Category: Earthquakes

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Earthquake swarm close to Geirfugladrangur on Reykjanes Ridge

On Monday (4-July-2022) an earthquake swarm started close to Geirfugladrangur on Reykjanes ridge. Largest earthquake on Monday had a magnitude of Mw3,2 and on Tuesday a magnitude Mw3,1 earthquake took place.

Green star on the Reykjanes ridge out in the ocean. Showing the centre of the earthquake activity
Earthquake activity on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is what seems to be increase in earthquake activity overall on Reykjanes peninsula and on the Reykjanes ridge. The ocean is deep at this location and an eruption would have to be a big one to break up to the ocean surface because of depth in the area. I don’t know how many earthquakes have happened in this area, because of more activity on Reykjanes peninsula in last few days.

Earthquake recordings

Because of how old my hardware is and difficulty keeping it running. I have for now stopped recording earthquakes. This is going to be the situation until I can get new hardware. When that happens I don’t know. Raspberry Shake has few stations in Iceland. They can be viewed here. This is the hardware I am going to be using once I can afford to buy it. When that happens I don’t know.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. I am currently really broke, because moving is expensive and I had to pay a lot of bills in July. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Strong earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano during the morning

Today (29-June-2022) at 08:16 UTC an earthquake with magnitude Mw3,5 took place in Bárðarbunga voclano. This is the second large earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano in June.

Green star on top of smaller red dots in Bárðarbunga volcano in Vatnajökull glacier
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is the same activity as before with Bárðarbunga volcano. That I did explain in the article on 27-June-2022 when that earthquake took place.

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Earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone rift valley

Yesterday (27-June-2022) an earthquake swarm started in Tjörnes Fracture Zone in a area north-west of an place called Gjögurtá. Largest earthquakes where felt in Siglufjörður. The largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,2.

Green star out in the ocean showing the largest earthquake in a small earthquake swarm that took place far north of Akuryeir town. Few earthquakes east of Grímsey island
Earthquake activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

In June 2020 this area had a large earthquake swarm with earthquakes that had a magnitude of Mw5,8. This might be an aftershock of that activity. I am not clear if that is the case, but it is a possibility.

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Earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano during the night

Today (27-June-2022) at 05:49 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,3 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is an earthquake because of continued inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano after the eruption between 2014 and 2015.

Green star and a red dot in Bárðarbunga volcano in Vatnajökull glacier
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano in Vatnajökull glacier. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano is going to continue until the day the magma chamber is filled up again and that might take 10 to 70 years. There are going to be few earthquakes like this every year in Bárðarbunga volcano, with time the earthquakes are going to get fewer and instead get larger in magnitude.

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Strong earthquake in Presthnjúkar volcano

One of the most quiet volcanoes in Iceland is Presthnjúkar. That seems to be about to change. Yesterday (23-June-2022) at 22:12 an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,6 and aftershock of Mw3,7 took place in the volcano. It was felt over a large part of south and west and north Iceland because of its central location.

Two green stars on top of each other along with few orange dots in Presthnjúkar volcano marked by a elongated circle on map showing the Langjökull glacier. North-east of Presthnjúkar is the Hveravellir volcano
Earthquake activity in Presthnjúkar volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is difficult to know what is going on there, since the history of this volcano is poorly known. Few minor eruptions took place there sometimes between the years 700 to the years 900 or around those years. At this stage it is impossible know if an new eruption cycle has started or is about to start in this area. Given the activity south-west of Presthnjúkar volcano. That possibly should not be ruled out for now.

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Earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,9 north-west of Grindavík

During the night (14-June-2022) an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,9 took place north-west of Grindavík, this is west of mountain Þorbjörn. This earthquake was felt over all of Reykjanes peninsula. This is the strongest earthquake this is area since 15-May-2022.

Green star north of Grindavík town showing the location of the largest earthquake that happened during the night. A lot of smaller earthquakes shown on the map as yellow and blue dots
Earthquake activity north of Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

A strong aftershock activity followed this large earthquake, with most earthquakes having a magnitude between Mw2,1 to Mw2,9. This earthquake activity is happening in the area that has formed a dyke according to measurements of this area by Icelandic Met Office. As of writing of this article, there are no clear signs that an eruption is about to start.

– This article is shorter because I am currently on limited internet when it comes to amount of data that I can use.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations if you can. Because of my recent move I am rather broke (a lot broke). Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Strong earthquake in Nátthagakriki south-west of Fagradalsfjall volcano

Currently I can only post articles limited. This is going to be the situation until 5th of July when I get internet connection in Denmark.

Today (8-June-2022) at 05:04 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,0 took place in Nátthagakriki that is south-west of Fagradalsfjall volcano. It has been followed by smaller earthquakes with shallow depth of 2 km. It is unclear what is going on and no changes have been seen on GPS monitoring in the last few days for this area.

Orange, yellow and red dots from Grindavík to Fagradalsfjall volcano show the earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano
Earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano system and in Fagradalsfjall volcano (mountain). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Older data already shows that magma is flowing into an area of the crust below Fagradalsfjall volcano (mountain). When that might erupt is impossible to know. It is also not possible to know when next cycle of earthquakes and eruptions starts in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system.

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Strong earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano this morning

Today (28-May-2022) at 08:06 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,4 or Mw4,7 (EMSC information can be found here) took place in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Green star and red dots in Vatnajökull glacier where Bárðarbunga volcano is located in north-west part of the edge of the glacier. Red dots showing deep earthquakes to the south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is because of inflation in Bárðarbunga volcano magma chamber. That was emptied after the eruption in 2014 – 2015 and that resulted in collapse of Bárðarbunga volcano by drop of some 60 meters. This inflation now is reversing that process slowly. It is going to be decades until Bárðarbunga volcano erupts again because of this collapse.

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On Thursday 26-may-2022 there was a strong earthquake on Reykjanes ridge

On Thursday 26-May-2022 at 20:11 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,5. I think this earthquake was maybe felt in populated areas closest to the earthquake. This earthquake was out in the ocean, a good distance from land.

Green star out in the ocean, a little distance from land. A lot of smaller earthquakes up the Reykjanes ridge and to Reykjanes peninsula, both in red and orange dots
Earthquake activity on Reykjanes ridge and Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake possibly is part of the earthquake activity that is happening in Reykjanes peninsula and Reykjanes ridge. It is more difficult to know what is going on in the ocean, than on land.

Posts are going to get delayed for the next few days because I am moving to Denmark.

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Earthquake swarm north of Geysir

Today (24-May-2022) an earthquake swarm started north of Geysir. This earthquake swarm is mostly small and only around 40 earthquakes have been recorded so far. Largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw2,8 and all other earthquakes have been smaller.

Orange dots and red dot north of Geysir, south of Langjökull glacier
Earthquake activity north of Geysir. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is normal tectonic activity and I am not expecting anything more to happen. Larger earthquakes might happen, but at the writing of this article it seems unlikely. This area also has regular earthquake swarms.