Category: Earthquakes

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Update two of earthquake swarm on Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Yesterday (20-June-2020) at 19:26 UTC a magnitude Mw5,6 earthquake took place on the Tjörnes Fracture Zone. This earthquake was felt over a wide area and all the way to Kópavogur in south Iceland and all the way to Ísafjörður in west Iceland. Where I am located this earthquake was clearly felt but due to distance no damage happened. This earthquake created a lot of rock slides and possible landslides There is now a warning about being close and in mountains if a large earthquakes happens for this reason. In the Flatey fault there is now a risk of a large earthquake with magnitude up to Mw7,1 since there has not been a earthquake of that size since 1755 in that area. At the writing of this article there have been 72 earthquakes with magnitude larger than Mw3,0. Over 2000 earthquakes have been recorded since Friday 19-June-2020 when this earthquake swarm started. Activity happens in strong swarms with a drop in between. At the writing of this article there seems to be a low in the earthquake activity. Last large earthquake in Tjörnes Fracture Zone took place in eastern part of it in 1976 and last strong earthquake in the western part of Tjörnes Fracture Zone was in 1963.


Earthquake activity remains strong even if there is a minor drop in activity when this article is written. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


The earthquake activity remains dense as can be seen here. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


The magnitude Mw5,6 earthquake as it aooeared on my geophone (Hvammstangi 1).


The magnitude Mw5,6 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone (Hvammstangi 2).


The Mw5,6 earthquake as it appeared on my live computer that I use to monitor earthquakes.

It is impossible to know how this earthquake swarm is going to evolve and change over the next few hours but the risk of a larger earthquakes remains high for now and that won’t change until this earthquake swarm ends if a larger earthquake doesn’t happen in the earthquake swarm that is now ongoing.

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Update 1 on the earthquake swarm on Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Today (20-June-2020) at 15:05 a magnitude Mw5,2 earthquake took place on Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ). Information in this article is going to go outdated quickly.


Earthquake activity in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


The earthquake activity is dense and there is a lot of earthquakes happening every minute. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


The earthquake as recorded by my geophone (Hvammstangi 2).


The earthquake as recorded by my geophone (Hvammstangi 1).


The earthquake as it appeared in the program I use to monitor earthquakes.

According to the news rock fall happened in mountains when the largest earthquake took place. There is also a risk of stronger earthquake due this earthquake swarm location according to Icelandic Met Office. If a stronger earthquake happens the risk of rock fall is high.

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Strong earthquake swarm on Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ)

Yesterday (19-June-2020) a strong earthquake swarm started off Gjögurtá in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone. This are tectonic earthquakes and not connected to any known volcano. The area that is having this earthquakes might be a rift valley and that in it self is interesting. The rift valley seems to be connected to Kolbeinsey island and a volcano to the north. The rift valley is also connected to a slip-strike fault (Flatey fault) that is in this area and is connected to Flatey island to the east. That fault line is a transform fault according to Icelandic Met Office. This earthquake swarm is not over even if there is a bit of a quiet period in it now. Largest earthquake at the writing of this article had a magnitude of Mw3,8 at 03:47 UTC. More than 400 earthquakes have happened according to Icelandic Met Office.


The earthquake swarm as it was at 13:00 UTC. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Reviewed earthquakes in this earthquake swarm. Larger circles means larger earthquake. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake swarms in this area known to go on for several weeks. This earthquake swarm might go on for a while even if it drops down in activity every few hours.

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New Zealand – Kermadec island Mw7,4 earthquake detected in Iceland

Today at 12:49 UTC an earthquake with a magnitude of Mw7,4 happened on the other side of the world. This earthquake was clearly detected in Iceland because the P-wave reflected off Earth iro-nickel core and that directed the P-wave towards Iceland where it was recorded as a Mw4,1 earthquake but was later downgraded to Mw1,5 at 92km depth (this is a fake local earthquake, SIL does not properly deal with this type of earthquakes).

Here is how this earthquake was detected with my geophones in Iceland.


Because of the reflection of the earthquake signal the P-wave arrives at a strange time compared to calculated time.


Short trace of the earthquake due to local noise that was creating problems for me.

I normally don’t record earthquakes from the other side of the world because I am using short period geophones to record earthquakes and those are only used normally for local earthquakes with distances less than 500 km. I can record earthquakes properly up to a distance of 6000 km if the earthquake is large enough (Mw6,0 or larger).

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Work

I am currently working from 08:00 to 16:00. This is going to lower my response time if anything happens in Iceland until after 16:00 when I get home from work.

Future plans

In the future I am going to be adding Google Adsense back to this website if I get approved. That is going to lower the requirement for donations once that system is in place at the cost of more advertising on this website. I don’t know when that is going to happen but this is going to take several months until I put this place into working phase because its tied into other plans that I have.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (14-June-2020) an earthquake with a magnitude of Mw3,4 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is now the regular and usual earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and is connected to inflation in the volcano after the 2014 – 2015 eruption in Holuhraun.


