Category: Earthquakes

Posted on

Continued earthquake activity on Kolbeinsey Island ridge

In the past few days there has been considerable earthquake activity in Kolbeinsey Island ridge. Many of the earthquakes have been reaching the magnitude of at least 3.0. But some of it might be underestimation. As this earthquake activity is taking place far off Iceland coastline and far away from the SIL network. But that makes detection of earthquakes more difficult. Along with effects of weather and ocean waves that often prevent detection of smaller earthquakes in this area.


The location of the earthquake activity in Kolbeinsey Island ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This is not the only activity in this area in the past few weeks. But the largest earthquake in this area was an magnitude 4.4 to 4.6 few weeks ago. So the activity in this area seems to be connected to something major. It is an question if this is due to volcano eruption currently taking place in this area now. But with depth of up to 4 km. It is impossible to know that for sure without actually going there on an ship. But given current weather. That is not going to happen any time soon. Maybe not for several years in fact.

Posted on

Deep earthquake in Eyjafjallajökull volcano

On 11.09.2012 at 10:24 UTC there was an deep earthquake in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. The magnitude of this earthquake was 0.8. It had the depth of 14.9 km. But that is among the deepest that happens in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. But before and during the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano in the year 2010 the most depth of earthquake detected at that time was around 30 km.


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

I do not expect this earthquake to mean anything. This is just single earthquake that now happen from time to time in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. But after the eruption in the year 2010 there has almost been no earthquake activity in Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

Volcano ash from Eyjafjallajökull volcano

Even if there are now two years since the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano the local area continues to have problems with volcano ash from it. In certain wind direction the volcano ash is blown up and carried out to the sea. This wind direction is mostly when wind is blowing from north and does not carry any snow or rain with it. So today and maybe in next few days. The local people that live in the area around Eyjafjallajökull volcano to live in ash cloud from the eruption two years ago.

I did try to find an MODIS picture of this volcano ash storm. But I did not have any luck doing so.

Icelandic news about this wind blown ash

„Stödd í öskubakkanum“ (DV.is)

Posted on

Strong earthquake on Kolbeinsey Island ridge yesterday (06.09.2012)

Yesterday (06.09.2012) there was an earthquake about 200 km off Kolbeinsey Island. It was maybe on the Kolbeinsey Island or on SPAR fault zone in this area. I am not sure what is the actual case here. The earthquake had the magnitude of 4.4 and up to 4.7. Its magnitude has not yet been confirmed (EMSC web page can be found here). I do not know why that it. But this sometimes happen. This earthquake was not felt. But I did record it on my geophone network on two stations.


The location according to IMO. The second green star is an magnitude 3.6 earthquake in Jan Mayen. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.


The location according to EMSC. Copyright of this image belongs to EMSC.

This earthquake is one the strongest earthquakes that have been taking place in this area for the past few weeks. I do not know what is exactly happening in this area. This might be volcanic activity. But given depth of 2 km there. It is hard to know for sure. As any signs of eruption won’t appear on the surface of the ocean. Given that winter storm season has started in this area. Any sign of eruption are going to lost in the ocean waves. This area of the mid-Atlantic ridge might have more earthquakes in coming days to weeks.

Posted on

Ongoing earthquake swarm in Breinnisteinsfjöll volcano / SISZ

Since yesterday (02.09.2012) there has been ongoing earthquake swarm in Breinnisteinsfjöll volcano / SISZ (south iceland seismic zone). It is impossible to know how this earthquake swarm is going to proceed. But from what I can tell. It does not seem like it is going to be over any time soon. It is also an possibility that current earthquake swarm is part of an larger stress change in the area. But for now it is too early to know for sure what it means in the long term. Current earthquake activity is ongoing. With almost no breaks or stops. Most earthquakes have the magnitude of 0.1 and up to 2.0. But no larger earthquakes have been detected so far. The first earthquake in this earthquake swarm had the magnitude of ML4.4. Depth of this earthquakes is from 3 to 7 km (in that range).


The earthquake activity in Breinnisteinsfjöll volcano. The earthquakes align them self on an fault line that almost directly north-south direction. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is impossible to know what is going to happen next in this earthquake swarm. But strong earthquake should not be ruled out for now. This might also activate nearby fault lines if the activity intensifies. As that sometimes happens in Iceland. Whatever happens next in this area. It is worth keeping an eye on the progress of this earthquake swarm.

