that this might be an dike intrusion in this area. This is what geologist at Icelandic Meteorological Office are theorising at the moment. I do not know if this is true or not. What I do know is that at this location there is no known volcano and if there is an volcano at this location it is currently unknown and not documented at all (such things happen). If this is magma and if it finds an path to the surface we are going to see an eruption. I do not know if that would create an new island if that was the case, such speculations have to wait until an eruption started. If it ever gets that far. If this is magma then it is still at great depth, since the depth of this earthquake swarm is at the moment around 5 to 15 km and does not seem to change that much at the moment.

It is possible to watch this earthquake activity here on my webicorder website. The closest geophone station that I have to this earthquake swarm is the one named “Böðvarshólar”. It is already showing many of the strongest earthquakes in this swarm clearly. It is located in the country side far from any major traffic source.

I am going to post updates about this earthquake swarm when needed.

Blog post updated at 20:26 UTC on 01-October-2013.
Blog post updated at 23:53 UTC on 01-October-2013.