Category: Monitoring

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Magnitude 3,2 earthquake in Torfajökull volcano

Today (12-July-2019) at 17:16 UTC a magnitude 3,2 earthquake took place in Torfajökull volcano. This earthquake might have been felt by tourists in the area. This earthquake being felt has not yet been reported according to any news media.


The earthquake activity in Torfajökull volcano (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This area of Torfajökull volcano has been having earthquake activity since January 27 when a magnitude 3,7 earthquake took place there. That activity was followed by a larger swarm of aftershocks than have so far happened. That might change without warning. This earthquake activity is interesting but I am not sure if it means anything, at least for now.

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Update on Bárðarbunga volcano cauldrons

According to latest news from Rúv on recent survey on Bárðarbunga volcano the cauldrons that appeared during the Holuhraun eruption (2014 – 2015) continue to grow in size and there has been increase in hydrothermal output in those cauldrons. Distance between the cauldrons is 800 meters and their depth is more than 100 meters. In one of the cauldrons a hot spring has been observed and strong sulphur comes from it. The water in the cauldrons no longer freezes due to heat. Rock has also been exposed that have never been seen before and have been under the glacier for thousands of years.

Video of the cauldrons can be seen here on Rúv News report. Everything is in Icelandic.

Sigkatlarnir í Bárðarbungu stækkað nokkuð (Rúv.is)

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Earthquake swarm on the south part of Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ)

Since yesterday (6-July-2019) there has been a ongoing earthquake swarm in south part of the Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ). The number of earthquakes recorded is close to 170 when this article is written. This number is going to go quickly outdated. Exact largest magnitude is not clear since automatic magnitude is not always correct.


The earthquake activity in south part of Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

At this location there is a volcano that erupted in the year 1868 for about a month (December 1867 to January 1868) according to historical documents. Global Volcanism Information can be found here. There are no sign of this earthquake activity being connected to a volcano activity. I don’t know if that is going to change.

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Earthquake swarm east of Grímsey island (Tjörnes Fracture Zone)

A small earthquake swarm started today (30-June-2019) east of Grímsey island. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 3,6. There are no news that it had been felt.


The earthquake east of Grímsey island. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is one of several earthquake swarms in this area of Tjörnes Fracture Zone this year. More activity can be expected in next few months. This earthquake swarm activity appears to be only tectonic in nature.

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Three strong earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (24-June-2019) at 13:09 UTC, 13:18 UTC and 13:55 UTC three strong earthquakes took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. The earthquake at 13:09 UTC has registered magnitude of mb4,5 at EMSC (information here). The earthquake at 13:55 UTC also has the magnitude of mb4,5 at EMSC (information here). Icelandic Met Office has the earthquake at 13:09 UTC at magnitude Mw3,3 and the earthquake at 13:55 UTC at magnitude Mw4,1. The earthquake at 13:18 UTC has a magnitude of Mw3,4. Smaller earthquakes have followed the largest earthquakes.


The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is because of inflation in Bárðarbunga volcano. Since Bárðarbunga volcano continues to be in a inflation stage this earthquake activity did not result in a movement of magma or an eruption. Two of the earthquakes were in the regular location (central caldera and north-east part of the caldera) and the earthquake at 13:09 UTC took place outside the caldera and in north-west part of the volcano. This is slightly unusual based on earlier earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Last strong earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano was on 19-June-2019 and this a short time between strong earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano. This doesn’t seems to be unusual activity.

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Deep earthquake swarm south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano

Yesterday (19-June-2019) an earthquake swarm took place south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano. This area of Bárðarbunga volcano has been active since end of the eruption in February 2015 and possibly earlier than that. Last eruption in this area took place in with a start in February 1726 (+- 30 days) and ended in May 1726 (+- 30 days). More eruptions might have taken place at this location without being known or detected by people in the past.


