Volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland
The earthquake swarm on Tjörnes Fracture Zone that started on 28-January-2018 continues and on Sunday 4-February-2018 a magnitude 3,1 earthquake took place. Currently the earthquake activity is ongoing.
The earthquake activity in TFZ during the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
It is difficult to know for how long this earthquake swarm is going to continue. It might be several more days and up to few weeks more.
Earthquake activity continues in Öræfajökull volcano and it remains at yellow status [website can be found here]. Like before the earthquake activity is small in magnitude.
The earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano (orange dots to the south). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
There is now a pattern to this earthquake activity. Just and while it happens there are changes in the tremor plot on SIL stations around Öræfajökull volcano. It is possible that this is earthquake activity showing it self on the SIL stations. Other explanations are also possible.
The two spikes after 01/02 line showed up during a earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
I don’t know for sure at the moment why this happens or why it shows up as it currently does.
Bad weather is currently blocking detection of small earthquakes in Iceland. A storm is going to pass over Iceland today and a second storm is going to pass over Iceland on Sunday.
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Please remember to support my work since February-2018 is going to be really broke for me. Currently I don’t have enough money to pay the electric bills and I am missing close to 700 DKK (94€) so that I can pay it and then there is the whole month left for other things. In this case I need to buy food. Thanks for the support. 🙂
Moving to Iceland
I have managed to move up my plan on moving to Iceland. I can move in July rather than October. It saves me a bit on the tax payments in Denmark as soon as I move to Iceland my tax obligations in Denmark stop (from the day the move of legal home takes place). This is just a case of me not being able to afford on living in Denmark and there is nothing I can do about it. Since people with minor disabilities from a other country don’t get a job in Denmark (I am also uneducated and that doesn’t help).
Yesterday (31-January-2018) an earthquake swarm continued in Tjörnes Fracture Zone east of Grímsey Island. More than 100 earthquakes happened in the main earthquake swarm yesterday but none of them reached magnitude above 3,0. Strongest magnitude recorded was 2,6 (at 03:46 UTC). Largest earthquake recorded yesterday had a magnitude of 3,2 (at 20:20 UTC) in the earlier earthquake swarm that happened on 28-January-2018. This earthquake is possibly not connected to the earthquake swarm south of it.
The earthquake swarm east of Grímsey Island. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
This earthquake swarm might signal that a large earthquake might happen in this area in coming months. Since earthquakes with magnitudes above Mw5,0 happen regularly in this part of TFZ. Last ones happened 2-April-2013. I wrote about that earthquake here and here (with images). It is not possible to know such a earthquake might happen.
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Please remember to support my work with donations. February-2018 is going to really difficult for me due to bills and tax bills from the Danish tax. This month is going to be like most of the months in 2017 and I sadly have to repeat that for the next 9 months (mostly). Thanks for the support. 🙂
Moving back to Iceland
Due to the endless tax problems for me in Denmark I have made the chose to move back to Iceland in October-2018. I plan on going to school from January-2019 and be in it until I get an apartment in Hvammstangi, Iceland. I just hope that the wait isn’t too long for an apartment for me. What I plan for living in a other country is that I will be doing part time living in a other country in the future. My chose of country for that is Germany rather than Spain. When that happens I do not know, it is at least not going to happen for several years after I move back to Iceland.
Yesterday (30-January-2018) Bárðarbunga volcano had strongest earthquake since 27-October-2017. That earthquake had the magnitude of Mw4,9 (at 19:24 UTC). Two earlier earthquakes had happened but they had smaller magnitude of 3,7 (at 17:47 UTC) and magnitude 3,8 (at 18:00 UTC).
The earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano (green stars). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Earthquake activity seems to have stopped with last earthquake happening at 21:29 UTC. There is no change in harmonic tremor from Bárðarbunga volcano and that means no eruption. The north-east part of the Bárðarbunga volcano seems to be getting unstable with each earthquake swarm that happens. Magnitude of earthquakes happening has also increased but it is now longer between earthquake swarm. The time between earthquake swarms now can go up to several weeks. Soon after this earthquake activity started in September-2015 this type of activity happened weekly.