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

This earthquake activity is located normally either in the south-east part of the caldera or in the north-east part of the caldera. This earthquake was located in the south-east part of the caldera. More earthquake activity is going to happen in Bárðarbunga volcano in next few months to years and should not be a surprise to anyone.

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Sharp increase in earthquakes in Þorbjörn mountain (Svartsengi/Reykjanes volcano)

Since around 06:00 this morning (13-June-2020) a sharp increase in earthquake activity took place north of Grindavík town. The most dense earthquake swarm was located west of the Blue lagoon with other minor swarms in other nearby areas. The active volcano is Reykjanes and Svartsengi (no Global Volcanism profile). Map can be found here and here (go to Höggunarkort).


The clusters of earthquake activity close to Grindavík town. This map can be found here (Icelandic only). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Current earthquake activity close to Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquakes at the writing of this article have a magnitude of Mw3,5 (at 20:27 UTC) but since this earthquake swarm in ongoing that number can change without warning.

There was also considerable noise during the earthquake swarm earlier. Suggesting that something is going on but I do not know what might be for now. The noise results in the blue band thickens during the earthquake swarm.


The termor plot during the earthquake swarm. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Current GPS data (can be viewed here) doesn’t show any major changes at the writing of this article. That might change in next few days.

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Weekend long earthquake swarm in Reykjanes volcano (both of them)

This is the first article on the Iceland geology new domain and new hosting location. I’ve resolved most problems but few remains that I am working on resolving. Please report any problems in a comment here or send me an email to volcano [at] icelandgeology [dot] net. I have updated the email postlist for those who use it. Please check your spam folders and update your rules for the new addresses that are now being used.
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Over the weekend there has been a earthquake swarm in the Reykjanes volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw2,6 on Saturday 06-June-2020 at 01:01 UTC. Other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude. Around 220 earthquakes have been recorded at the writing of this article.


The earthquake activity in the volcano called Reykjanes and Svartsengi (Þorbjörn). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The reason for this earthquake swarm is inflation that has been increasing in recent days according to GPS data that is not yet corrected or verified. That GPS data can be found here. This inflation increases the risk of larger earthquake in next few days.

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Earthquake swarm north-east of Grindavík town

Today (30-May-2020) at 01:07 UTC an earthquake swarm started north-east of Grindavík town in the volcano of Reykjanes (Svartsengi part). Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw2,7 and other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude. This earthquake swarm is currently ongoing and this information is going to get outdated quickly. Current activity doesn’t suggest that an eruption is about to happen.


The earthquake swarm north-east of Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This signals that the inflation in this part of the volcano has started again at earlier speed possibly but this requires a confirmation from GPS data and such confirmation takes a few days. This is information that I don’t have access to because its from satellites that NASA runs to monitor volcanoes. Only Icelandic Met Office and University of Iceland has access to this type of information.

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Magnitude Mw3,5 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano during the night (30-May-2020)

A single earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano at 01:20 UTC. This earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,5 and no other earthquakes took place following this earthquake. This type of earthquake has been followed by stronger earthquake activity later but this is not always the case. This earthquake activity is due to inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano after the eruption in Holuhraun in August 2014 to February 2015. This earthquake was in its normal place in north-east part of Bárðarbunga volcano.


The green star shows the Mw3,5 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This activity is normal and does not signal any eruption risk because after the eruption of 2014 and 2015 it is going to be a while until next eruption happens in Bárðarbunga volcano, probably.

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Inflation resumes at Þorbjörn mountain on Reykjanes peninsula

According to Icelandic Met Office and news at Rúv.is the inflation at Þorbjörn mountain seems to have started again after few weeks of no inflation being detected. The inflation now seems to be small but that might change without warning. There might not be a lot of earthquake activity connected to this time of inflation because the area already is inflated and there was a lot of earthquake activity earlier in the year when this started. Earthquake activity might be more common on the edges and at those location the risk of magnitude Mw6,0 earthquake is highest, but is impossible to be certain about this due to how many faults there are on the Reykjanes peninsula, both from volcanoes and rift faults due to the rift valley that is there (its just full of lava).


There was a earthquake swarm yesterday (28-May-2020) north of Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

How this is going to change and evolve over the next few weeks is not something that can be predicted with any certainty for now. Since there have not been any eruption in this area for close to 800 years it is not known how this volcano systems behave in a eruption and inflation phase.

GPS data can be found here.

Icelandic News

Land virðist farið að rísa við Þorbjörn á ný (Rúv.is)
Vísbendingar um að landris sé hafið að nýju við Þorbjörn (Vísir.is)

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Please remember to support my work with donations. Thanks for the support. 🙂

I am going to start working I hope next week in order to increase my income and making things easier for me when it comes to money from July to September. This means slightly less time to update this website if anything happens during the work day.