Volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland
Today (26. February 2024) at 18:27 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,4 took place in Krýsuvík volcano. This earthquake was felt, but I don’t know over how wide area.
This earthquake activity might be connected to the inflation that is happening in Svartsengi volcano, as it changes the stress values in the crust over a large area. More earthquake activity is possible in this area.
This is a short update on the eruption at Sundhnúkagígar.
If anything more happens. I’ll post update soon as I can.
This morning (08. February 2024) at 06:02 UTC an eruption started close to Sundhnúkagígar, close to the area where the eruption started on 18. December 2023. The eruption fissure is at the writing of this around 3 km long, but the fissure is getting longer, based on views from web cameras.
This eruption is at favourable location. Since its far way at the moment from all buildings and infrastructure. That might change if the fissure stretches more to the south. This eruption started really quickly, according to Rúv, from the start of the earthquake swarm until the eruption started the time was only about 30 minutes. The time this took on 18. December 2023 was 60 minutes.
I’ll post more information later today when it is clear how this eruption is progressing.
I am sorry that I am late on this. I’ve been working on my new server computer and its taken longer then expected.
The eruption has ended and it only lasted about 41 hours. The lava did burn down three houses and cause damage to road, cold water lines, hot water lines and electric lines into Grindavík town. A new rift valley formed east of the rift valley that formed on 10. November 2023. This has resulted in that Grindavík town is now an extreme danger area because of cracks in the ground that are up to 40 meters deep until a ground water level is reached. GPS data is a mess because all this been moving the crust up and down, depending if the area is either east or west of the rift valleys that have formed. It takes few days to see how fast the inflation is now in this area. The magma that erupted now did come from a sill that is located in Skipastígahrauni and Eldvörpum area to the west of the eruption site. It doesn’t seems like the sill close to Svartsengi erupted this time, since no deflation was detected there during this eruption.
The maximum amount of time until next eruption is around 30 days, with error of eight days at maximum. This might be shorter, because it seems that inflation speed is increasing. There’s lot of uncertainty in this because how the crust is now around Grindavík town.
The eruptions are moving south along this area and that’s bad news, because that places the next eruption in middle of Grindavík town, once it happens in around 30 days. As is, the town of Grindavík can’t be lived in because of dangers from the faults and cracks in the ground. There has also been a major damage to infrastructure inside Grindavík already and added to the already damaged houses, roads and more.
This is a short update about ongoing eruption that can change without warning and information here can go out of date quickly.
This is all I have for now. Next update should be on 16. January unless something major happens in this eruption.
Rúv has web cameras on their YouTube channel and same does mbl.is and Vísir news website.
This is a short article. I’ll post new article later today or tomorrow when I’ve gotten some sleep.
Eruption started at 07:58 UTC on 14. January 2024 in Sundhnúkagígar area, the eruption fissure around 1 to 2 km north of Grindavík town. This eruption was proceeded with a large earthquake swarm along the dyke that was created and is now erupting.
New cracks formed in Grindavík town, resulting in more damage. That’s all the information I have at the moment. The edge of the lava is at the writing of this article around 400 meters north of closest houses in Grindavík town.
Next update is going to be later today hopefully. I’ve been working on new server computer and been awake for too long at the writing of this article.
Today (03. January 2024) at 10:50 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,3 took place in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano. A second earthquake with the magnitude of Mw3,5 took place at 10:54 UTC. Both earthquakes where felt in Reykjavík and up to Akranes and along the south Iceland (Selfoss, Hveragerði). A small earthquake swarm took place following the larger earthquakes.
This earthquake swarm seems to be somewhat ongoing, but has slowed down or almost stopped otherwise.
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This update is going to be short. Information here might go outdated quickly and without warning. This article is written at 20:51 UTC on 2. January 2024.
Inflation in Svartsengi volcano has reached its maximum according to GPS stations compared to 18. December 2023. This inflation is not even among the GPS stations on top of Svartsengi volcano. Why that is unclear, but most likely reason is that the sills that are in Svartsengi volcano are not evenly filled this time around. Why that is I don’t know, something must have changed in the internal flow of this volcano when it comes to the sills.
It is difficult to know when next eruption happens, at the writing of this article I am looking at around seven day window at the moment. That an eruption should happen around 9. January 2024. It might happen sooner or it might happen later. It is difficult to know for sure. Where eruption is going to happen is impossible to know. It is expected that an eruption might happen again close to the last eruption took place or at the same location.
If anything happens. I’ll post update soon as possible. Next update for Sundhnúkagíga is going to be when something happens.
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This is a short update on the situation in Sundhnúkagíga on 27. December 2023 at 20:40 UTC. Information here can go outdated without warning and quickly.
There’s inflation taking place in Svartsengi volcano. At current rate this inflation is around 10mm a day. This means that earliest an eruption might happen is around 30. December 2023 in my view. But it might happen as late as 10. January 2024. This inflation is really quick, but since last eruption only lowered Svartsengi volcano only around 80mm, the inflow of magma has less space to fill up before a critical point is reached in the crust in Sundhnúkagígaröðin area. This also means it takes shorter time for this to happen.
There’s also activity in Fagradalsfjall volcano. This is along a fault line that I don’t think has been active like this before. Why is unclear, but this might be an early sign that this fault in Fagradalsfjall volcano might erupt in the future. Since Fagradalsfjall volcano is on around ten month eruption cycle, this fault might erupt sometimes between May to September 2024. I am sure that this is going to get more clear as the time goes on if anything is going to happen in Fagradalsfjall volcano. Satellite images from Google Earth do show a clear fault in along the earthquake active area. This is possibly a known fault, but I do not have any information about that as is.
It is impossible to know what happens in Fagradalsfjall volcano and in Svartsengi volcano. This situation can change quickly and without warning. It can change so quickly that I might not be able to update about it quickly enough if this happens at a time when I am outside doing something else.
If anything happens. I’ll update soon as I can do so. Next update should be on 2. January 2024 if this remains quiet.
This is a short update and information here might go outdated quickly and without warning. This update is written on 22. December 2023 at 20:50 UTC.
Inflation has resumed in Svartsengi volcano. It also seems that inflation started again just before the eruption ended in Sundhnúkagaígar. At the writing of this article, the inflation is only around 5mm to 8mm a day. That is fast, by any standard, but still lower than before the eruption when inflation was around 10mm a day. There seems to be a slowdown of inflation before an eruption happens and a new dyke creations. Not all dyke that are going to happen are going to end in a eruption, maybe, since the magma has only limited space to expand into in the rift valley, because of the dyke that was created on 10. November 2023.
Earthquake activity along the rift valley increased quickly as the eruption that started on 18. December 2023 started to slow down. That means the magma in Svartsengi volcano is trying to find a way out and erupt all at once, or close to that in my personal view. The 4,1 km long fissure that erupted last time doesn’t seems to have been a enough for the pressure that is in the volcano at the writing of this article. That is interesting but might also be a clue that things are about to get really dangerous in this area. I also don’t know if this is going to happen, because clues are one thing and reality is a different thing.
If anything happens. I am going to write an article soon as I can.