The earthquake swarm south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The depth of this earthquake swarm is considerable. Deepest earthquake recorded had a depth of 30,4 km and it is a possible that might be an error or poor location, other earthquakes recorded had a shallower depth. The crust in this location is up to 45 km thick according to measurements. It is not possible to know if this earthquake activity is going to result in a eruption. If an eruption happens it might happen without any warning and not of lot of earthquake activity before it happens.

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Earthquake with magnitude of 3,4 in Bárðarbunga volcano

After a long period of quiet an earthquake has happened in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake had a magnitude of 3,4 and was in the usual place of central caldera of Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake had a smaller earthquake swarm activity happen few hours before it happened.


The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano is marked by the green star. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is not possible to know if this means there is going to be any more earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Normally since everything started to quiet down, just one earthquake happens that is over magnitude 3,0 and then everything goes quiet again for several weeks to months. I do suspect that is going to be the pattern this time.

Due to how tired I am since I am working full workday (08:00 – 16:00) now my English grammar is all over the place in this article.

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Activity in Torfajökull volcano

Sometimes nature does something unexpected. This applies now to Torfajökull volcano. It seems that this earthquake activity started on 27-January-2019 without any warning. The article about that earthquake swarm can be found here.


The earthquake activity on 29-April-2019. A clear line of earthquake has appeared. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Second earthquake swarm on 3-May-2019. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


The earthquake swarm on 4-June-2019. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

After Bárðarbunga volcano eruption in 2014 I set-up a new system (that I use for my self. No-one uses something something similar that I know of) to detect possible eruptions. Each volcano is different and there is also a risk of false detection. However I do think that based on latest activity that something is going on in Torfajökull volcano. If this results in a eruption is too early to say at the time of writing of this article. If this is on a path to an eruption there might not be any warning or much of a warning besides few magnitude 3,0 to 4,5 earthquakes in Torfajökull volcano. Last eruption in Torfajökull volcano was in 1477 (north of the caldera) so its behaviour before an eruption is unknown. Last time a eruption took place in west side of the caldera was in the year 1170 or around that year.

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If you donate with the bank please update your information here. I have switched everything back to Denmark since I expect to move to Denmark by September. When I am back in Denmark I am going to open a new Danish PayPal account for donations. It is going to take ~3 months due to security requirements that are now in place by PayPal and the law.

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Earthquake swarm south of Kolbeinsey island

Yesterday (27-May-2019) an earthquake swarm took place south of Kolbeinsey island, but this earthquake swarm is in Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ). Largest earthquake had a magnitude of 3,5 at 01:35 UTC. Second largest earthquake had a magnitude of 3,1 and took place at 06:57 UTC. Other earthquakes in this earthquake swarm were smaller in magnitude.


The earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone (green stars). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It appears that this earthquake swarm is over for now. It might start again without warning since earthquake activity in Tjörnes Facture Zone is unpredictable.

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Magnitude 8,0 earthquake in Peru

Today (26-May-2019) at 07:41 UTC (02:41 local time) a magnitude 8,0 earthquake took place in Peru. The depth of this earthquake is 109 km to 130 km. It was felt up to 1700 km from its epicentre. This magnitude and depth might change over the next few days to weeks as the earthquake data is studied in more details. USGS information about this earthquake is here. EMSC information about this earthquake is here.


The earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Böðvarshólar, Iceland.


The webicorder trance of the earthquake in Böðvarshólar, Iceland.


The webicorder trace of the earthquake as it appeared in Dellukot, Iceland. I do not have access to this station due to technical difficulties.

This earthquake resulted in a damage in Peru even if it was at depth of 109 km to 130 km. The general rule is that an aftershock of one magnitude lower can be expected in next few days to weeks. This means a magnitude 6,5 to 7,5 aftershock might happen in northern part of Peru in next few days to weeks.

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If you donate by bank please update your information here. Since I am moving back to Denmark from September (I hope). I have switched the bank back to Denmark. Information can be found here. The Icelandic bank account that I was using has been closed.