The quiet time did not last long. But it appears that a new earthquake swarm has started in Krýsuvík volcano. So far this earthquake swarm is just a minor one. But it is hard to know how this develops in the next hours. But it is worth keeping a eye on how this earthquake swarm is going to develop. This earthquake swarm has been in ongoing since 13:13 UTC today (10. Mars 2011), but this is a slow earthquake swarm and does not have had many earthquakes over the past few hours.
Quiet time in Iceland once again
While everyone is watching the eruption in Hawaii. Iceland earthquake activity both in volcanoes and on the fracture zones is taking a break.
So while Iceland is taking a break I am going to write about volcanoes that are never in the news. Not in Iceland and not in the international press. They are not in the news because they are quiet and have been for some time now.
I am going to start tomorrow (hopefully) with a volcano called Snæfellsjökull (wiki here) (if you did think Eyjafjallajökull volcano was hard to say, just try this one).
Earthquake activity increases again in Krýsuvík volcano
It appears that Krýsuvík volcano earthquake activity is increasing again. This time around it appears that the earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano has moved more to the west then last weeks earthquake activity.
The biggest earthquake so far is a ML2.1 earthquake with the depth of 6.9 according to automatic data on Icelandic Met Office web page.
Picture is from Icelandic Met Office web site. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
The new earthquake area in Krýsuvík volcano. It is more to the west then the earthquake area that was making earthquakes last week. Activity appears to be picking up slowly. But it is hard to know how this develops over the next few hours or days.
Quiet time in Iceland at the moment
Currently everything is quiet in Iceland. There is little earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano but still ongoing at really slow rate however. Nothing is going on in the volcanoes in Vatnajökull. The TFZ fracture zone is also quiet and has been for some time now. So far only few earthquakes have taken place in TFZ in the last week. But no earthquake swarms have taken place there in a long time now.
In general the activity in Iceland is really quiet. While everything is quiet in Iceland, there is a eruption ongoing in Hawaii. Please see Erik blog for more details.
Something odd is going on at Krýsuvík volcano [speculation]
Please note! What goes below here are speculations based on what I am observing. Nothing might happen, but then again something might happen. We just have to wait and see what happens when it comes down to it.
I have been observing a slight change in the lower frequency band (0.5 – 1 Hz) at Krýsuvík SIL station. This change reminds me of a harmonic tremor of short. But it is not strong enough to appear clearly on Krýsuvík SIL station. But that SIL station is directly on top of Krýsuvík volcano. There have not been a lot of earthquake following this change in the lower frequency bands at Krýsuvík SIL station.
Picture from Icelandic Met Office web site. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Met Office. This plot was saved at 02:11 UTC on the 05.03.2011. The changes can be seen on 0.5 – 1Hz close to the end.
I am not sure what is going on. But there might be a small chance that this is a magma that is on the move. The second option might also be that a new hydrothermal area did appear close to the Krýsuvík SIL station. If this is magma, then a volcano eruption in the area is not far off (days, weeks, months?). But only time is going to tell for sure what is happening.
Other note: The activity in north Iceland and in the highlands are frost quakes. But it is extremely cold in this area of Iceland at the moment. More frost quakes can appear on IMO maps in the next few hours.
UK government failed preparing for a volcano ash threat from Iceland
According to a news article in The Independent today. It appears that UK government was unprepared for a volcano eruption in Iceland that could send ash cloud in the direction of UK. Like that did happen in Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption in the year 2010. But according to the same news the UK government dedicated to drop such plans from there risk assessments and planning in the year 2009. A whole year before the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano took place.
This was most likely also the case in other countries in Europe where the ash cloud did come as a surprise to governments across Europe and they did appear to be unprepared for it when it halted all flights in Europe for almost a week.
News about this.
Government failed to act on volcanic ash threat, say MPs (The Independent)
Emergency plans ‘need scientists’ (BBC News)
The Icelandic news respective. Use Google Translate and expect world of mystery to happen.
Voru óviðbúin íslensku eldgosi (mbl.is)
Eyjafjallajökull: Bretar brugðust (Rúv.is)
Earthquake activity continues in Krýsuvík volcano [updated]
Early morning today (2. March 2011) there was a spike of earthquakes in Krýsuvík volcano. This earthquake swarm took place west of Kleifarvatn lake as the main center of the activity has been for the past two years. This type of activity can be expected in Krýsuvík volcano in the coming weeks in my opinion. Both long earthquake swarms and short ones, like the one that did happen early morning today.
The Icelandic Met Office has released a picture showing the earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano from the year 2004. Along with accumulated strain from those earthquakes and other useful data.
Picture is from Icelandic Met Office web page. The Icelandic Met Office owns the copyright to this picture.
Frame 1: Monthly number of earthquakes.
Frame 3: Total number of earthquakes. Second line: Collected strain from earthquakes.
Frame 4: Depth of earthquakes.
Here is a picture of the location of the last week earthquake swarm in Krýsuvík volcano. This is depth view. This view does not contain all the earthquakes that took place in Krýsuvík volcano.
Picture is from Icelandic Met Office web page. The Icelandic Met Office owns the copyright to this picture. Note: Dýpi = Depth
Update: Here is a updated earthquake plot of Krýsuvík volcano. This is the location of the earthquakes in Krýsuvík volcano along with the depth of the earthquakes. This is the earthquakes in Krýsuvík volcano from 25.02.2011 to 02.03.2011. This picture is from here.
Picture is from Icelandic Met Office web page. The Icelandic Met Office owns the copyright to this picture. Note: Dýpi = Depth
A overview picture of the activity in Krýsuvík volcano shows well the fissure direction the earthquakes line them self up on. The direction is almost north-south one. This map does not contain all the earthquake that where recorded in Krýsuvík volcano in last week.
