Category: Swarm

Posted on

Earthquake swarm north of Kolbeinsey island

This morning (5-March-2022) an earthquake swarm started north of Kolbeinsey island. Three earthquakes with magnitude above Mw3,0 took place in this swarm and there where few smaller earthquakes recorded. Because of distance from the SIL network only the strongest earthquakes have been detected.

Green stars on the top of the map showing the location of the earthquake swarm. Few orange dots showing smaller earthquakes
Green starts show the location of the earthquake swarm in Kolbeinsey island. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The strongest earthquakes with magnitude of Mw3,1 and Mw3,2. There is still a chance of stronger earthquakes in this area. It is unclear what is going on because this area is remote and under the ocean. If an eruption happens at this location there is a chance it won’t be noticed or just noticed on SIL seismometers.

Posted on

Strong earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

At 10:11 UTC today (22-February-2022) an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,8 (Icelandic Met Office) or Mw5,0 (EMSC) took place in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Two green stars in Bárðarbunga volcano showing the strong earthquake activity in the volcano. Two smaller dots show smaller earthquakes.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Yesterday (21-February-2022) at 14:08 UTC there had been a earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,0 in Bárðarbunga volcano, along with few smaller earthquakes. This earthquake activity shows that Bárðarbunga volcano continues to inflate after the eruption in the year 2014 to 2015. It is impossible to know when next eruption happens in Bárðarbunga volcano, it might be 10 years from now or 100 years from now. Last eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano before the 2014 eruption was in the year 1902.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. They help me from not being broke. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Strong earthquake activity in Katla volcano

At 19:10 UTC today (02-February-2022) an strong earthquake swarm started in Katla volcano. Strongest earthquakes so far had a magnitude of Mw4,0 (19:10 UTC) and Mw3,4 (19:44 UTC).

Earthquake activity in Katla volcano. A lot of red dots with two green stars on the calder rim
Earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

At the writing of this article it is unclear if this is going to result in an eruption. The chances are good, but this activity might still slow down and stop before any eruption, small or large happens in Katla volcano.

This article is going to be updated if needed or new article is going to be written if the situation changes enough from what it is now.

Posted on

Strong earthquake close to Húsafell

Today (1-February-2022) at 00:05 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,7 took place close to Húsafell. This earthquake was felt in Reykjavík. This earthquake swarm is ongoing, it is slow moving and often stops A second earthquake with magnitude Mw3,0 took place at 01:15 UTC. During the last 48 hours a total of 107 earthquakes have happened in Húsafell area.

Two green stars west of Langjökull glacier with smaller earthquakes in the same area
Earthquake activity in Húsafell. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest known earthquake in this area has a magnitude of 5,5 in the year 1974. That is all I know about this earthquake, that earthquake was also slightly more north then current swarm. Why this earthquake activity is happening is unclear since there are not any known volcanoes in this area or earthquake faults. There is a low (as in degrees of hot water) hydrothermal area in this area and recent news articles have suggested that this earthquake activity might be connected to that area. That is at best speculation and nothing has been proved so far. The existence of this low hydrothermal area shows that magma is in the crust in this area at shallow depth and has been for a while. For hydrothermal area to form, both cracks in the crust needs to be open and magma needs to reach 1 to 2 km up in the crust to warm up ground water in the crust.

Posted on

Earthquake swarm south-west of Langjökull glacier

Since December 2021 an earthquake swarm has been ongoing south-west of Langjökull glacier. This area is not part of any known fault zone or any volcano. This is just tectonic earthquakes and is outside of main earthquake areas. This intra-plate earthquakes happens sometimes in Iceland. Why that is remains unknown, but best idea is this happens because of stress changes because of tectonic movement. Earthquake magnitude can go up to Mw5,5 or larger. But such events are extremely rare, but do happen.

Earthquake swarm south-west of Langjökull glacier. Green star shows a magnitude Mw3,3 earthquake
Earthquake south-west of Langjökull glacier. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is the second earthquake with magnitude Mw3,3 in this area, with the earlier one happening on 18th January 2022. The hill this earthquake swarm is happening in is called Húsafell.

Posted on

Felt earthquake on South Icelandic Seismic zone

During the night of 30-December-2021 at 04:16 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,0 was felt in Selfoss town and Hveragerði town. This earthquake was part of a swarm in the area that is ongoing at the writing of this article.

Green star on the far right on the map with few red dots, showing the earthquake activity in SISZ
Earthquake activity in SISZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There are no volcanoes in this area so this is only a tectonic activity. It is not possible to know when this earthquake swarm ends. This might be a aftershock activity after the Mw6,3 earthquake in SISZ that took place in this location in the year 2008. I expect this earthquake swarm to continue to few more days to weeks and then just end quietly.

Posted on

Earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (29-December-2021) at 14:46 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,6 (Icelandic Met Office) or magnitude of mb4,5 (EMSC website information here).

Green star in Vatnajökull galacier in Bárðarbunga volcano. Few red dots show smaller earthquakes that also happened in Bárðarbunga volcano
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is normal and is because of inflation that is now happening in Bárðarbunga volcano. Eruption is not going to happen now. It might be few more years or few more decades until that happens.