Volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland
Today (29-June-2022) at 08:16 UTC an earthquake with magnitude Mw3,5 took place in Bárðarbunga voclano. This is the second large earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano in June.
This is the same activity as before with Bárðarbunga volcano. That I did explain in the article on 27-June-2022 when that earthquake took place.
Yesterday (27-June-2022) an earthquake swarm started in Tjörnes Fracture Zone in a area north-west of an place called Gjögurtá. Largest earthquakes where felt in Siglufjörður. The largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,2.
In June 2020 this area had a large earthquake swarm with earthquakes that had a magnitude of Mw5,8. This might be an aftershock of that activity. I am not clear if that is the case, but it is a possibility.
Today (27-June-2022) at 05:49 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,3 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is an earthquake because of continued inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano after the eruption between 2014 and 2015.
This earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano is going to continue until the day the magma chamber is filled up again and that might take 10 to 70 years. There are going to be few earthquakes like this every year in Bárðarbunga volcano, with time the earthquakes are going to get fewer and instead get larger in magnitude.
One of the most quiet volcanoes in Iceland is Presthnjúkar. That seems to be about to change. Yesterday (23-June-2022) at 22:12 an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,6 and aftershock of Mw3,7 took place in the volcano. It was felt over a large part of south and west and north Iceland because of its central location.
It is difficult to know what is going on there, since the history of this volcano is poorly known. Few minor eruptions took place there sometimes between the years 700 to the years 900 or around those years. At this stage it is impossible know if an new eruption cycle has started or is about to start in this area. Given the activity south-west of Presthnjúkar volcano. That possibly should not be ruled out for now.
During the night (14-June-2022) an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,9 took place north-west of Grindavík, this is west of mountain Þorbjörn. This earthquake was felt over all of Reykjanes peninsula. This is the strongest earthquake this is area since 15-May-2022.
A strong aftershock activity followed this large earthquake, with most earthquakes having a magnitude between Mw2,1 to Mw2,9. This earthquake activity is happening in the area that has formed a dyke according to measurements of this area by Icelandic Met Office. As of writing of this article, there are no clear signs that an eruption is about to start.
– This article is shorter because I am currently on limited internet when it comes to amount of data that I can use.
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Currently I can only post articles limited. This is going to be the situation until 5th of July when I get internet connection in Denmark.
Today (8-June-2022) at 05:04 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,0 took place in Nátthagakriki that is south-west of Fagradalsfjall volcano. It has been followed by smaller earthquakes with shallow depth of 2 km. It is unclear what is going on and no changes have been seen on GPS monitoring in the last few days for this area.
Older data already shows that magma is flowing into an area of the crust below Fagradalsfjall volcano (mountain). When that might erupt is impossible to know. It is also not possible to know when next cycle of earthquakes and eruptions starts in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system.
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Today (28-May-2022) at 08:06 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,4 or Mw4,7 (EMSC information can be found here) took place in Bárðarbunga volcano.
This earthquake activity is because of inflation in Bárðarbunga volcano magma chamber. That was emptied after the eruption in 2014 – 2015 and that resulted in collapse of Bárðarbunga volcano by drop of some 60 meters. This inflation now is reversing that process slowly. It is going to be decades until Bárðarbunga volcano erupts again because of this collapse.
On Thursday 26-May-2022 at 20:11 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,5. I think this earthquake was maybe felt in populated areas closest to the earthquake. This earthquake was out in the ocean, a good distance from land.
This earthquake possibly is part of the earthquake activity that is happening in Reykjanes peninsula and Reykjanes ridge. It is more difficult to know what is going on in the ocean, than on land.
Posts are going to get delayed for the next few days because I am moving to Denmark.
Today (24-May-2022) an earthquake swarm started north of Geysir. This earthquake swarm is mostly small and only around 40 earthquakes have been recorded so far. Largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw2,8 and all other earthquakes have been smaller.
This earthquake activity is normal tectonic activity and I am not expecting anything more to happen. Larger earthquakes might happen, but at the writing of this article it seems unlikely. This area also has regular earthquake swarms.
Today (23-May-2022) at 07:14 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,5 took place north-east of Grindavík town. This earthquake was felt in Grindavík and in Reykjavík. The earthquake was located in a area that is either inflating or on the edge of area that is inflating.
According to Icelandic Met Office news, the inflation around Þorbjörn mountain since the start of this earthquake activity is currently at 45mm. I don’t know how much inflation the crust can take in this area before an eruption starts in this area. Any eruption in this area is probably going to start with few craters that shut down with time and then there is just one crater that erupts until the eruption ends.
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