Category: Dyke intrusions

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New hot springs detected at Road 1 in Hveradalabrekka in Hengill volcano

The Icelandic Road administration did send out this news report today that new hot springs have been detected at Hveradalabrekka on Road 1 in Hengill volcano. This is an area that sees some heavy traffic. I can’t post pictures here because of copyright, but they can viewed in the news article below.

According to the Icelandic Road administration it seems that the area in question has been getting warmer for some time. According to them the current temperature around 86 degrees celsius. This is the area on a map from ja.is website.

The main road one as it is south of Reykjafell mountain in Hengill volcano. Also on this map is Þrenslahnjúkur and Hveradalir are marked in on the map.
The main road 1 on Hengill volcano. Close to the area that is now warming up. Screenshot of map from ja.is.

Next is to check why this is happening and if there is any risk the Road 1 in this area and if anything can be done if that’s the case. I am unclear on what is going on, since this area (I don’t think this one, but nearby) is known for hot spring activity. There has been some earthquake activity at this location in recent months and that is possibly connected to this new hot spring activity. On 9th of May this area had a Mw1,1 earthquake at the depth of 4 km. Over a time period of 130 days, the number of earthquakes in this area is not unusual for Hengill volcano or Reykjanes peninsula in general. This area of Road 1 might continue to get warmer over the next few months.

Vegagerðin news in Icelandic

Jarðhitavirkni undir Hringvegi (vegagerdin.is) – has pictures of the area.

Update

Rúv has published a news about this and has a video of the area where this new hot spring activity is happening. This is new because vegetation is in this area and is now dying off.

Allt að 100 gráðu hiti mælist við veginn (Rúv.is, Icelandic)

Update 2

Icelandic Road Administration web camera shows the new hot spring area. The web camera can be viewed here.

Article updated 12. May 2023 at 20:41 – Reykjavík time (+0 GMT)
Article updated 14. May 2023 at 13:01 – Reykjavík time (+0 GMT)

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Earthquake swarm in Þórðarhyrna volcano

Today (11. May 2023) there was a earthquake swarm in Þórðarhyrna volcano. This are small earthquakes, but their location and depth suggest that this is a dyke intrusion taking place at this location.

Earthquake swarm in south-west part of Þórðarhyrna volcano. This volcano is located in Vatnajökull glacier, just few km south of Grímsfjall volcano, is part of the Grímsfjall volcano fissure swarm. Time on image 11. May. 23 13:10.
Earthquake activity in Þórðarhyrna volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Þórðarhyrna volcano is part of Grímsfjall volcano fissure swarm, that connects to Laki eruption fissures. Last eruption in Þórðarhyrna volcano was in the year 1902 to 1904 and had the VEI=4 according to Global Volcanism Program report that can be read here.

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Earthquake swarm in Reykjanes volcano (out in the ocean)

During the night of 4. May 2023 an earthquake swarm took place in the Reykjanes volcano out in the ocean. This was not a large earthquake swarm. Largest earthquake recorded had a magnitude of Mw3,4. Other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.

Green star and a cluster of earthquakes on down and west part of this image. Showing the Reykjanes peninsula. Few other earthquakes are dotted on the map in other volcanoes on the Reykjanes peninsula.
Earthquake swarm in Reykjanes volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity suggests an dyke intrusion in this area. This is part of Reykjanes volcano, but that volcano is in part out in the ocean. The Reykjanes volcano has been having regular dyke intrusion in recent years without it resulting in an eruption. That is most likely what is going to happen now.

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Earthquake swarm north of Grindavík town, next to Blue Lagoon

This morning (25. April 2023) an earthquake swarm started north of Grindavík town, next to the Blue Lagoon. This earthquake swarm is ongoing at the writing of this article. If this is going to result in a eruption is impossible to know. The magma has reached the depth of 2 km and that is not good news if this continues to intensify. Large earthquakes do not need to happen before an eruption starts under the correct conditions in the curst and there has been a lot of dyke activity in Reykjanes volcano in last 3 years. Without that activity resulting in a eruption.

Red dots north of Grindavík town and next to the Blue lagoon on the map (the lagoon doesn't appear on the map). Time on map 25. Apr. 14:00.
Earthquake activity north of Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Eruption at this location would be bad, because of the tourist infrastructure next to this location that is the Blue Lagoon. Only thing that can be done now is to monitor the situation and see if it changes from what is currently happening.

It is possible to view the earthquake swarm in high resolution on Skjálfta-Lísa and other private websites that have similar maps.

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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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Small earthquake swarm in south part of Brennisteinsfjöll volcano

Today (13. April 2023) there has been a small earthquake swarm in south part of Brennisteinfjöll volcano. This location had an earthquake swarm few weeks ago at this same location. It also was small in magnitude. Depth of this earthquake swarm has now decreased from 7 km to around 3 km. At least that is what it seems, based on the current earthquake data.

