Category: Earthquakes

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Earthquake in Torfajökull volcano

Today (20-Juli-2019) at 14:15 UTC an earthquake with the magnitude of 3,3 took place in Torfajökull volcano. This earthquake took place in south part of the caldera of Torfajökull volcano. This earthquake might have been felt by tourists in the area.


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

There has not been a lot of aftershocks following this earthquake for now. Last earthquake with magnitude above 3,0 took place on 12th of July and this means there might be a serious increase in earthquake activity in Torfajökull volcano. There are no obvious signs that Torfajökull volcano is about to erupt but it is also not known what is needed to make an eruption happen in Torfajökull volcano. Best action for now is to continue to monitor the activity in Torfajökull volcano.

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Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge

On Saturday (13-July-2019) earthquake swarm started off the coast of Reykjanes peninsula on Reykjanes ridge. The earthquake swarm is located 2 – 4 km south-west of Geirfulgadrangur rock. It is unclear if this earthquake swarm is over. Largest earthquakes in this swarm had a magnitude 3,1. Other earthquakes had smaller magnitude.


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

Activity in this area has the pattern of stopping and then starting again few hours to week later. This might result in stronger earthquake swarm next time this activity starts up again. There is a volcano in this area that last erupted in 18th or 19th of century. This volcano is not listed in Global Volcanism Program I think. I do not think this earthquake activity is volcano related but that is difficult to know fore sure due to how remote this area is and poorly known as such.

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Increase in earthquakes in Katla volcano

Since yesterday (13-July-2019) there has been a increase in earthquake activity in Katla volcano. There are no signs of anything more happening than just this increase of earthquakes.


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

This increase in activity is something to keep a watch for but this has happened before without resulting in a eruption in Katla volcano. There have been reports on high volume of water level in the cauldrons in Mýrdalsjökull glacier. I don’t know if that is connected to this increase in earthquake activity. There is an expatiation that water is going to break out soon and the flood is going to be the largest since 2011. That might increase earthquake activity in Katla volcano once that happens. For now however nothing has been reported in the news of such a event.

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Magnitude 3,2 earthquake in Torfajökull volcano

Today (12-July-2019) at 17:16 UTC a magnitude 3,2 earthquake took place in Torfajökull volcano. This earthquake might have been felt by tourists in the area. This earthquake being felt has not yet been reported according to any news media.


The earthquake activity in Torfajökull volcano (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This area of Torfajökull volcano has been having earthquake activity since January 27 when a magnitude 3,7 earthquake took place there. That activity was followed by a larger swarm of aftershocks than have so far happened. That might change without warning. This earthquake activity is interesting but I am not sure if it means anything, at least for now.

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Earthquake swarm on the south part of Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ)

Since yesterday (6-July-2019) there has been a ongoing earthquake swarm in south part of the Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ). The number of earthquakes recorded is close to 170 when this article is written. This number is going to go quickly outdated. Exact largest magnitude is not clear since automatic magnitude is not always correct.


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

At this location there is a volcano that erupted in the year 1868 for about a month (December 1867 to January 1868) according to historical documents. Global Volcanism Information can be found here. There are no sign of this earthquake activity being connected to a volcano activity. I don’t know if that is going to change.

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Recording of the California, United States, Mw7,1 earthquake

This is my geophone recording of the Mw7,1 earthquake in California. I don’t have any comments on this activity since I don’t know anything about the tectonic settings in California and how the set-up is regarding fault lines and tectonics in this area. I did only record the surface waves clearly and that is unusual given the distance from the source of the earthquake (6756 km).


The Z (vertical) recording.


The North-South recording.


The East-West recording.

The surface waves are strongest on North-South recording. I did not record the Mw6.5 earthquake on the 4th of July.

Update

Due to errors I discovered I have corrected this article and the images used.

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Earthquake swarm east of Grímsey island (Tjörnes Fracture Zone)

A small earthquake swarm started today (30-June-2019) east of Grímsey island. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 3,6. There are no news that it had been felt.


The earthquake east of Grímsey island. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is one of several earthquake swarms in this area of Tjörnes Fracture Zone this year. More activity can be expected in next few months. This earthquake swarm activity appears to be only tectonic in nature.

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Three strong earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (24-June-2019) at 13:09 UTC, 13:18 UTC and 13:55 UTC three strong earthquakes took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. The earthquake at 13:09 UTC has registered magnitude of mb4,5 at EMSC (information here). The earthquake at 13:55 UTC also has the magnitude of mb4,5 at EMSC (information here). Icelandic Met Office has the earthquake at 13:09 UTC at magnitude Mw3,3 and the earthquake at 13:55 UTC at magnitude Mw4,1. The earthquake at 13:18 UTC has a magnitude of Mw3,4. Smaller earthquakes have followed the largest earthquakes.


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

This earthquake activity is because of inflation in Bárðarbunga volcano. Since Bárðarbunga volcano continues to be in a inflation stage this earthquake activity did not result in a movement of magma or an eruption. Two of the earthquakes were in the regular location (central caldera and north-east part of the caldera) and the earthquake at 13:09 UTC took place outside the caldera and in north-west part of the volcano. This is slightly unusual based on earlier earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Last strong earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano was on 19-June-2019 and this a short time between strong earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano. This doesn’t seems to be unusual activity.

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Deep earthquake swarm south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano

Yesterday (19-June-2019) an earthquake swarm took place south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano. This area of Bárðarbunga volcano has been active since end of the eruption in February 2015 and possibly earlier than that. Last eruption in this area took place in with a start in February 1726 (+- 30 days) and ended in May 1726 (+- 30 days). More eruptions might have taken place at this location without being known or detected by people in the past.


The earthquake swarm south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The depth of this earthquake swarm is considerable. Deepest earthquake recorded had a depth of 30,4 km and it is a possible that might be an error or poor location, other earthquakes recorded had a shallower depth. The crust in this location is up to 45 km thick according to measurements. It is not possible to know if this earthquake activity is going to result in a eruption. If an eruption happens it might happen without any warning and not of lot of earthquake activity before it happens.

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Earthquake with magnitude of 3,4 in Bárðarbunga volcano

After a long period of quiet an earthquake has happened in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake had a magnitude of 3,4 and was in the usual place of central caldera of Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake had a smaller earthquake swarm activity happen few hours before it happened.


The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano is marked by the green star. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is not possible to know if this means there is going to be any more earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Normally since everything started to quiet down, just one earthquake happens that is over magnitude 3,0 and then everything goes quiet again for several weeks to months. I do suspect that is going to be the pattern this time.

Due to how tired I am since I am working full workday (08:00 – 16:00) now my English grammar is all over the place in this article.

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