Category: Inflation

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Increase in earthquake in Þorbjörn mountain (Reykjanes volcano)

Yesterday (19-March 2020) an earthquake swarm took place close to Grindavík town (Þorbjörn mountain) in Reykjanes volcano. This earthquake swarm was has several hundred earthquakes and many of the earthquakes were at shallow depth and it is not understood why that was. Largest earthquakes in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw3,0, Mw3,2 and Mw3,3. Other earthquakes that took place were smaller in magnitude. The earthquake swarm seems to be over for now but this activity happens in swarms and how long and how strong each swarm is different.


The earthquake activity north of Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Inflation continues in this area and that is the reason why this earthquake swarm activity happens. What seems to be happening now is that more activity is happening and it is happening over a wider area. At the writing of this article there are no signs that magma is finding a path to the surface.

Geophone website

I have now managed to make my geophone network active again. I had to move the software from (operating system) from Windows to Debian Linux because Windows 10 just doesn’t work for this. In the future I have to move my main computer to Debian Linux but it is going to be a little while until that happens because I need to backup data before I can change operating systems on my main earthquake computer (along with other problems that I need to resolve before this can happen). The geophones that I have up and running can be viewed here.

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Earthquake with magnitude Mw4,2 in Reykjanes volcano

Today (18-March 2020) at 10:32 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,2 took place in Reykjanes volcano. This earthquake started a swarm of earthquake that is ongoing at the writing of this article.


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

Earthquake activity is increasing again in this area of Reykjanes peninsula as inflation has resumed but at lower rate then before. That might change as the time goes on. I was unable to record this earthquakes because I am having a major problems with my earthquake computers and Microsoft has disabled activation of Windows XP and Windows Vista operating systems so I can’t use them. I am working on a solution but it going to take a little time to implement properly.

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Please remember to support my work with donations. At the writing of this article I am completely broke and there are still few days left in March until April starts. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Ongoing earthquake activity in Reykjanes volcano (west of Grindavík town)

I am sorry for lack of updates in recent days. I have been moving and taking up from boxes and that stuff takes time and energy. I have now temporarily fixed the geophone in Hvammstangi, Iceland and that is now updating again. The geophone website can be found here.

Overview of the Reykjanes volcano activity in recent days

In general there has not been a lot of change in activity in Reykjanes volcano. Earthquake activity has most stopped north-east of Gridavík town when the inflation in that area mostly stopped and a little time of deflation started and stopped at 55mm based on recent GPS measurements. Earthquake activity is ongoing. There seems to be a pattern of larger earthquakes happening in the western part of the activity in similar pattern as was the case in the eastern part of the active area (Grindavík town). Largest earthquakes on Wednesday had a magnitude of Mw3,4. There is a risk of stronger earthquakes in this area.


The earthquake activity on Reykjanes volcano as of the writing of this article. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This information might go outdated quickly if something happens in this area. Earthquake activity might be increasing again with Grindavík town but that is unclear at the writing of this article.

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Increased earthquake activity in Reykjanes volcano

Today (17. February 2020) there has been a increased earthquake activity in the volcano called Reykjanes that is west of Þorbjörn mountain close to Grindavík town. Most of this earthquake activity is small with largest earthquakes having magnitude of Mw2,8. Over 160 earthquakes have happened today. Earthquake activity is ongoing so this numbers are going to change quickly.


The earthquake activity today. Reykjanes volcano is located to the far west on this image. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Inflation continues in this area without a change and has now reached more than 60mm close to Þorbjörn mountain area. I don’t know for sure how much inflation has now taken place in this area.

Pictures of the area with the earthquakes

Today (17. February 2020) I did go to this active area to take few pictures. I didn’t get many pictures because the weather was cold and windy. All pictures are taken by me.


The Reykjanes and the Atlantic ocean. Copyright Jón Frímann Jónsson


The rock cliff of the coastline. Copyright Jón Frímann Jónsson


Eldey island at a distance. Copyright Jón Frímann Jónsson


Gunnuhver hot spring. It makes steam. Copyright Jón Frímann Jónsson

More pictures and a video can be found on my Instagram here.