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Yesterday (28-January-2018) a earthquake swarm started in Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ). This earthquake swarm is ongoing and current numbers might change and magnitudes of earthquakes from what they currently are. At the moment largest earthquake that has been recorded happened yesterday and had a magnitude of 4,1 (at 07:49 UTC) and the second strongest earthquake so far had the magnitude of 3,4 (at 08:11 UTC). The stronger earthquake woke people up from their sleep and was felt over a wide area. That was not reported with the second earthquake.
The earthquake swarm in TFZ. Strongest earthquakes are marked by green stars. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
All other earthquakes so far have been smaller than magnitude 3,0 at the moment. Over 130 earthquakes have happened so far. This earthquake swarm is currently ongoing. This earthquake swarm is only tectonic in nature and at the moment there is nothing suggesting that this activity is connected to magma movements.
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Yesterday (21-January-2018) at 21:15 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of 3,5 took place 2,5 km from Grindavík village. This earthquake was clearly felt in Grindavík village. This earthquake was at depth of 5,0 km.
The magnitude 3,5 earthquake (green star) on the Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Largest aftershock had the magnitude of 2,8 and all other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude. This earthquake swarm does seems to be over for now. There is always a risk of more earthquakes on the Reykjanes peninsula due to tectonic forces at work in this area.
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On Sunday (21-January-2018) a dyke intrusion took place south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano. The area is question is slightly outside of Bárðarbunga volcano fissure swarm but seems to be connected to the main volcano.
The earthquakes south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Largest earthquake only had magnitude 1,2 and the shallowest depth was only 13,9 km with a magnitude 0,8 earthquake. The risk of an eruption in this area is increasing, but it is not possible to know when a eruption might happen. This area has been active for some time now with regular dyke intrusions at the same location.
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In the last 24 hours (20-January-2018) an earthquake swarm started in Tungnafellsjökull volcano. All earthquakes that have happened so far are small and no earthquakes have so far reached magnitude 1,0.
The earthquakes in Tungnafellsjökull volcano (red dots), north of Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
At the moment there is nothing suggesting that magma is reaching the surface of this volcano. At the moment the earthquakes appear to be tectonic in nature. If they are due to influence of Bárðarbunga volcano (crustal stress changes) is unclear at the moment. Tungnafellsjökull volcano has not erupted in last 12.000 years and little data is on eruptions that are older than 12.000 years.
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Article updated at 20:00 UTC. Added text that was forgotten.
A magnitude 3,1 earthquake took place on 18-January-2018 at 02:14 UTC in Öræfajökull volcano. This earthquake was followed by one magnitude 2,0 earthquake and one magnitude 1,8 earthquake. All other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.
Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
This earthquake activity was followed by an increase in higher frequency noise on the tremor plots around Öræfajökull volcano. This possibly was the swarm of small earthquakes detected in Öræfajökull volcano at the same time. I am not sure at this moment, but I do hope it gets clearer what is happening as more data is collected with increasing activity.
The change in the tremor plot at Fagurhólsmýri SIL station. The change is at the blue line close the end (spikes). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
At the moment everything is quiet in Öræfajökull volcano.
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Today (15-January-2018) a earthquake swarm activity took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is a regular event at this point and has been for some time now. Today’s earthquakes had the magnitude of 3,5 (09:39 UTC) and 3,3 (09:47 UTC). The location suggests that stronger earthquakes are going to happen soon in Bárðarbunga volcano in the north-east part of the caldera of Bárðarbunga volcano.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano (green stars). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
This earthquake activity shows that Bárðarbunga volcano continues to inflate after the end of the eruption in Holuhrauni in Februar-2015. Currently it is clear that Bárðarbunga volcano is preparing for an eruption. When next eruption might happen is impossible to know.
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