Category: Monitoring

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Deep earthquakes in Askja and Kverkfjöll volcanoes

This is a update for both Askja and Kverkfjöll volcanoes. Since they both had deep earthquakes today. None of this earthquakes where larger then magnitude 1.0. There depth was around 22 to 24 km inside the volcanoes them self.

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Earthquakes in Kverkfjöll and Askja volcanoes. There depth was around 22 to 25 km. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

GVP Kverkfjöll volcano profile. GVP Askja volcano profile.

It is impossible to know for sure what this means in terms of future activity. But this are both active volcanoes and should be treated as such.

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Magnitude 3.5 earthquake south of Langjökull glacier

Today at 17:24 UTC a magnitude 3.5 earthquake took place south of Langjökull glacier. This earthquake had pre-earthquakes with the magnitudes from 2.1 and up 2.8. There where also several smaller earthquakes at the same location. This earthquake did appear clearly on my geophones in south and north Iceland. My webicorders can be viewed here.

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Langjökull earthquake activity today. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This appears to be normal tectonic earthquake swarm that are common for this area. They are not related to any volcano activity at present time. But this area often has earthquake activity with it being connected to any volcano activity. The earthquake swarm is continuing when this blog post is published. This earthquake swarm might stop at any time, or pick up at any time without a warning. If that happens. I am going to write a new blog post about it soon as possible.

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Magnitude 4.4 earthquake north of Kolbeinsey Island

Today at 17:32 UTC there was a magnitude 4.4 earthquake north of Kolbeinsey Island. I do not know if this earthquake was tectonic or volcanic in nature. I do know that there where several aftershocks following this earthquake. Since I did register them on my geophone in north Iceland. The geophone web site can be viewed here. More information about the earthquake can be found here, on EMSC web page.

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Regional view of the area where the earthquake took place. Copyright of this image belongs to EMSC.

Icelandic Meteorological Office did also detected many of this earthquakes that took place there. But detection from this location is difficult due to distance from the SIL network.

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The earthquake swarm location according to Icelandic Meteorological Office. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

For now this is just a earthquake swarm and nothing else. Regardless of what happens later. Earthquake activity has been common in this area of the rift zone for several months now. I do not know why that is. The ocean depth in this area is around 3 to 4 km where it is the deepest. So if an eruption takes place there it is not going to be noticed due to the depth of the ocean.

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Deep earthquakes in Askja volcano

Today (26.03.2013) at 08:09 UTC there where three deep earthquakes in Askja volcano. The most depth of this earthquake swarm was 25.5 km. None of the earthquake had the magnitude above 2.5. The strongest earthquake had the magnitude 2.1 with the depth of 20.4 km

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Earthquakes in Askja volcano. Askja is located to the north of Vatnajökull glacier and the lake is round in shape on this map. Marked by the orange dots on it. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This activity is part of an progress that started in Askja volcano back in the year 2010. So far this has not lead to any eruption. But it has created some odd changes. Along one was that Askja lake was ice free last year (winter 2012). The reasons for that are still not known to me.

Blog post updated at 16:32 UTC on 26.03.2013.

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Uncertainty level declared on Hekla volcano

Uncertainty level has been declared on Hekla volcano due to strange earthquake activity in it for the past week or so. But in total of seven earthquakes where recorded in Hekla volcano at the depth of 11 to 12 km. This is highly unusual for Hekla volcano. People are advised against going up to Hekla volcano while uncertainty level is in force. It is also dangerous to be too close to Hekla volcano. Since if an eruption starts, it is going to start without any warning at all.

I am going to post updates on Hekla volcano as needed if anything happens. It is possible to watch activity live from Hekla volcano on my geophone page here. But I have a geophone located about 16 km away from Hekla volcano. List of web cameras that I know of are online and focused on Hekla volcano can be found here. Update 1: Web camera that is showing Hekla volcano (pictures) can also be found here.