Donations

Please remember to support my work. The second half of February is going to be really broke for me because of moving back to Iceland and other low income related problems. Just donate if you can do so. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Earthquake activity starts in Reykjanes volcano (west of Grindavík town)

Yesterday (14. February 2020) an earthquake with a magnitude of Mw3,1 took place west of Grindavík town. This is just one of many earthquakes this is area as earthquake activity is now continuous and shows no sign of stopping. There has also been increase in earthquake activity in the volcano named Reykjanes (far west of Grindavík town). Þorbjörn mountain is on a top of a different volcano. It seems that both volcanoes in this area are getting active and that is not a good thing.


Earthquake activity in this area. Notice all earthquakes have the direction south-west to north-east. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This situation is getting more complicated and the rate of inflation has slowed a little in recent days while there has been increase in earthquake activity at the same time. The increase in activity in the most west volcano (Reykjanes volcano) makes the situation more dangerous as an eruption the western volcano are going to happen mostly out in the ocean and that is going to result in a volcano ash cloud for a longer or short time period.

What has now started is going to take months since it did not go the quick route with this inflation and magma activity.

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Earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano 15. February 2020

Today (15. February 2020) a magnitude Mw3,6 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. There has not been any earthquake activity in this area since this earthquake took place.


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

This earthquake shows that Bárðarbunga volcano is slowly inflating again after the eruption in Holuhraun 2014 to 2015.

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Earthquake with magnitude Mw3,1 north-west of Grindavík town

Today (11th February 2020) an earthquake with magnitude Mw3,1 took place north-west of Grindavík town in the volcano of Reykjanes. A second earthquake with magnitude Mw2,6 also took place at the same location.


Current earthquake activity around Grindavík town (Þorbjörn Mountain). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake activity in this area remains the same and is mostly minor earthquakes and that is not a surprise for me. This earthquake activity is in a new area following this magma intrusion and inflation in this area.

Article in wrong place

I did discover that an Icelandic earthquake article had found its way to this website. I don’t know how I got the two websites mixed up. But I have now corrected this and it is on the correct website.

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Earthquake activity update for 4th February 2020 for Reykjanes volcano

Today (4th February 2020) there has not been a huge change in activity in Reykjanes volcano. Today’s earthquake activity has only been minor earthquakes and around 100 have happened today. There is no change in harmonic tremor on nearby SIL stations so magma is not moving towards the crust. Current inflation is around 55mm to 60mm. The only noticeable change in last few hours is that area of earthquake activity seems to be pushing it self a little more north-east. There has not been any change in the south-west part of the active area.


Earthquake activity in the Reykjanes volcano today (4th of February 2020). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There is a possibility that this is going to be a long process before an eruption happens. It is a long time since an eruption last took place (but no time at all in geological time scale) in this area. It also takes the magma a while to get to the pressure levels needed for an eruption and at current amount of magma it might not be enough to start an eruption in this area.

While there is no major change between days or earthquake activity I am going to have fewer updates since too many articles about the same thing is not good and I know this from experience when Bárðarbunga volcano erupted in 2014 to 2015.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations if you can. I am also seeing that February is going to be a annoying broke month for me. Donations help me to keep this website updated and to keep an watch for what is happening in Icelandic geology. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Moving back to Iceland

I move back to Iceland next week. That might result in limited updates the days that I am moving (14th to 18th of February) if something happens on the Reykjanes peninsula in that time. I’ll try to update best I can during this time. Normal updates start soon as I get all my belongings back from transport by the start of March. At the same time I’ll fix errors with my geophone so I can start recording earthquakes again and provide updates of earthquake activity in Iceland in more details.

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Earthquake update for Grindavík town (Þorbjörn) on 3rd February 2020

Yesterday (2nd February 2020) a magnitude Mw3,3 earthquake took place north of Grindavík town at 19:04 UTC. It was felt in Grindavík and nearby area as all earthquakes of this magnitude. Today (3rd February 2020) the day has mostly been quiet and there have only been minor earthquakes in the Þorbjörn mountain area and the area close to Grindavík town. The volcano that is now active is called Reykjanes and this is the second volcano of two in this system. The first volcano is mostly under the ocean and is possibly active but exact status remains unknown. Since around 10:00 UTC there have been small earthquake activity, since around 18:00 UTC earthquake activity has started to increase again and is ongoing as the writing of this article. Inflation is now at 50mm to 55mm.


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


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

There doesn’t seems to be any change in activity since this started on 21st of January 2020. Earthquake activity is going to continue until this inflation stops or an eruption happens. I don’t know what is going to happen with this.

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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.

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