Volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland
Today (29-December-2021) at 14:46 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,6 (Icelandic Met Office) or magnitude of mb4,5 (EMSC website information here).
This earthquake activity is normal and is because of inflation that is now happening in Bárðarbunga volcano. Eruption is not going to happen now. It might be few more years or few more decades until that happens.
This information is going to get outdated quickly.
There is now a constant earthquake swarm activity in Fagradalsfjall mountain, part of the Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system. More than a dozen of earthquakes have been larger than magnitude 4,0 and it doesn’t look like this earthquake activity is doing to stop soon. Largest earthquakes in last few hours had a magnitude of Mw4,8 and Mw4,5. The earthquake north of Grindavík town appears to be a tension breaking earthquakes because of magma inflation in Fagradalsfjall mountain.
This earthquake swarm is close to Grindavík town, this is a similar situation that happened earlier in the year 2021. Just before the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain. This earthquake activity is going to continue to grow until an eruption starts. This earthquake activity also happens in a wave, resulting in it lower earthquake activity between powerful earthquake activity. I am expecting more strong earthquakes in next few days, unless an eruption starts in Fagradalsfjall mountain or nearby area.
Information here are going to get outdated quickly.
The earthquake activity in Fagradalsfjall mountain continued on 22-December and on 23-December-2021. Largest earthquake in last few hours had a magnitude of Mw4,9 and was felt over a wide area. No property damage has yet happened because of this earthquake activity so far.
There are now three centres where the earthquake activity is happening. The first one is north of the large crater, the second one is under the main crater and the third one is in Nátthagakrika (about south-west of the large crater). This is the area where people used to walk up the eruption on walking paths A and B.
This earthquake activity is not going to stop until an eruption starts. When that happens is not possible to know. If a new crater opens up that is going to result in ever growing and stronger earthquakes. If the crater that is already in place starts erupting again, that is going to result in some earthquake activity. What is known is that the magma is going to go the path of least resistance, whatever that path might be. At the writing of this article, over 6000 earthquakes have been recorded and around 50 to 100 of them have been larger than magnitude 3,0.
This information is going to get outdated soon. Since the situation is changing quickly.
It is possible that a new eruption is about to start in Fagradalsfjall mountain in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano. This earthquake activity started around 17:00 UTC on 21-December-2021 and has been growing since then. At the writing of this article the largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,3. Over 150 earthquakes have been recorded at the writing of this article. This earthquake activity doesn’t seems to be slowing down.
The situation is changing quickly. As of writing this article a new eruption has not yet started but that might only be question of hours until an eruption starts. This might happen during the night or sometimes tomorrow during the day. There is not any way to know that for sure at the writing of this article.
I’ll post update late tomorrow if this changes and a eruption starts. Since I’ll be busy during the day the late article can’t be helped.
Today (8-December-2021) an earthquake swarm started north of Grindavík town. Largest earthquake in this swarm so far had a magnitude of Mw3,1 at 10:44. The news doesn’t say if this earthquake was felt in Grindavík. Earthquake activity has been going up recent weeks since the eruption in Fagradalsfjall ended on 18th September 2021. A swarm of smaller earthquake activity is currently ongoing in this same area at the writing of this article.
Continue reading “Earthquake swarm north of Grindavík town”
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”
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.
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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At 03:17 UTC on 26-November-2021 an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,5 took place in Vatnafjöll mountains that are south of Hekla volcano. This earthquake was not felt or it was not reported to Icelandic Met Office.
Continue reading “Earthquake in Vatnafjöll mountain during the night”
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.
Yesterday (20-November-2021) an large earthquake swarm started in Reykjanes volcano. This earthquake swarm is rather large, with 217 earthquakes recorded so far. Largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,5 but other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude.
Continue reading “Large earthquake swarm in Reykjanes volcano”