Picture is from Icelandic Met Office web page. The Icelandic Met Office owns the copyright to this picture.
The pictures are from the Icelandic Met Office web site that contains weekly overview of earthquake activity in Iceland. Click on the pictures to get high resolution of them.
I am expecting more earthquake activity in Krýsvík volcano area. But at the moment it is a bit hard to know for sure if this is going to result in a volcano eruption. But in my opinion that is going to be the result in the end. But currently it is all a question about when, rather then if in my opinion.
Update: There was a earthquake with the size ML3.6 at 17:56 UTC according to the automatic data from Icelandic Met Office. This earthquake was a more south the earthquakes that happened last weekend. This can clearly been seen on the map data that Icelandic Met Office has released (see above). The depth of this earthquake was 3.6 km.
Press disclaimer: I am not a geologist and my opinion is not the one of a expert in this matter.
News about the earthquake swarm in Krýsuvík volcano this morning. Use Google Translate carefully.
Enn skelfur jörð í Krýsuvík (Vísir.is)
Blog post updated at 20:25 CET on 02.03.2011. A new picture is added and information about the newest earthquake swarm is added.
Blog post updated at 20:36 CET on 02.03.2011.
Earthquake activity continues in Krýsuvík volcano, but at slower rate
At the current time earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano has slowed (when this is written) considerable down. But the earthquake activity has not stopped, even if it has slowed down considerable down. What is also interesting are the news about increased hydrothermal activity in Iceland (see older blog post for information on that). This lack of quiet time is interesting and gives the clues into that direction that inflow of magma might be constant. But might have slowed down as the earthquake swarm did slow down. It is interesting to notice that slowdown and few earthquakes where also common in the weeks before the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano.
This activity in Krýsuvík volcano has gone out in the Icelandic media fast. But there have been the common questions if this area is about have a eruption. But at current time the general agreement is that nobody is sure about it.
Off-topic! I want to thank all the people how have supported me with donations. But I did not expect this huge response that I got. Thanks so much for the support. It won’t be forgotten in the future.
Hydrothermal areas grow larger in Krýsuvík volcano due to earthquake swarm
According to news from Rúv. It appears that hydrothermal areas in Krýsuvík volcano are growing larger following the earthquake swarm in the past few days. This same news also tells that the number of cracks in the ground have grown in numbers following the earthquake swarm, this allows more water to get into contact with the hot rock and that warms the water up fast.
Currently the earthquake swarm in Krýsuvík volcano is quieting down. But that might chance without any warning at all. But won’t be surprised if the earthquake swarm stops completely.
In my personal opinion this is a clue that magma might be pushing it’s way up the Krýsuvík volcano system. I get the clue from the increased hydrothermal activity in the this area. But at the moment it is too early to know for sure if this is going to result in a eruption or not. But if this activity continues as it has then a eruption is going to happen one day. That can also chance without any warning at all. But this type activity means that status of the volcano it self is constantly changing and makes it unpredictable. How eruptions in Krýsuvík volcano behave is also a big unknown.
Update: According to Rúv evening news (Icelandic, video) there appears to be magma related aspect to this weekend earthquake swarm in Krýsuvík volcano. According to Dr. Páll Einarsson geologist at Iceland University it appears that magma is the source (as stated above) of this weekend earthquake swarm. This news also says that there has been a lot of earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano over the past two years and this earthquake activity is not only tectonic as is common in this area. The news at Rúv also says that geologist in Iceland are wondering and unsure what exactly is going on at Krýsuvík volcano at the moment. But the reported inflation in the news at Rúv is sad to be 10 cm (I do not know if that number is accurate or not). But it clearly a reason now to watch the activity at Krýsuvík volcano. If there is a eruption in Krýsuvík volcano it is going to be a harmless (as it can be) lava eruption. Unless it is under water, but then there is a Surtsey type of eruption for as long there is water getting into the crater. So don’t expect aircraft problem if there is a eruption in Krýsuvík volcano.
Thanks to The other lurker for the news tip.
News about this. Use Google Translate at own risk.
Jarðhitasvæðið hefur stækkað (Rúv.is)
Blog post updated at 21:15 CET on 28.02.2011. News item about Krýsuvík volcano from Rúv added.
Overview of the earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano
Today has been interesting in regards to the earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano. But today there have been well over 800 earthquakes (far as I can tell). Over the past few hours the earthquake activity has slowed down a little bit. But far as I can tell it is far from over and might start to pick up again at any time and with no warning at all.
Icelandic Met Office released a picture of the earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano so far for the year 2011.
Black circles are earthquakes up to 26th of February. Red ones are earthquakes on the 27th February. Picture is from Icelandic Met Office web site and copyright of this picture belongs to them.
Here is a picture of the location of the earthquakes so far.
Picture is from Icelandic Met Office web site and copyright of this picture belongs to them.
Please note that this image does not have all the earthquakes that have been recorded in Krýsuvík volcano today.
More information about volcanoes in Reykjanes can be found here, in Icelandic.
Here is a picture, with fissure swarms and other things related to the four volcanoes that are on the Reykjanes Peninsula in Iceland.
Picture is from here. Copyright of this picture belongs to however owns it. Please note that I use this picture in a educational purpose on this web site. If there are any issues with the use of this picture. Please email me here: jonfr@8930a1.talbot.shared.1984.is
I expect that this earthquake activity is going to continue in the coming hours. But it is impossible to know when it stops.
Click on the pictures to see higher resolution of them.
Blog post updated at 04:12 CET on 28.02.2011. Title of this blog post is fixed.
Blot post updated at 13:40 CET on 28.02.2011. Spelling error fixed.