Volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland
This is a short update at 14:41 UTC.
This is about volcanoes Reykjanes and Krýsuvík.
According to new pictures from Icelandic Coast Guard. Steam has been seen from the area that had the strongest earthquakes this morning. This seems to be in a area that did not have an earlier any steam activity, this however depends a confirmation.
Icelandic News about the steam activity that has been detected.
Hvítir gufustrókar sjást á svæðinu (mbl.is, Icelandic, Pictures)
Today (24-October-2020) I noticed that there has been since yesterday (23-October-2020) a swarm of small earthquakes on what appears to be a west to east fault on the Reykjanes peninsula in the Reykjanes volcano. All of this earthquake activity is mostly just small earthquakes that don’t appear on the automatic map on Icelandic Met Office website. This earthquake activity only appears after a manual review that Icelandic Met Office has do. The total length of the fault that is in west to east direction seems to be 20 km to 30 km, it is difficult to be sure at the writing of this article.
The earthquake activity on the Reykjanes peninusla in the Reykjanes volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
There are more faults at work in this. One or two fault are in mostly north-south direction and one fault is at southwest to northeast direction. There is also some cluster earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano but it doesn’t seem to have formed any fault like direction as of writing of this article. This changes seems to be supported by movement on the automatic GPS data from this area that can be viewed here (GPS time series for Reykjanes). It is difficult to be sure what happens next in this. There is now a storm passing over Iceland and that prevents detection and recording of the smallest earthquakes on the Reykjanes peninsula. The weather forecast for next week doesn’t look so good today (Saturday 24-October-2020).
It is a fact that not every eruption requires a big and strong earthquake swarm to start. I don’t know if that is true for Reykjanes volcano.
This is a short update.
Reports from yesterday (22-October-2020) on Stöð 2 (Channel 2) report that there is a strong smell of Sulfur dioxide from Grænavatn lake. Some increase in one hots spring in Krýsuvík volcano has been reported. That might because of change in water pathways in the crust because of the earthquake on 20-October-2020. New cracks have also formed and the earthquake caused small landslides on the coastline closest to the earthquake. The cracks in the ground are dangerous and people should not go to the coastline in this area of Iceland now. A new earthquake can happen at any time without warning.
Automatic GPS data is suggesting that in Krýsuvík volcano there has been a fast inflation of magma. I don’t think this is displacement because of the earthquake based on other nearby GPS stations.
Icelandic News
Brún Krýsuvíkurbjargs sprungin og varasöm eftir jarðskjálftana (Stöð 2/Vísir.is, pictures, video)
Since yesterday (20-October-2020) the earthquake activity on the Reykjanes peninsula in the volcano Reykjanes or Krýsuvík volcano has been slowly getting down after the Mw5,6 earthquake. There have been at the writing of this article 30 earthquakes with magnitude that are larger than Mw3,0 in this area, some of those earthquakes have been felt in nearby populated areas.
The earthquake activity slightly more than 1 day later on the Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
At the writing of this article the number of detected earthquakes in this swarm is getting close to 2000 earthquakes. The risk of stronger earthquake both west and east of the Mw5,6 earthquake that took place yesterday. Strongest possible earthquake in this part of Iceland can reach magnitude Mw6,5 to Mw6,7 depending on location and that is only east of current earthquake activity in Brennisteinsfjöll volcano area.
According to the news, the first injury because of the Mw5,6 earthquake has been reported along with damage to a viewing place in the mountain close the location of the earthquake yesterday.
Rotaðist þegar jörðin kipptist undan (mbl.is, pictures, Icelandic)
I am going to post updates soon as possible if anything more happens in this activity on Reykjanes peninsula. At the writing of this article there has not been any sign of magma movement or any sign that an eruption has taken place in this area.
Today (20-October-2020) at 13:43 UTC large earthquake with early magnitude of Mw5,5 took place close to Kleifarvatn lake in Krýsuvík volcano. I’ll write a second article with more details about this earthquake later today. This earthquake was felt in Reykjavík and over wide area of south Iceland.
Since 15-October-2020 there has been a slow increase in small earthquakes in Reykjanes and Krýsuvík volcanoes. This earthquake activity has been followed by changes in GPS location. The GPS data can be viewed at Reykjanes CGPS website. All the earthquakes at the writing of this article are small in magnitude. Last few weeks have been quiet in Reykjanes and Krýsuvík volcanoes and that is normal for this type of volcanoes.
The earthquake activity in the volcanoes Reykjanes and Krýsuvík. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
It is not possible to know how this is going to develop since what happens depends on the amount of magma moving and what that does. It is unclear if this is inflation or deflation event taking place. It might take few days to see what that is.
On Saturday 12th September 2020 an earthquake swarm started in Krýsuvík volcano. This earthquake swarm did only go on for few hours before it stopped for now.
Earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano. Image used with permission and copyright of image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Largest earthquake in this swarm had magnitude Mw3,0 and all other earthquakes where smaller. The magnitude Mw3,0 earthquake was felt in Reykjavík.
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Yesterday (7-September-2020) an earthquake swarm took place in Krýsuvík volcano early morning. The largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw3,3 and the second largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw2,8. Other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.
The earthquake swarm in Krýsuvík volcano. Image used with permission and copyright belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
This earthquake activity is part of the inflation in volcanoes in the volcanoes in this area because of influx of magma at 3 km to 8 km depth. While no eruption has not yet happened that is the most likely outcome of all of this activity. When this enters the eruption phase is something that cannot be predicted.
Yesterday (29-August-2020) an ongoing earthquake swarm in Krýsuvík volcano or in the Reykjanes volcano increased. I am unclear what volcano system is responsible for this earthquake activity. It might be both volcanoes and if that is case it complicates matter.
The earthquake activity yesterday close to Krýsuvík or in Krýsuvík volcano. Used with permission and copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw3,6 at 19:06 UTC and the second largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,4 at 16:23 UTC. Two earthquakes with magnitude MW3,0 also took place. The strongest earthquakes where felt in Reykjavík and other nearby towns. This earthquake activity is part of the activity that started in January in Reykjanes volcano and has been ongoing since then. Its has moved a little east in recent months and I am unclear on why that is exactly. There are no clear signs that magma is moving at the writing of this article to the surface.
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Latest news from Icelandic Met Office is that more than 6000 earthquakes have been recorded since start of January 2020 in the Reykjanes volcano and this is the most earthquake activity recorded in this area since start of digital earthquake records in 1991. Three dyke intrusion have been identified by Icelandic Met Office and it is my view that the fourth (and fifth?) might be out in the ocean close to Eldey island, due to no GPS measurements being available out in the ocean any dyke intrusion at that location is going to go undetected for a while.
The earthquake activity north of Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
In recent days there have been two earthquakes with magnitude Mw3,0 and Mw3,1. This earthquake activity is going to continue in this area. Inflation as measured so far has reached 60mm to 70mm. Inflation is taking place over a large area and this has started opening up old fissures and changing the pressure and strain in the crust in this area. Resulting in earthquakes as faults move because of the inflation.
Icelandic Met Office press releases
More research is needed to decipher the on-going activity at the Reykjanes Peninsula as a whole
Vísbendingar um nýtt kvikuinnskot á Reykjanesi (Icelandic, picture)
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