Icelandic news about this earthquake swarm

Enn skelfur undir Bláfjöllum (mbl.is)
Enn skelfur í Bláfjöllum (Rúv.is)

Posted on

Magnitude 3.2 earthquake on the Reykjanes peninsula

Today (01.09.2012) at 16:33 UTC there was an earthquake with the magnitude of ML3.2. The depth was 7.6 km. Following this earthquake there was an swarm of smaller earthquakes following the first earthquake. None of those have been above magnitude 2.0. The earthquake took place in the Reykjanes volcano most likely. But it appears tectonic in nature. Rather then volcanic.


The magnitude ML3.2 earthquake on the Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is hard to know for sure if this activity is going to continue. But since this earthquakes. Activity in this area has stopped. But it might resume at later time.

Icelandic news about this earthquake

Jarðskjálfti á Reykjanesskaga (Rúv.is)
3,2 stiga skjálfti við Grindavík (mbl.is)

Posted on

Earthquake swarm on Kolbeinsey Ridge yesterday (30.08.2012)

Yesterday (30.08.2012) there was an earthquake swarm on Kolbeinsey Ridge. But earthquakes have been taking place there for several weeks already. This earthquake activity seems to be growing in number of earthquakes swarms taking place. In the year 1999 there might have been an dike intrusion or submarine eruption south of Spar Fracture Zone (more details here). Last earthquake swarm that was noticed by the SIL network was exacly two months ago (30.06.2012). My coverage of that can be found here. But it was not in the same place. But that earthquake swarm was south of Kolbeinsey Island, not north of it as was the case yesterday.


The earthquake area in question are the yellow dots north of Iceland on this map from IMO. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

What happens next in this area in terms of earthquake activity, or possible volcano activity is hard to impossible to know. As it is really hard to monitor volcanoes and rift zones that are under 2 km deep ocean and good distance from the coast line. However if there is any major earthquake activity in this area. It is going to appear clearly on my geophone network and IMO SIL network in Iceland.

Posted on

Two earthquakes in Jan Mayen today (30.08.2012)

Today (30.08.2012) Jan Mayen was hit by two earthquakes. The second earthquake was not an aftershock of the first one. But it remains an question if it was triggered by the first earthquake. The first earthquake had the magnitude of Mw6.6 according to EMSC web site. The second earthquake had the magnitude of Mb5.3 according to EMSC. Both earthquakes where felt by Norwegian military and science staff that resides on Jan Mayen.


Location of the Mw6.6 earthquake off the coast of Jan Mayen. As can be seen. This earthquake took place far out in the ocean. Copyright of this image belongs to EMSC.

The second earthquake was less in magnitude. But was closer to the Jan Mayen Island. For that reason it was possibly felt better the first earthquake.


Large view of the second Jan Mayen earthquake. This earthquake had the magnitude of Mb5.3. Copyright of this image belongs to EMSC.


Close up view of the second Jan Mayen earthquake. Copyright of this image belongs to EMSC.


The Mw6.6 earthquake that took place in Jan Mayen. This geophone station is the closest to the earthquake in Jan Mayen. This image is released under CC licence. Please see CC licence page for more details.


The Mw6.6 Jan Mayen earthquake as it was seen on Heklubyggð geophone station. This image is released under CC licence. Please see CC licence page for more details.


The Mw6.6 Jan Mayen earthquake as it was seen on Eyrarbakki geophone station. This image is released under CC licence. Please see CC licence page for more details.


The Mw6.6 Jan Mayen earthquake as it was seen on Skeiðflöt geophone station. The P-wave goes trough something that speeds up it’s arrival. Something that the software that I use cannot account for. That is why the P-wave is in the wrong location. As model vs reality do not match in this case. This happen frequently with my location data. This image is released under CC licence. Please see CC licence page for more details.


I did also record this earthquake in Denmark. Where I now live. This is the most distance that I did record this earthquake. But the distance was around 2000 km. The signal did appear. But I did not record any surface waves as I did in Iceland. Background noise is also higher here in Denmark then in most location in Iceland and it is more constant. This image is released under CC licence. Please see CC licence page for more details.

I did not record the Mb5.3 earthquakes on my geophones. It was just too small for my hardware to detect it. The waveform from the second earthquake was also lost in the surface waves from the first earthquake during this time period. At least when it comes to my hardware as it currently is.

