Volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland
This is a short update at 14:41 UTC.
This is about volcanoes Reykjanes and Krýsuvík.
According to new pictures from Icelandic Coast Guard. Steam has been seen from the area that had the strongest earthquakes this morning. This seems to be in a area that did not have an earlier any steam activity, this however depends a confirmation.
Icelandic News about the steam activity that has been detected.
Hvítir gufustrókar sjást á svæðinu (mbl.is, Icelandic, Pictures)
This is a short update at 12:28 UTC on the earthquake swarm on Reykjanes peninsula and in Reykjanes volcano.
It is possible to see the earthquakes in my webicorder website here. This website is on limited bandwidth so it might load slowly if there is a lot of traffic to it. I am also self hosting it because of software requirement.
Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw5,7 and was felt over most of Western Iceland. Minor damage has been reported in Reykjavík but it has been limited to stuff falling off shelves, walls and other such locations.
I am going to post updates as I know more about this earthquake activity. The reason why I am a bit late on this is that I was sleeping and I didn’t wake up with earthquake activity.
During the night of 13-February 2021 an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,0 took place at 02:30 UTC. This earthquake is normal and is because of inflation in Bárðarbunga volcano after the eruption ended in 2015.
There is one of this earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano every few months and last earthquake with magnitude Mw3,9 took place on 21-December-2020 in Bárðarbunga volcano. This type of earthquake activity is going to continue in Bárðarbunga volcano for decades until next eruption happens in 20 to 100 years.
The earthquake swarm that started more than one year ago in Reykjanes volcano continues to be ongoing. Largest earthquake on 11-February 2021 at 07:56 UTC had the magnitude of Mw3,0. Other earthquakes had smaller magnitude as has been ongoing since 20-January-2020.
Since this magma activity in Reykjanes volcano started around 20-January 2020 there has been ongoing earthquake activity in this area. I don’t expect this to stop. When a eruption is going to happen is not something that is possible to know. Currently GPS data does not show any interesting change and doesn’t suggest anything is about to happen.
Since 4-February-2021 an earthquake swarm has been going on east of Grímsey island in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone. This was not a large earthquake swarm, with mostly just earthquakes with magnitude of Mw0,0 to Mw3,0. With largest earthquake taking place on 9-February-2021 at 20:20 UTC with magnitude Mw3,0. After that earthquake activity seems to have slowed down considerable amount.
Earthquake activity is common in this area and in 2020 several large earthquake swarms took place in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone.
Yesterday (29-January-2021) at 23:34 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw2,4 took place in Grímsfjall volcano (Grímsvötn). There where few smaller earthquakes before and after this largest earthquake. There where no signs of change in harmonic tremor following this earthquake activity.
It has also been reported in the news that glacier plate that is on top of Grímsfjall volcano is now the highest since 1996. Inflation is now taking place in eastern part of Grímsfjall volcano, in a location called Eystri Svíahnúkur. Magma pressure is today (30-January-2021) equal or higher than when the May 2011 eruption took place in Grímsfjall volcano.
Sources / News in Icelandic
Íshellan í Grímsvötnum ekki mælst hærri í 25 ár (Icelandic, Rúv.is)
Fundur í vísindaráði almannavarna (Icelandic, Almannavarnir.is)
Yesterday (27-January-2021) an earthquake swarm started in Prestahnúkar volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw3,0 and other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.
This earthquake swarm has stopped but it might start again since earthquake activity in this area is often slow to start and goes on for a long time, up to 1 to 3 years. There is no sign that magma is at work in this earthquake swarm.
On Friday 22-January-2021 an earthquake swarm took place just east of Grindavík town. This earthquake activity then stopped but resumed at midnight on Sunday 24-January-2021. All of the earthquakes where small in magnitude and only few did go above magnitude Mw1,0 in size.
The earthquake swarm that started on Sunday lasted for 12 hours according to Icelandic Met Office website. There is no change in GPS location data (can be viewed here) and there is no change in harmonic tremor. Currently there is a bad weather in Iceland preventing automatic detection of small earthquakes all over Iceland.
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Today (10-January-2021) at 03:15 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,1. This earthquake was felt far away as Reykjavík. A swarm of small earthquakes is currently ongoing in this area. This earthquake activity is in the Reykjanes volcano.
Over 100 earthquakes have happened in this area for the last 48 hours. Most of them are small, less than magnitude Mw1,0 in size. There are not many earthquakes with magnitude over Mw1,0 currently in this earthquake activity. There is no sign that magma has started to find a way to the surface. Currently the magma remains in the crust. GPS data suggests that there is some type of change going on but I am unclear what that means. The GPS data can be viewed here.
Today (07-January-2021) two earthquakes with magnitude of Mw3,1 and Mw3,2 took place in Reykjanes volcano. A swarm of smaller earthquakes is currently ongoing in the volcano.
The earthquake activity in the Reykjanes volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
This earthquake activity has been going on for one year. Inflation was detected on 21-January-2020 by Icelandic Met Office and it has continued since then. Area of activity is now larger then it was at the start of this activity. There is currently no sign that an eruption is about to start but that might change without warning.