Category: Grímsvötn / Grímsfjall

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Earthquake activity in Grímsfjall volcano

Early this morning at 06:53 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,3 took place in Grímsfjall volcano. This is the largest recorded earthquake in Grímsfjall volcano since recording started in 1991. This happened soon after a glacier flood started from Grímsfjall volcano lake. This is a minor glacier flood.

Green star in Grímsfjall volcano. There's also an earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano with a green star.
Earthquake activity in Grímsfjall volcano and in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Experts are expecting an eruption from Grímsfjall volcano. However, it is my personal view that no eruption is going to happen during this flood like last time. The reason being that Grímsfjall volcano has entered different type of eruption cycle. Start of that eruption cycle was in the May eruption in 2011. Why that is I don’t know.

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Earthquake swarm in Grímsfjall volcano

Today (23. April 2023) at 15:!5 UTC an earthquake swarm took place in Grímsfjall volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw3,3. Few other smaller earthquakes also took place.

Green star and red dots under it in Grímsfjall volcano. Also in this image is the earlier earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano, shown with a green star.
Earthquake activity in Grímsfjall volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There are no signs that Grímsfjall volcano is about erupt following this earthquake swarm. That might change without warning, but seems unlikely to happen at the moment. More earthquakes might happen in next few hours.

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Fissure opens up in south Grímsfjall volcano (no eruption)

A fissure has opened up in south part of Grímsfjall volcano without erupting at this moment. Pictures show that there’s a lot of hydrothermal activity in this fissure. I can see by the Facebook post (link below) that this is a new fissure in a location that it didn’t exist before. Based on recent history, this strongly suggests that this is the area where next eruption is going to happen in Grímsfjall volcano. When and how big such eruption is going to be is impossible to know. This fissure is located around Lat: 64° 24′ 13,476″ N Lon: 17° 13′ 57,282″ W. It possibly is growing and has made holes in the glacier large enough to swallow large cars.

Grímsfjall volcano with few brown sand on Google Earth image. With triangle in the center to mark its location. Location marker in yellow in the right side of the image not far from the brown patches on the image.
The location of the fissure. Picture from Google Earth program.

The Facebook post with pictures can be found here. But you might need a Facebook account to view the pictures. I can’t add them here because of copyright.

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Something is going on in Grímsfjall volcano

This is a tricky thing to write about. Because nothing has started on the surface and might not start on the surface. It seems that something is going on in Grímsfjall volcano. Since the glacier flood is almost over or has finished the harmonic tremor level should have started dropping, it has not done so and I am not sure why that is. This might be boiling of the hydrothermal systems in Grímsfjall volcano when the pressure on the suddenly drops. Currently the harmonic tremor doesn’t look like it has reached eruption levels, that might change without warning.

Rising harmonic tremor, with a high top from storm noise on the 10/10. Colours are blue, green and purple that is barley visible at the end of the line.
Harmonic tremor in Grímsfjall volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
One red dot in Grímsfjall volcano in middle of Vatnajökull glacier shown by white area on the map
Earthquake activity in Grímsfjall volcano. This is almost no earthquake activity. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is difficult to know what is going on. Since there seems to have been a change in Grímsfjall volcano after the big eruption in May 2011. What that change is I don’t know. It seems to have slowed down Grímsfjall volcano eruption rate from what it was, its been 11 years since last eruption. It might continue if no eruption starts now following the small glacier flood that just ended.

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Small glacier flood from Grímsfjall volcano expected tomorrow (11. October 2022)

According to a news on Rúv. A small glacier flood is expected from Grímsfjall volcano tomorrow. This glacier flood is not expected to create any problems for roads or bridges. Last glacier flood took place in December 2021. The glacier flood is expected to appear in the glacier river Gígjukvísl.

Icelandic news and announcement of the glacier flood

Lítið hlaup úr Grímsvötnum (Icelandic, Icelandic Met Office)
Von á litlu hlaupi úr Grímsvötnum á morgun (Icelandic, Rúv.is)

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Magnitude Mw3,7 earthquake in Grímsfjall volcano

Today (2-August-2022) at 14:24 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,7 took place in Grímsfjall volcano. At the writing of this article there doesn’t seem to be any indicator that an eruption is about to start, but that might change without warning.

Green star in Grímsfjall volcano in Vatnajökull glacier in east Iceland. The volcano is located in about middle of the glacier
Earthquake activity in Grímsfjall volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There were few other smaller earthquakes following and before the largest earthquake. This earthquake activity is slightly unusual since normally Grímsfjall volcano doesn’t have any earthquake activity unless an eruption is about to start. If this earthquake activity continues is impossible to know.

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Earthquake with magnitude Mw3,6 in Grímsfjall volcano, no eruption yet

I’ve been trying to wait for information about the activity in Grímsfjall volcano. A new cauldron was discovered yesterday (05-December-2021). It is possible that an small eruption took place in the side of Grímsfjall volcano and didn’t break the glacier. It might have been a short eruption if that is what happened. Harmonic tremor data is unclear on this so I can’t give any good answer. At 06:16 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,6 took place. I poorly recorded it my seismometer and it seems to have been a low period earthquake. Suggesting that a magma pushing up was the reason this earthquake happened.
Continue reading “Earthquake with magnitude Mw3,6 in Grímsfjall volcano, no eruption yet”

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Sharp change in harmonic tremor in Grímsfjall volcano

This situation is unclear and nothing has been confirmed as of writing of this article. This seems to have started about 1 hour ago and there has been a change in the harmonic tremor levels at Grímsfjall volcano. This is not yet the super sharp change I did see in May-2011 when that eruption happened. This is however is possibly a change in harmonic tremor that is consistent with magma moving inside the volcano system. Earthquake activity has been minimal in the last 24 hours.

Harmonic tremor on blue, green and purple harmoniuc tremor bands going up sharply in the last one hour.
Harmonic tremor changes in Grímsfjall volcano in the last one hour (article written at 17:34 UTC on 04-December-2021). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is a monitoring situation currently. Sometimes an eruption happens after a glacier flood or doing a glacier flood in Grímsfjall volcano. At other times however nothing happens and it is not possible to know what happens now.

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Glacier flood starting from Grímsfjall volcano

It was announced today (24-November-2021) that Grímsvötn lake in Grímsfjall volcano is about to start. It is going to take the glacier flood few hours to days to get to the glacier rivers that flow south of Vatnajökull glacier.

This also risks an eruption starting in Grímsfjall volcano. If that actually happens remains to be seen. Last glacier flood in Grímsvötn lake was in 2018, but that did not result in a eruption.