Category: Swarm

Posted on

No changes in Öræfajökull volcano earthquake activity

Earthquake activity continues in Öræfajökull volcano as has been doing for past several months. Earthquake activity goes up and down a little, some days there are fewer earthquakes while in others there is more activity.


Latest earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Current earthquake activity is consistent with volcano of this type (stratovolcano with rhyolitic type of magma). Earthquake activity happens when the magma or gas connected to it moves inside the volcano. That movement changes during the day and is never constant and impossible to predict.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Earthquake with magnitude 4,1 in Bárðarbunga volcano

On 23-December-2017 at 23:41 UT a magnitude 4,1 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. At the moment no other earthquake activity has followed this earthquake.


Green star shows the location of the magnitude 4,1 earthquake. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

More earthquake activity cannot be ruled out in this area as the location is the normal north-east part of Bárðarbunga volcano caldera that has been seeing a lot of earthquake activity since September-2015.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Thanks. 🙂

Posted on

Earthquake activity increasing again in Öræfajökull volcano

After quiet two weeks in Öræfajökull volcano earthquake activity has started in increase again. As before the magnitude of earthquakes happening remains small with only few earthquakes reaching magnitudes above 1,5.


Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquakes today (23-December-2017) had magnitude of 1,4 and 1,1. All other earthquakes that happened where smaller in magnitude. It is at the moment difficult to know if this current trend continues and earthquake activity continues to increase in Öræfajökull volcano or is going to start dropping off again. Based on earlier pattern in October and November the earthquake activity is going to continue to increase, reach a peak and then start to drop off again. The fact remains is that nothing is certain when it comes to volcanoes and it is close to impossible to predict and know what is going on in Öræfajökull volcano.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Earthquake swarm in Hengill volcano

At 05:36 UTC a earthquake swarm started in Hengill volcano. Several dozen earthquakes took place and the largest earthquake had the magnitude of 3,4 and the second largest had a magnitude of 3,0. All other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.


The earthquake swarm in Hengill volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake swarm appears to have been tectonic in nature and ended at 05:57 UTC. The largest earthquake was felt in Reykjavík, Hveragerði and Selfoss.

Donations

Please remember to support my work. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Minor earthquake swarm on TFZ (Tjörnes Fracture Zone)

During the night of 22-December-2017 a minor earthquake swarm took place south-east of Flatey Island on TFZ (Tjörnes Fracture Zone). This was not a large earthquake swarm.


The earthquake swarm south-east of Flatey Island on TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 1,9 and the second largest had the magnitude of 1,5. All other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Donations help me to keep writing about activity in Iceland. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Two strong earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano

During the night of 20-December-2017 an earthquake swarm started in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake swarm started at 02:17 UTC with a magnitude 1,4 earthquake. The first magnitude 4,1 earthquake took place at 04:57 UTC and the second large earthquake took place at 05:29 UTC and had the magnitude of 4,4. All other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude and around 40 to 48 earthquakes happened.


Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Green stars show the location of the earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity was in the usual north-east part of the caldera of Bárðarbunga volcano. Currently hydrothermal activity is high and remains high in Bárðarbunga volcano. That means there is serious amount of magma inside Bárðarbunga volcano at shallow depth. That has not resulted in any small eruptions at the moment but that might change without warning (watch out for small magnitude focused earthquake activity).

Deep earthquake activity continues south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano (red dot on the image). That is magma movement but that activity doesn’t appear to be getting any shallower at the moment. That activity is focused in one location and might be high risk for an eruption in the future.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Everything helps. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Strong earthquake swarm ongoing in Skjaldbreið shield volcano

Yesterday (10-12-2017) a earthquake swarm started in Skjaldbreið shield volcano (in Global Volcanism program this area is under Presthnjúkar area). Currently the earthquake swarm is ongoing. This activity started on Friday with few earthquakes and started in full force when the magnitude 3,5 earthquake happened. Largest earthquake so far had the magnitude of 3,8 and was felt as was the first earthquake that happened.


Earthquake activity in Skjaldbreið shield volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

At the moment the number of earthquakes recorded is at 100 and that number is going to increase as this earthquake swarm continues, number of earthquakes happening has dropped considerably for the last few hours. This is the first large earthquake swarm in Skjaldbreið since 1992 according to Icelandic Met Office records (it goes back to 1706 can be viewed here (Icelandic only), locations are not accurate until late 20th century). This earthquake activity appears to be only tectonic in nature and there are no signs of magma movements at the moment.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Magnitude 4,1 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

Early morning on 9-December-2017 a magnitude 4,1 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This type of earthquake activity is now common in Bárðarbunga volcano after the 2014 (August) – 2015 (February) eruption. The magnitude 4,1 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano was the largest earthquake in this swarm, second largest earthquake had a magnitude of 2,8 and happened several hours before.


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

This earthquake activity is located in the south part of the Bárðarbunga volcano caldera. Not far from cauldrons (at least two) that are now highly active in hydrothermal activity. If that is going to result in any glacier flood is not known at the moment, but the biggest chance is that the water levels are low at this locations at least for now. After the magnitude 4,1 the earthquake activity has stopped for now.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. All donations help me keeping this website up and running. Thanks. 🙂

Posted on

Dyke intrusion in Öræfajökull volcano confirmed

Recent measurement of Öræfajökull volcano have confirmed a dyke intrusion, the dyke intrusion is located in south part of Öræfajökull volcano and that area is showing inflation. At the moment the amount of magma is now estimated at being close to the total of what erupted in 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano. At the moment the dyke is at depth of 2 – 6 km and that explains current hydrothermal activity in Öræfajökull volcano and why it is increasing. How long this is going to go on is not known at the moment. Öræfajökull volcano is a stratovolcano with everything that comes with it (information about this type of voclano can be found here and here).


The earthquake activity in Örfæajökull volcano for the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Last week total of 160 earthquakes where recorded in Öræfajökull volcano and that is a first time record for Öræfajökull volcano having this many earthquakes since recording of earthquakes started in Öræfajökull volcano (~1995?). Earthquake activity seems to be stable at the moment, when that changes is impossible to know at the moment.

Web cameras

There are now two web cameras. The websites are based on non-dynamic folder settings so this links are going to expire rather quickly.

Fagurhólsmýri web camera (only valid for now)
Web camera bridge (only valid for now)

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. It helps me greatly. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Small earthquake swarm in western Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ)

During the night of 6-December-2017 there was a small earthquake swarm on western part of Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ). Few earthquakes happened and the largest one had a magnitude of 3,1 and was felt in Siglufjörður village and Ólafsvík village.


The earthquake swarm area is where the green star is. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Second largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2,8. All other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude. This area is a fault area and more earthquake activity can be expected.

Donations

To support my work on this website it is possible to donate money with the PayPal button or directly (if you are in Europe) with bank transfer (details under Donations website). Thanks for the support. 🙂