News about this in English

Seismic activity in Mount Hekla (Rúv.is)

News about this in Icelandic

Ekki mikið um jarðskjálfta við Heklu (Rúv.is)
Óvenjuleg jarðskjálftahrina í Heklu (Rúv.is)
Engin bráðahætta á eldgosi (Rúv.is)
Jarðhræringar í Heklu: Óvissustig í gildi (Rúv.is)

Óvissustig vegna Heklu (mbl.is)
Engin sjáanleg merki um eldgos í aðsigi (mbl.is)
Hægt að fylgjast með Heklu (mbl.is)

Óvissustig vegna hugsanlegs goss í Heklu (Vísir.is)
Ferðamenn varaðir við að vera nærri Heklu (Vísir.is)
Fyrirvarinn yrði einn til tveir tímar (Vísir.is)

Ó­vissu­stig vegna ó­venju­legra hræringa í Heklu (DV.is)
„Hekla gaus með litlum fyrirvara síðast“ (DV.is)
Eftirlitsstig vegna Heklu hækkað úr grænu í gult (DV.is)

Blog post updated at 17:26 UTC on 26.03.2013.

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New earthquake in Hekla volcano

This morning there was an earthquake in Hekla volcano at 08:23 UTC. This earthquake had the magnitude of 1.4 according to the reviewed data from Icelandic Meteorological Office. The depth of this earthquake was 11,2 km. But that is considerable depth for this location. This is most likely not tectonic earthquakes. But it is hard to be sure on that detail as of this moment.

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The earthquake in Hekla volcano is marked by an orange dot on this map. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I do not have a clue what Hekla volcano is up to at the moment. But this is highly unusual activity for this volcano. Since normally there are no earthquakes in Hekla volcano until just before an eruption takes place in it. For the moment. The only thing that can be done now is to monitor what is taking place in Hekla volcano.

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Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge

Today (20.03.2013) at 10:51 UTC an earthquake swarm started on the Reykjanes ridge. This earthquake swarm was about 850 km away from Reykjavík so it was not felt. This also gives little information on what is happening in this location. Since the depth of the ocean at this location is around 2 to 3 km. The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 4.8 according to automatic EMSC results. The range of magnitude that was detected is from 4.6 to 4.8. The estimated depth is around 10 km. But that might not be correct.

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The location of the strongest earthquake in this swarm on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to EMSC.

More information on the strongest earthquake in this swarm can be found here, on the EMSC web site. I do not know if activity is going to continue in this place. This location is just too remote to know that for sure.

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Earthquake activity in Esjufjöll volcano

Earthquake activity has started again in Esjufjöll volcano after some time with no activity. The two earthquakes that where detected by the SIL network only had the magnitude of 1.0 and 1.1. But what is most interesting is there depth. But registered depth is around 0.1 km (around 100 meters). This really shallow depth for earthquakes in this location. While it is unclear what is creating this earthquake activity. The most likely reason is that an minor dike intrusion is taking place in the volcano. Last eruption in Esjufjöll volcano is believed to have taken place in the year 1920. But that has not been properly confirmed yet.

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Earthquake activity in Esjufjöll volcano is marked by the red dots in Vatnajökull glacier. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is impossible to know for sure what is happening in Esjufjöll volcano. Not only is there little known about earlier eruption history of this volcano. It has also been poorly studied in the past. So what to expect if anything happens is not known properly. Based on earlier earthquake activity in this volcano from the year 2011 more earthquakes might happen in next few days to months. But it is impossible to know that for sure at the moment. But it is not an bad idea to monitor this volcano for any more activity in next few weeks.

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Weather has been problem for monitoring instruments on Mýrdalsjökull glacier this winter

Bad weather has been a major problems for monitoring Katla volcano (and others also) this winter in Iceland. Not only has the bad weather damaged communications setup for the instruments in question. But also has a lot of snowfall prevented solar chargers and windmills that generate power for this instruments made them fail. In many cases the instruments them self are also under several meters of snow in few cases.

This means that for long periods during this winter there have been no data recorded on several SIL stations on Mýrdalsjökull glacier. But last week technicians from Icelandic Meteorological Office and University of Iceland did go up to Mýrdalsjökull glacier to try and fix the broken instruments and hardware in question. They had some success. But have to return later to repair the hardware they where not able to repair this time around.

Icelandic news about this repair mission can be found here. This news is in Icelandic.

Mýrdalsjökull leikur mælitæki grátt (Rúv.is, Icelandic)
Fréttir: Jökullinn leikur mælitæki grátt (Icelandic, Video)