Red dots in south of Brennisteinsfjöll volcano showing the minor earthquake activity now taking place in this volcano. Nearby volcano also have minor earthquake activity, shown in orange to red dots.
Earthquake activity in Brennisteinsfjöll volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity shows a sign of magma movement. It is my opinion that the magma is now pushing it self trough the crust at this location. That can take a while, up to several weeks before an eruption starts. I did see something similar happen before the Bárðarbunga volcano eruption in 2014. That process took good three months before the eruption and was marked by small earthquake swarm like this one. How long this is going to take is impossible to know, because what type of crust is at this location is not well understood (outside of types of rock it is made out of at the first top layers). This is in my view an earthquake activity that needs to be monitored, because of possible eruption risk at this location. This is directly north of a small lake south of the earthquake swarm. If an eruption happens and the lava flows into the lake, that might create a lot of problems.

This earthquake swarm can be viewed here in more details. The website is Skjálfta-Lísa and is only in Icelandic.

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Earthquake swarm in Brennisteinsfjöll volcano (Bláfjöll mountain)

Earlier this week, an swarm of earthquakes started in south of Brennisteinsfjöll volcano, also known as Bláfjöll mountain. This earthquake swarm started on a west to east fault north of a lake called Hlíðarvatn. This earthquake swarm has only been minor earthquakes, with magnitudes in the range of Mw0,0 and up to Mw2,3 but at the writing of this article, nothing above that magnitude. Over the week this earthquake swarm has evolved into a single area that seems to be circular, based on current earthquake activity. This strongly suggests that magma is the reason why this earthquake swarm is happening.

Red dots in south of Brennisteinsfjöll volcano. Showing the earthquake activity in that volcano. Red dots are also visible in Hengill volcano in a unrelated earthquake swarm.
Earthquake activity in Breinnisteinsfjöll volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Dots in different sized showing the earthquake swarm in Brennisteinsfjöll volcano. This is a image from Skjálfta-lísa website from Icelandic Met Office.
Earthquake as they appear on Skjálfta Lísa website from Icelandic Met Office. Screenshot from Icelandic Met Office website Skjálfta Lísa.
Google Earth image of the area where this earthquake swarm is taking place. It shows the road, the Hlíðarvatn lake and other feature in the landscape. Including a old lava flow the west of the current earthquake swarm. The landscape also seems to show older craters at this location, but those are weathered down to almost nothing.
Google Earth image of the area where the earthquake swarm is taking place. Picture is from Google Earth.

At the writing of this article, the earthquake activity is too small to start an eruption. Since this area is cold and the crust is too hard for the magma to flow freely inside it. Current depth of the earthquakes is around 5 to 7 km at the writing of this article and has not changed a lot during the week. While the Skjálfta Lísa image does not show this, it is possible that the earthquake activity has started to spread more east, compared to earlier in the week when this activity started. This earthquake actiivty might stop, as often happens in the early stages of a new eruption cycle in a volcano.

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Earthquake activity in western part of Katla volcano

This morning (11. March 2023) at 07:02 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,1 took place in western part of Katla volcano. This earthquake happened in Katla volcano caldera rim. The depth was 1,1 km. This was a single earthquake, at the writing of this article.

Green star in the western part of Katla volcano caldera. This is just a one star and one orange dot showing smaller earthquake slightly north of this earthquake.
Earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Since this earthquake there has not been any new earthquake activity in Katla volcano. I am not sure why that is, but it there’s a chance this earthquake activity might just be over. There has been a lot of frost quakes in last few hours, because of a cold weather happening in Iceland. With freezing going down to -20C in some areas.

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Earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

Today (9. March 2023) an earthquake swarm started in Katla volcano. This earthquake swarm is ongoing and information in this article can go outdated quickly. Largest earthquakes at the writing of this article have a magnitude of Mw3,3 and Mw3,4. A swarm of smaller earthquakes is ongoing.

Two green stars in Katla volcano askja in Mýrdalsjökull glacier. Along with many red dots that show smaller earthquakes in Katla volcano.
Earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is difficult to know for sure what is going on in Katla volcano. But this activity reminds me of what happened few years ago before an small eruption took place in Katla volcano. If that is going to happen now I don’t know. I’ll post information when I know more and if anything more happens in Katla volcano.

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Earthquake swarm north of Herðubreið mountain

Yesterday (5. March 2023) at 18:00 UTC an earthquake with magnitude Mw3,4 took place north of Herðubreið mountain. This is a small earthquake swarm and is part of an ongoing earthquake swarm in this area that has been going on since October 2022 (or in around that month).

Green star and red dots north of Herðubreið mountain, that is located north-east of Askja volcano. Smaller earthquakes in Askja volcano shown with blue and yellow dots.
Earthquake activity north of Herðubreið mountain. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Depth of this earthquake was only 4,2 km and earthquake activity in this area has been getting shallower with time. If this is magma, then there’s not a lot of it at this depth. Earthquake activity is small compared to the earthquake swarms that happen just before an eruption. It is clear that, if this is magma, it is not pushing its way up the surface at this point in time.