Icelandic news about this earthquake

Jarðskjálfti við Jan Mayen – 6.6 stig (Vísir.is)
Almannavarnir: Ekki miklar líkur á flóðbylgju (Vísir.is)
Jarðskjálfti upp á 6,6 stig (mbl.is)

Norwegian and danish news about this earthquake

Kraftig jordskjelv utenfor Jan Mayen (NRK.no)
Skælv på 6,6 ryster Grønlands østkyst (DR.dk)

Posted on

Earthquake in Brennisteinsfjöll volcano / SISZ earthquake zone

Today (30.08.2012) at 11:59 UTC there was an earthquake with the magnitude of ML3.8 (4.2Mw) in Brennisteinsfjöll volcano / SISZ. But SISZ overlaps this area to some extend. So large earthquakes do happen in this area of Iceland on regular basis. This earthquake was felt in Reykjavík area, south Iceland and some part of western Iceland.


The earthquake location and the following aftershocks. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

In around 30 aftershocks have been detected in the area. More aftershock activity in this area cannot be ruled out. This earthquake did appear clearly on my geophones all over Iceland.


The earthquake at Eyrarbakki geophone station. This geophone is the closest to the earthquake. The most movement in this earthquake was on an N-S and E-W fault according to my geophones. This picture is released under CC Licence. See licence page for more details.


This is the earthquake as it was recorded on Heklubyggð geophone. It is the second closest geophone station to this earthquake. This picture is released under CC Licence. See licence page for more details.


Here is the earthquake as it did appear on Skeiðflöt geophone. This picture is released under CC Licence. See licence page for more details.


Here is the earthquake as it did appear on Hvammstangi geophone. This picture is released under CC Licence. See licence page for more details.

It is impossible to know for sure what this earthquake activity means. But earthquake activity in this area of Brennisteinsfjöll volcano did stop around 15:49 UTC. No aftershocks did go above 2.0 in magnitude. More earthquakes in this area should not be ruled out in the next few days to weeks.

Icelandic News about this earthquake

Alltaf von á eftirskjálftum (Rúv.is)
Skjálftinn á enda stórs misgengis (Rúv.is)
Verra ef safnið hefði skemmst (Rúv.is)
Skjálftinn hápunktur – ekki fyrirboði (Rúv.is)
Jörð skalf í dag (Rúv.is. Afternoon radio show about this earthquake in Icelandic)
Jarðskjálftasvæðið undir smásjá sérfræðinga (Vísir.is)
Má búast við nokkrum eftirskjálftum (Vísir.is)
Fólk hljóp á dyr í Litlu Kaffistofunni (Vísir.is)
Jarðskjálftinn var 4,6 stig (Vísir.is)
Á þriðja tug eftirskjálfta hefur mælst (mbl.is)
Jarðskjálfti upp á 4,6 stig (mbl.is)
Snarpur jarðskjálfti á höfuðborgarsvæðinu – Stærsti skjálftinn í 3 ár (Pressan.is)
Jarðskjálftafræðingur: Ekki búið að losa um neina spennu að ráði (Pressan.is)

Posted on

Low earthquake activity in Iceland

This is not going to surprise anyone how read this blog on regular basis. But earthquake activity and volcano activity in Iceland is minimal those past days. As it has now been for past several weeks. This has sadly lead to less blog post then I like. But I have also been busy. So it has helped in that sense for me. At current rate, the year 2012 is so far the most quiet year that I remember in an long time. I have been monitoring earthquake activity in Iceland more or less since the year 1996.


Current earthquake activity in Iceland on 29. August 2012. As can be seen. Activity is rather slow today. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

While it is quiet in Iceland. I am going to work on other articles about other interesting features in Icelandic geology. They won’t be long. But short and as informal as I can make them. This quiet time might last a bit longer then it already has. I would not expect anything else.

Posted on

New earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

This morning at 07:03 UTC on 21. August 2012 an earthquake swarm started in Katla volcano. This earthquake swarm lasted for few minutes with the last earthquake taking place at 07:50 UTC. No harmonic tremor was detected following this earthquake swarm in Katla volcano. Update 1: The largest earthquake in this earthquake swarm had the magnitude of 2.6 at the depth of 0.1 km.


Earthquake activity in Katla volcano this morning. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is impossible to know for sure what this activity means. But this might just be normal autumn activity in Katla volcano. I am expecting more earthquake activity in Katla volcano in next few days to weeks.

Icelandic news about this earthquake activity

Skjálfti í Mýrdalsjökli (Rúv.is, Icelandic)
Jarðskjálfti upp á 3,1 stig í Mýrdalsjökli (Vísir.is, Icelandic)
3,1 stigs skjálfti í Mýrdalsjökli (mbl.is, Icelandic)

Blog post updated at 15:18 UTC on 21.08.2012. I have not yet fully recovered from the heat wave. I forgot the important information about this swarm. They have now been added.