Volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland
Today (29-September 2024) at 17:40 and 17:43 UTC two earthquakes with magnitude of Mw3,6 and Mw3,3 took place in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano. This earthquakes where felt in Reykjavík and nearby towns.
Earthquake activity has been increasing in last few weeks in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano. The reason for this increase is unclear at this moment.
Yesterday (25. August 2024) at 23:56 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,6 took place in Krýsuvík volcano. This earthquake was felt in Reykjavík area and other nearby towns.
This is a normal tectonic earthquake. I don’t know if it is a response to stress changes because of Svartsengi volcano cycle of inflation and deflation. This earthquake swarm seems to be over for now.
Today (6. May 2024) at 17:43 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,3 took place in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano. This earthquake was felt in Reykjavík area.
At the writing of this article. This earthquake swarm is ongoing. It however has not constant and only has few earthquakes every once in a while at the writing of this article. This earthquake activity might increase, because it might be connected to stress changes in the crust because of inflation in Svartsengi volcano.
I am sorry how late I am with this article. I was busy yesterday (13. April 2024) and I was unable to write this article at that time.
Yesterday (13. April 2024) at 10:02 UTC an earthquake with a magnitude of Mw3,3 took place just south of Kleifarvatn lake in Krýsuvík volcano. This earthquake swarm seems to have happened on a fault that is mostly known for earthquakes that are connected to tectonic movements in the area. This is not a fault that is connected to volcano related activity, as those are more in south-west and north-east direction. Faults that are connected to crust movement in this area have the direction north-south as seems to be the case this time. It complicates matter that magma movement deep in the crust can result in earthquakes happening on both type of faults. As I suspect what happened here.
Krýsuvík volcano is not ready to start an eruption, best I can see. It is also missing a lot more earthquake activity before an eruption starts. But the signs that it is moving in that direction have started to appear. How long the wait is going to be when a eruption starts is impossible to know.
Today (26. February 2024) at 18:27 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,4 took place in Krýsuvík volcano. This earthquake was felt, but I don’t know over how wide area.
This earthquake activity might be connected to the inflation that is happening in Svartsengi volcano, as it changes the stress values in the crust over a large area. More earthquake activity is possible in this area.
Today (03. January 2024) at 10:50 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,3 took place in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano. A second earthquake with the magnitude of Mw3,5 took place at 10:54 UTC. Both earthquakes where felt in Reykjavík and up to Akranes and along the south Iceland (Selfoss, Hveragerði). A small earthquake swarm took place following the larger earthquakes.
This earthquake swarm seems to be somewhat ongoing, but has slowed down or almost stopped otherwise.
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During the night of 25. November 2023 at 03:42 UTC an earthquake swarm took place just west of Kleifarvatn lake. Largest of this earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,0. This earthquake swarm is a tension breaking earthquake swarm connected to the inflation in Svartsengi and the formation of the dyke under Grindavík. There’s going to be a lot of this type of earthquakes all over Reykjanes peninsula and on Reykjanes ridge in next few months.
There are no reports of this earthquake having been felt in Reykjavík.
This is a short update on the activity in Grindavík on 19. November 2023. Information here might go out of date without warning. This article is written at 22:28 UTC.
Krýsuvík earthquake
This morning an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,7 took place in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano. This earthquake was felt in Reykjavík area. This earthquake happens because of all the displacement that is now happening next to Grindavík town.
Daily update
This is also an update for 18. November 2023. I was trying to get a little time off from writing.
It is impossible to know when this area is going to erupt. It can take up to three to four weeks to happen. It might be a shorter time period, it is impossible to know what happens when it comes to volcanoes and dyke activity.
If anything happens. I’ll post an update quickly as I can.
Today (5. October 2023) two earthquakes took place that are connected to Fagradalsfjall volcano inflation. The first one was a magnitude Mw3,3 in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano. This was a tectonic earthquake because of inflation in Fagradalsfjall volcano. The second earthquake was north of Grindavík town and had a magnitude of Mw3,2. That earthquake was part of an earthquake swarm and dyke intrusion in that area. That area north of Grindavík town has been seeing a lot of earthquake activity in recent weeks, all connected to dyke intrusion activity.
The increase in activity in recent weeks strongly suggests that an eruption is going to happen soon. When is impossible to know and earthquake activity is too low at the writing of this article for an eruption to be happening today. This might change without warning, as has happened in the last two eruptions. There is a possibility that something has changed after the last eruption, but the answer to that question won’t happen until next eruption. All that can be done now is to wait and see what happens.
Yesterday (26. September 2023) at 18:42 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,3 took place in Kleifarvatn lake. Few smaller earthquakes followed this earthquake, both before and after.
This earthquake is possibly because of an inflation in Fagradalsfjall volcano that is to the west of this location. There is no sign that an eruption is about to start at this location in Kleifarvatn lake.