Category: Earthquakes

Posted on

Earthquake swarm on Reykjanes ridge (Geirfuglasker area)

Today (5-Januar-2020) an earthquake swarm took place on Reykjanes ridge. Largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,2 at 09:40 UTC and the second largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,1 at 11:19 UTC. Others earthquakes were smaller in magnitude but all of them were stronger than Mw2,0 in magnitude. It is difficult to know for sure if there is going to be a earthquake swarm in this area but the chances are good that is going to happen. It might take few days to weeks until it happens.


The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge (Geirfuglasker area). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

At the writing of this article there is no earthquake activity in this area. That might chance without warning.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Everything helps me to keep this website going and it helps me to write articles on this website. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Magnitude Mw4,8 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

I hope everyone had good Christmas and good new year 2020.

Today (05-January-2020) at 04:32 UTC an earthquake with magnitude Mw4,8 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Second earthquake with a magnitude of Mw4,0 took place at 04:56 UTC. Other earthquakes that took place were smaller in magnitude. This are among the strongest earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano since the end of the eruption in Holuhraun in 2015.


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

This earthquake activity was at the same location as most of this earthquakes happen in Bárðarbunga volcano. At the north-east part of the Bárðarbunga volcano top caldera. This is also close to the locations were the hydrothermal activity at this location has melted though the glacier.

I was unable to record this earthquake because of GPS time rollover error in my GPS clocks that I use and it affects the software I use and time stamps on the recorded events. I need to do a software update on the GPS clocks before I can use them again. I am going to do that in late February or early March. I need to update every GPS clock that I own.

Moving back to Iceland

It has turned out that my income gap is because I am living in Denmark and there’s nothing I can do about it (lowering costs didn’t work as I hoped). Because of this I am moving back to Iceland permanently. I am going to stay in Europe (Germany?) for time to time but I am going to be permanently living in Iceland because of this.

Donations

Please remember to support my work. Donations help me run this website and to do my work. I am also broke because of the cost of buying a airline ticket to Iceland this month. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Update two of the earthquake swarm on Reykjanes peninsula, east of Fagradalsfjall mountain

Today (19-December-2019) at 11:20 UTC a earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,5 took place east of Fagradalsfjall mountain. This earthquake was felt in ReykjavĂ­k and nearby area. This earthquake was a continuation of the earthquake swarm that started on 15th December 2019 in this area. The activity has dropped from what was before but it is still ongoing mostly.


Earthquake activity on Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There are no other updates about this activity so far. I have been waiting today to see if anything more would be happening and it has not. It might happen later if anything happens at all.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Thanks for the support. 🙂
If you donate with bank please update your bank information. Details can be found here.

Moving back to Iceland

Living in Denmark just isn’t working for me as I hoped and that is just how it is. That is why I am moving back to Iceland. It is either going to be in February or March depending on factors that I am looking into now (best price for moving my belongings to Iceland). I am not sure yet how I pay for this move since it is going to cost me around 1.091€ to 1.309€. I hope nothing higher than this amount. After this I won’t be moving away from Iceland. I am just going to stay there.

Posted on

Update on the earthquake swarm on Reykjanes peninsula

I am sorry for this late update.

The earthquake swarm east of Fagradalsfjalla mountain increased again yesterday (16-December-2019). According to a notice on the Icelandic Met Office over 1200 earthquakes have been recorded in this earthquake swarm. Total of 10 earthquakes had a magnitude of Mw3,0 or larger. The largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,7.


The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake swarm again seems to be over but it might start again without warning. This earthquake swarm remains tectonic in nature.

Donations

Please remember to support my work. I am really broke this month and I don’t think I am seeing any improvement in this until February 2020. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Earthquake swarm on Reykjanes peninsula

Today (15-December-2019) an earthquake swarm started this morning at 07:10 UTC and the strongest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,5 and other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude. Around of 190 earthquakes have happened in this earthquake swarm that appears to be over or at least has stopped for now.


Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes peninsula today (15-December-2019). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is a tectonic earthquake swarm from the looks of the earthquakes that I have recorded on my geophone. This is probably a rift valley activity in this area. It is not possible to know if this earthquake activity is over or not. It is common that earthquake activity stops for few hours and then resumes at higher activity then before. Sometimes this type of earthquake swarm just stops and doesn’t resume.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. I am really broke this month and that has started to create problems for me. If you support me by donating with a bank transfer please update your information since I now send everything to my Icelandic bank, rather than my Danish bank. New bank information can be found here. I do this for simplification and other reasons that I am going to go into later (when feeling less down from all this being broke).

