Volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland
During the night (26-January-2019) a small earthquake swarm took place in Krýsuvík volcano. Largest earthquake had a magnitude of 3,0. Other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude.
Earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
This earthquake swarm seems to be over and only lasted for less than two hours.
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Today (28-October-2018) at 10:52 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of 3,0 took place in Krýsuvík volcano and since then there has been a minor earthquake swarm happening at that location. This earthquake swarm is not part of the volcano, this looks like a tectonic earthquake swarm due to rift zone activity in this area.
The earthquake swarm in Krýsuvík volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
The strongest earthquake was felt in Hafnarfjörður, Reykjavík and other nearby towns. At the moment it is unclear if this earthquake swarm is just starting or if it has already ended. It is possible that more earthquakes are going to happen in this area without warning.
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Today (31-July-2018) an earthquake swarm started in Krýsuvík volcano. Currently this earthquake swarm is ongoing. Largest earthquake so far has the magnitude of 3,1. Other earthquakes are smaller in magnitude.
Earthquake swarm in Krýsuvík volcano (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
This earthquake swarm looks tectonic in nature and nothing suggests that magma has anything to do with it. It is impossible to know how this earthquake swarm develops as the time passes.
During the night of 15-July-2017 a magnitude 3,1 earthquake took place in Krýsuvík volcano. This earthquake does not seems to be connected to the volcano it self, rather the tectonic forces that are common in the Reykjanes rift zone that runs in this area with many fault lines.
Activity in Krýsuvík volcano for the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Other earthquakes that happened in this swarm had smaller magnitude. It also appears that this earthquake swarm is over. Earthquake swarm like this one are common in this area, it has been quiet for past few months and that is perfectly normal too, since last major earthquake activity happened in Krýsuvík in the year 2000 (several magnitude 5,0 earthquakes) and several magnitude 4,0 earthquakes in the year 2008 following major earthquake activity in SISZ.
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Yesterday (08-June-2017) and today (09-June-2017) there has been a earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano. This earthquake activity doesn’t appear to be connected to the volcano, rather this is a normal rifting valley earthquake activity taking place.
The earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Largest earthquake in this swarm so far had the magnitude of 2,6 and the second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 2,0. All other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude. The earthquake activity continues but has slowed down considerably from yesterday.
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Over the past few days there have been few minor earthquake swarms taking place in Iceland. None of the earthquake swarms have been large, all of them have been minor and no earthquake did reach the magnitude of 3,0 or larger.
The earthquake swarms in TFZ, Reykjanes peninsula and Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
Most of the earthquake activity that has been taking place has been happening in Bárðarbunga volcano, minor earthquake activity has been ongoing in the volcano and fissure since end of the eruption in February-2015. A swarm of small earthquakes took place on TFZ, none of those earthquakes reached magnitude 2,0. Most depth in this swarm was around 22 km, so magma might have been involved, this area is a rift valley. I don’t know of any documented eruption at this location, that does not mean it might not have happened. Minor earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes peninsula, one earthquake reached magnitude 2,8 with other earthquakes having smaller magnitude . The earthquake swarm took place in the volcano system of Krýsuvík. This earthquake swarm appears tectonic in nature rather then volcanic.
There has also been a minor earthquake swarm in Torfajökull volcano, it has been on the none-volcanic area between Torfajökull and Katla volcano. It’s unclear why this is happening, there is a chance this is a earthquake swarm in Katla volcano on the edge of the volcano system, or this is a earthquake swarm on the edge of the Torfajökull volcano system. I don’t have my maps so I can’t check for it.
Other then this it has been quiet in Iceland this week and for the past few weeks, this quiet might continue for the next few weeks to months.
Article updated at 23:45 UTC.
Yesterday (29-May-2015) there was a strong earthquake swarm in Krýsuvík volcano. Largest earthquake had the magnitude of 4,0, a smaller magnitude 3,1 earthquake also took place.
Green star shows the location of the magnitude 3,1 and 4,0 earthquakes. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
Other earthquakes in this swarm where smaller, total of 97 earthquakes where recorded. Earthquakes swarms in this area are common, since the volcano has been inflating and deflating for the past few years. I don’t know if this earthquake swarm was related to such movements, since tectonic forces often create strong earthquake swarms in this area and along the Reykjanes peninsula and Reykjanes ridge.
The earthquakes as they appeared on my geophone in Heklubyggð. This image is under Creative Commons licence. Please see CC Licence page for more details.
On the geophone shut-down
There has been some discussion about me turning off the geophone network in Iceland. There is one station renaming in Heklubyggð and that station is going to continue to run for some time now (it doesn’t use the 3G network in Iceland). When it turns off I do not know. Besides 3G connection costs that have been going up in Iceland for the past few years, it has also become more expensive for me to fix the computers if they fail, along with 3G signal leak and other issues. It is also time consuming to run a remote network. I do help people if asked on what to buy in terms of hardware if they want to start there own geophone or seismometer. I don’t plan on stop recording earthquakes, I just plan on doing that just from my home once I am back in Denmark.
As for sensitivity of such hardware, it depends on what type of hardware is being used. Geophones are good for local earthquakes but more sensitive hardware is needed to record earthquakes at longer distance, like the magnitude 6,8 earthquake in Alaska this morning. It can be viewed here for the next few hours on long period seismometer (the top one and few others).
Today (31-March-2015) there has been a minor earthquake swarm in Krísuvík volcano. Total number of detected earthquakes was 27 so far.
The earthquake swarm in Krísuvík volcano today. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2,6 according to reviewed results from Icelandic Met Office. Other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude. This is just tectonic activity at the moment. There has been inflation and deflation taking place in Krísuvík volcano for past several years and such activity is known to start strong earthquake activity in both deflation and inflation stage. At the moment there is nothing suggesting there is an eruption imminent in Krísuvík volcano.
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Yesterday (30-October-2014) there was a minor earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes peninsula in Krýsuvík volcano. Around 30 earthquakes where recorded in this swarm.
The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Largest earthquakes in this swarm had the magnitude of 3,1 and 3,3 other earthquakes where smaller. This was tectonic only earthquake activity from the looks of it. I don’t know if more earthquakes are going to happen.
Yesterday (11-August-2014) a minor earthquake swarm took place in Krísuvík volcano. The largest earthquake in this minor earthquake swarm had the magnitude of 3,4 with the depth of 4,4 km. Only few minor earthquakes took place after the largest earthquake.
The earthquake swarm in Krísuvík volcano, the green star shows the location of the magnitude 3,4 earthquake. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.
There is a risk of more earthquake activity in this area. Since earthquake swarms are known to start with minor activity that slowly grows until it tops and then slowly drops over a period of days or weeks. It might not happen now, but this is a common pattern on the Reykjanes.