Earthquakes – Page 119 – Iceland geology

September 3, 2013September 25, 2013

Minor earthquake swarm in Torfajökull volcano

Today (03-September-2013) a minor earthquake swarm took place in Torfajökull volcano. The largest earthquake had the magnitude of 1.1, no other larger earthquakes took place in Torfajökull volcano.

Earthquakes in Torfajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Smaller earthquake swarms are common in Torfajökull volcano. They do not mean that eruption is about to take place, however magma is shallow in Torfajökull volcano and it has not erupted since 15th century at least (I think, there is no use in GVP website at the moment).

Donations: It would be nice if people donated so that I can buy food this month. In other case I am going to have to eat really little this month and I am not happy about such things taking place.

September 3, 2013September 3, 2013

Minor dike intrusion into Bárðarbunga – Hamarinn volcanoes

It seems that yesterday (02-September-2013) a minor dike intrusion took place in Bárðarbunga – Hamarinn volcanoes. This created an minor harmonic tremor yesterday on nearby sil stations. There were earthquakes following this events, the strongest one had the magnitude of 2.8 at the depth of 14 km. A second earthquake with the magnitude of 2.1 took place few moments later, it had the depth of 15.5 km. Only one smaller earthquake have seen taken place in this area of Bárðarbunga – Hamarinn volcanoes.

The earthquake activity in Báðarbunga – Hamarinn volcano area. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is important to notice that dike intrusions are common in this area, often happen many times a year. How many takes place can vary between years. That dike intrusion took place does not mean an eruption is going to take place. It just means that magma moved, what that means for the future is unknown at present time.

Blog post updated at 21:43 UTC on 3-September-2013.

August 13, 2013August 13, 2013

New earthquake swarm on Reykjanes Ridge

During the night at 04:40 UTC a earthquake swarm started on the Reykjanes Ridge. There are no signs of this earthquake swarm being connected to any volcano activity, this just normal earthquake activity for this area. The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 3.0, other earthquakes had less magnitude.

The earthquake activity on the Reykjanes Ridge today. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

As with the earthquake swarm on 11-August-2013, this earthquake swarm happens short periods of activity with quiet between them. I do expect this activity to continue for the next hours to days, based on past history for this area. If that is going to happen I do not know yet. Largest earthquakes that can take place in this area can reach the magnitude of 5.5, but no larger than that, since the crust does not support any greater magnitude.

August 11, 2013August 11, 2013

Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge

A minor earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes Ridge during the night, it started at 04:17 UTC and ended at 08:13 UTC, there was some break in activity for few hours with each episode lasting for around 10 minutes. Earthquake swarms are common in this area of the Reykjanes Ridge. The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2.9, other earthquakes were smaller in magnitude.

The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge, the earthquakes scattered around wrong locations by the automatic SIL system. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake swarm did appear clearly on my geophone network in Iceland. It can be viewed here. I do not know if this means more activity is coming on the Reykjanes Ridge, it is all just wait and see what happens in this case.

August 6, 2013

Where has all the activity gone?

It has been quiet in Iceland this summer, often with only 100 earthquakes during the week (7 days) taking place. This is normal for Iceland, since activity takes happens in jumps, with long quiet period between them. That quiet period can be from few days and up to thousands of years. This is normal for every rift and subduction zone on planet Earth, activity happens in short periods and during that time a lot of things can be going on during that period. Between it nothing is taking place, this applies to Iceland as any other place on Earth. Currently nothing is happening in Iceland and tension is building up while it is quiet, at some random point at some random day this tension is going to break and we are going to have either a earthquake swarm, eruption or both taking place.

All quiet in Iceland. There is currently some minor summer earthquake activity taking place in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

For more information on Icelandic geology, I recommend this paper (pdf) by Páll Einarsson. It is from the year 2008, but is a good read on the tectonic settings in Iceland. It might be a surprice to many, but in Iceland there are actually 5 rift zones, they are called Western Volcanic Zone (WVZ), Central Icelandic Volcanic Zone (CIVZ), Eastern Volcanic Zone (EVZ), Northern Volcanic Zone (NVZ) and South Iceland Volcanic Zone (SIVZ). Then there is Reykjanes Peninsula Rift (RPR). This zones are not all active at the same time and there dormant time is different, some areas are just dormant for few years to decades, while others are dormant for thousands of years.