Posted on

Magnitude Mw3,8 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano (01-December-2019)

On 01-December-2019 a earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. There were two magnitude Mw3,0 earthquake in this earthquake swarm and one magnitude Mw3,8 earthquake. Few smaller earthquakes also took place in this earthquake swarm.


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

This earthquake activity is now normal for Bárðarbunga volcano and has been going on since the end of the Holuhraun eruption in February 2015. More of this earthquake activity can be expected to happen without any warning. This does not mean that an eruption is on the way in any imminent future.

I am sorry for how late this article this.

Donations (late update)

If you want to support my work it is possible to do so with PayPal donations with the donation button. If you want to send me a direct donation it is possible to do so on the email address jonfr3600@8930a1.talbot.shared.1984.is, if you have older email address please update your email address for this type of donation. Please contact me at volcano@8930a1.talbot.shared.1984.is for bank information but in general that should not be required since PayPal is good enough for this for most people. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano

The regular earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano continued today (24-November-2019) early this morning. Two earthquakes larger than Mw3,0 took place. The first earthquake had a magnitude of Mw4,0 at 04:22 UTC and the second earthquake had a magnitude of 04:28 UTC and had a magnitude of Mw3,5. This earthquake activity happens due to inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano. This is a regular earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and is it is going to be like this for the next 10 to 30 years. With occasional magnitude Mw5,0 or larger earthquake happening in that time period.


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

This earthquake activity is not going to result in a eruption of Bárðarbunga volcano since this is too little earthquake activity for that too happen. This earthquake activity shows that an eruption is going to happen in next few years but when that happens is impossible to know.

Donations

Please remember to support my work since it helps me keeping this website running and doing this work. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Update on the earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge

The earthquake swarm that started today (16-November-2019) on the Reykjanes ridge in the volcano called Reykjanes [Eldey] continues. At the writing of this article 29 earthquakes larger than magnitude Mw3,0 have happened at this location on the Reykjanes ridge. Largest earthquake so far had a magnitude of Mw4,5. The earthquake swarm slowed down after 17:00 and has remained in slow activity since then but it is ongoing as of writing of this article.


The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Density of the earthquake swarm. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquakes in this area have reached magnitude Mw5,0 and last time that happened was in June and July-2015. I wrote about all those earthquakes swarms.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. They help me with this website and normal life. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Strong earthquake swarm in Reykjanes volcano

I don’t have a lot of information about what is going on. The area that has having earthquake swarm is located at Geirfugladrangi good 20 to 40 km off the coastline. This earthquake swarm is strong and might even get stronger. I don’t know yet if this earthquake swarm is due to tectonic forces or because magma has started pushing to upper levels in the crust. There are no clear signs of eruption happening at this location at the writing of this article. The volcano in this area is called Reykjanes.


Earthquake swarm on Reykjanes ridge in a volcano called Reykjanes. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This activity appears to be moving quickly and there’s a lot going on and information in this article is going to get outdated quickly.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. It helps me to keep this website running and just do normal stuff when I am not writing about earthquakes or volcanoes in Iceland. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Update four on earthquake activity in Askja volcano

Yesterday (13-November-2019) has been a little quieter in the earthquake swarm in Askja volcano. Largest earthquake in the last 24 hours had a magnitude of Mw3,1. Over the last 48 hours around 500 earthquakes have happened in Askja volcano. There was a peak in activity after the magntidue Mw3,1 earthquake but it slowed down soon after that. Depth of this earthquake swarm has changed slightly, deepest points are now at 7 to 8 km and that might be a problem since magma is possibly at 10 to 15 km depth in this location. If this is a magma that can erupt I don’t know, if there is magma at this location it might also be a magma that’s too cold to erupt.


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

The earthquakes continue to be rift-zone earthquakes along fault lines and there is as of the writing of this article no signs of magma movement in Askja volcano as a result of this earthquake swarm. This earthquake swarm has been going on for a week from today (14-November-2019). It is a question if this earthquake swarm is over or if this is just a quiet time in this earthquake swarm activity. It is known in Askja volcano eruption history that eruption in Askja volcano and nearby fissure swarms start with long period of earthquake activity that continues to grow over time. This can be read in this studies of earlier eruptions, study 1961 eruption, study 1875 eruption. Current situation continues to keep monitoring what is going on.

Science article on earthquake activity in Askja (added link)

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. They help me to keep this website running. Thanks for the support. 🙂