Category: Earthquakes

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Strong earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (21-December-2020) at 11:38 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,9 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano.


The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake had two earlier earthquakes with magnitude of Mw2,4 and Mw2,8. Smaller earthquake activity seems to have stopped or happening at slow rate at the writing of this article. Currently Bárðarbunga volcano has an earthquake with magnitude Mw3,0 to Mw5,0 every few weeks since end of the eruption in 2015. This pattern doesn’t seems to be changing.

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Earthquake swarm in Reykjanes volcano early morning

Early morning on 16-December-2020 at 04:30 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,1 took place close to Reykjanestá in Reykjanes volcano. The largest earthquake was felt over a large area. A swarm of small earthquakes started soon after the largest earthquake and this swarm was active for few hours.


The green star shows the area of activity early morning in Reykjanes volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

A second smaller earthquake swarm started just north of Grindvík town few hours after the earthquake swarm close to Reykjanestá. GPS data for the area doesn’t seems to have updated on the web and because of that I don’t know if the area is entering new inflation phase or not. The earthquake activity suggests that Reykjanes volcano is about to enter a new inflation phase but that is currently not certain.

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Earthquake swarm in Reykjanes volcano and deep earthquake activity in Brennisteinsfjöll volcano

Today (10-December-2020) at 00:08 an earthquake with the magnitude of Mw3,5 took place in the volcano Reykjanes. This earthquake was felt in nearby area. Since then there has been a minor earthquake swarm going on in the area of Reykjanestá.


Green star shows the earthquake activity in Reykjanes volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Brennisteinsfjöll volcano

Today (10-December-2020) an deep earthquake swarm took place in Brennisteinsfjöll volcano. All earthquakes that took place where small in magnitude but depth was from around 5km to 12 km depth. It is not known at the writing of this article if this suggests an magma movement inside Brennisteinsfjöll volcano.


Orange dots to east of Krýsuvík volcano show the activity in Brennisteinsfjöll volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I am expecting more earthquake activity in Brennisteinsfjöll volcano in next few months. It is going to take few weeks to months to see if anything more is going on there.

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Minor earthquake swarm in Askja volcano

Today (05-December-2020) a minor earthquake swarm took place in Askja volcano. All earthquakes in this earthquake swarm where under Mw2,0 in magnitude.


Earthquake activity in Askja volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity suggests that magma is on the move in Askja volcano. Nothing however suggests that Askja volcano is close to an eruption of any type. Current situation seems to have been created by the fact Bárðarbunga volcano 2014 eruption almost started an eruption in Askja volcano by injecting magma into it. That didn’t happen because the magma stopped before reaching Askja volcano magma chambers. That interaction might have changed the situation inside Askja volcano magma chambers resulting in the earthquake activity that is now appearing in Askja volcano.

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Small earthquake swarm on Tjörnes Fracture Zone south east of Grímsey island

Yesterdat (02-December-2020) at 11:38 UTC an small earthquake swarm started on Tjörnes Fracture Zone just south-east of Grímsey island. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw3,1. This earthquake swarm was small but there is also a strong snowstorm in Iceland and that has limited detection of earthquakes since late Monday (30-November-2020).


The Tjörnes Fracture Zone earthquake activity. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is a different area from the area that had strongest earthquake swarm in 40 years on Tjörnes Fracture Zone in June 2020 when the largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw6,0. It is difficult to know if there is going to be more earthquake activity in this area. There is always a risk that is going to happen.

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Single earthquake on Reykjanes ridge

Yesterday (01-December-2020) at 20:40 UTC an magnitude MW3,5 earthquake took place on Reykjanes ridge. This earthquake was located close to Geirfuglasker rock on the Reykjanes ridge.


A single earthquake on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Since this was just a single earthquake it is not possible to know what happens in this area. More earthquakes might happen in this area in next few days and even larger ones.

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Earthquake swarm north of Grindavík town in Reykjanes volcano

At 11:23 UTC today 1-December-2020 an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,6 took place north of Grindavík town in the Reykjanes volcano. This earthquake was felt but few reported on it. A swarm of smaller earthquakes has followed both earlier of after the largest earthquake.


The earthquake activity in Reykjanes volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is part of the process of magma injection into this area since January 2020. There is a risk of stronger earthquake in this area following this earthquake swarm. Earthquake activity happens in high activity time period with quiet period between them. This earthquake swarm suggests that new activity period is about to start in this area of Reykjanes volcano.

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Two earthquakes in Katla volcano

Today (22-November-2020) at 11:08 UTC an earthquake with magnitude Mw3,1 took place in Katla volcano. No change in harmonic tremor was seen after this earthquake and no other earthquake activity has happened after this earthquake besides a one earthquake with magnitude Mw1,2 at 13:31 UTC.


The earthquake in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Current activity in Katla volcano is below normal background activity for this time of the year. It has been a quiet year for Katla volcano and I am not expecting any change to happen soon.

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Minor earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano

After months of being quiet there has now been new earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. The earthquake activity that took place was all just minor earthquakes but the deepest of them had a depth of 14 km and the second deepest had a depth of 12 km. Other earthquakes where at shallower depth.


Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is not possible to know what is going on in Öræfajökull volcano because what happens before an eruption is not documented in any details and the documents that exists today are old and the oldest documents of an eruption in Öræfajökull volcano are getting close to 660 years old. The younger documents are only 293 years old. This earthquake activity seems to be over at the writing of this article but it might resume without warning at any time.

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Earthquake swarm in Hengill volcano

This evening (15-november-2020) an earthquake swarm started in Hengill volcano. It is unclear if this earthquake swarm is because of water injection in this area of just normal earthquake swarm.


The earthquake swarm in Hengill volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude Mw3,3 currently. This earthquake swarm might be ongoing even if it seems to have stopped at the writing of this article. The largest earthquake was felt in Reykjavík, Hveragerði, Selfoss and other nearby towns.

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