For the moment it is quiet, so I have little to write about. Since this blog mostly deals with current activity that is taking place in Iceland.

August 1, 2013August 1, 2013

Earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Yesterday (31-July-2013) a earthquake swarm started in TFZ, the south end of it, not far from a village named Kópasker. This earthquake swarm was small most of yesterday, but after midnight this earthquake swarm started to pick up in activity and magnitude of earthquakes. Around 07:09 UTC this morning (1-August-2013) a magnitude 3.7 earthquake took place, this earthquake was felt in Kópasker along with few magnitude 3.0 earthquake that took place after it. The epicenter of this earthquake swarm is out in the ocean, so no population is any major danger if this earthquake swarm continues as is.

The earthquake swarm in TFZ today. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake swarm is currently ongoing and there are no signs that is going to end soon, current activity is not continuous, it drops regularly and then it resumes again. It is impossible to know for sure how long this earthquake swarm is going to continue. The largest earthquakes appear clearly on my geophone and can be seen here.

Blog post updated at 18:11 UTC on 01-August-2013.

July 22, 2013

Minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

During the night (22-July-2013) a minor earthquake swarm took place in Katla volcano. Most of the earthquakes where shallow, with the depth of 1 km, one earthquake had the depth of 12 km. This earthquake swarm took place in the central area of the caldera. I am not sure what did create this earthquake swarm, it might have been a dike intrusion, or it simply might just be a pressure changes in hydro-thermal areas in this location.

Minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake swarm is probably just part of normal summer activity in Katla volcano, at least there is nothing that suggests otherwise at present time. It is possible to watch the activity in Katla volcano here from my geophone at Skeiðflöt farm, just outside Katla volcano.

July 15, 2013

Strong earthquake swarm north of Iceland

Since early night there has been a strong earthquake swarm north of Iceland, around 300 to 500 km away from Iceland coastline. All of the earthquakes in this swarm (that have been detected) have had the magnitude of 4.4. More smaller earthquakes appears also to have taken place, but where not properly detected by the SIL network or my geophone network.

Magnitude 4.4 earthquake between Iceland and Jan Mayen. Copyright of this image belongs to EMSC.

More earthquakes from this swarm can be found on EMSC web site here.

The earthquakes on Icelandic Meteorological Office earthquake map. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I have been having connection issues with my Böðvarshólar geophone station, it can be viewed here. The reason is poor UMTS (3G) signal in the area where the station is. I am going to resolve that issue in December by installing a external antenna to the 3G modem that I am using, it should give me a stronger and more stable signal. For the moment there is little that I can do, other than just to hope the signal improves and gets more stable then it has been today.

Donations

I wanted to remind people that donations help me. Currently I have less then 60DKK to live what remains of July. That is not a good status for me to have at present time. Thanks for the support.

July 8, 2013

All quiet in Iceland at the moment

It has been quiet in Iceland, so quiet in fact that for 7-July-2013 there was only one earthquake recorded on the automatic SIL system. There were more earthquakes recorded on the manual review system that Icelandic Meteorological Office has.

All quiet in Iceland. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I do not know how long this quiet time is going to last. Currently it is counting on around 4 weeks at the moment and it appears that the peak is today (so far). When this might change I do not know. I am using this quiet time to enjoy little bit of summer, even if I am broke (little to no money to use) at the moment.

June 22, 2013June 22, 2013

Minor earthquake in Hekla volcano

A minor earthquake was detected in Hekla volcano on 21-June-2013. This earthquake was at north-east side of Hekla volcano, it had only the magnitude 0.6 and depth of 8.3 km. This is not at good detection according to Icelandic Meteorological Office person that I did speak to about this earthquake today.

The earthquake in Hekla volcano to the north-east side. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake is just one earthquake in series of earthquakes in Hekla volcano. While this earthquake was poorly located due to almost not being detected, I am sure that the only reason this earthquake was recorded is due to more SIL stations around Hekla volcano that have been set-up in the past two years.

There are no signs of eruption is about to start in Hekla volcano.

Blog post updated at 00:22 UTC on 22-June-2013.

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