Category: Swarm

Posted on

Strong earthquake swarm in Katla volcano today (19.04.2017)

Today (19.04.2017) a strong earthquake swarm started in Katla volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had magnitude of 3,0 and 3,1 other earthquakes that happened where smaller in magnitude. This is the strongest earthquake activity in Katla volcano since January 2017 when a magnitude 4,3 earthquake happened. No harmonic tremor was detected following this earthquake swarm.


The earthquake swarm in Katla volcano. Green stars show the magnitude 3,0 and 3,1 earthquakes. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The earthquakes that I detected on my geophone in Heklubyggð show that the largest earthquakes was a mixed type of volcano earthquakes. This means that magma was responsible for today’s earthquake swarm. It was reported today in the news that this earthquake swarm took place away from all major hydrothermal areas inside Katla volcano caldera. The area of activity is close to eruption area of 1755 and a minor eruption close to current earthquake area in 1955 (didn’t break the glacier).


The main earthquake with the magnitude of 3,1 in Katla volcano. The trace is filtered at 4Hz due to high wind in the area. This image is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see CC licence for more details.

This earthquake activity might just be a early signs of more activity to come. Since current pattern of activity has been going on since August-2016, with minor drop in activity between January to April. How this evolves depends on many factors that cannot be predicted due to lack properly documented earthquake history. Scientists know some details of Katla volcano eruptions behaviour, but those accounts are not fully accurate due to lack of knowledge at the time, currently the best documented eruption in Katla volcano is from 1918.

Article updated at 20:41 UTC. Correction made to the information about strongest earthquake. I recalled that detail wrongly.

Donations

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

Posted on

Earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (17.04.2017) at 11:58 UTC a magnitude 4,2 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is the strongest earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano for several weeks now. Following this earthquake a earthquake swarm started and lasted for about one hour in Bárðarbunga volcano.


Green star shows the magnitude 4,2 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest aftershock activity had magnitude of 2,8 as the information is currently on Icelandic Met Office website. That might change tomorrow and it’s possible that I might update this article if any major change happens in earthquake magnitudes. No harmonic tremor was detected following this earthquake swarm. Weather is currently bad in Iceland and that’s going to last for few more hours.

Posted on

Magnitude 4,5 earthquake on Reykjanes ridge during the night

During the night of 10-April-2017 at around 03:39 a magnitude 4,5 earthquake happened and started a earthquake swarm at same location, total number of recorded earthquakes is around 71 but that number is not confirmed as of yet. There is also a good chance a few magnitude 3,0 earthquakes happened, but this earthquake swarm has not been reviewed by Icelandic Met Office as of yet (I don’t know why it’s slow today).


The earthquake swarm as it appears on Icelandic Met Office maps, green star is the location of the magnitude 4,5 earthquake. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


The earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Heklubyggð. This image is under Creative Commons licence. Please see CC licence for more details.


The earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Heklubyggð. This image is under Creative Commons licence. Please see CC licence for more details.

This appears to be a normal tectonic earthquake in the rift valley that is at this location. No change was observed in the harmonic tremor, that means there was no magma movement during this activity. Based on earlier earthquake behaviour in this area, there is a good chance that new earthquake swarm is going to happen in this area after few days or at most weeks before this area going quiet again.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donation. It helps me keeping this website and my self going and to do this job. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Strong earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (6-April-2017) a strong earthquake activity took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake activity started this morning at 10:46 UTC and has continued during the day at slow phase. The largest earthquake so far took place at 15:08 UTC and had magnitude of 4,1 and second largest earthquake had a magnitude of 3,2. Other earthquakes are smaller and a around dozen or so have taken place today in Bárðarbunga volcano.


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

This earthquake activity is in line with earlier earthquake activity that has been going on in this area since September-2015. What is slightly different now is that I got two different seismic signals on my geophone stations in Böðvarshólar and the one in Heklubyggð on the North-South direction (Heklubyggð is west-south of Bárðarbunga, Böðvarshólar is west-north of Bárðarbunga). This difference seems to suggest that some type of slip movement took place during this earthquake. I don’t know for sure what this change in pattern means at the moment. The best I can do now is to monitor the earthquakes I detect in the future for more such earthquake signal changes like I did just see on my geophone. I’m not fully sure what is going on in Bárðarbunga volcano at the moment, what is known is that inflation is currently taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano and that process has been ongoing since September-2015.

Update 07.04.2017 – Anomaly detected on my Böðvarshólar geophone

This is the anomaly detected on my Böðvarshólar geophone. It can be seen on N-S direction. This is not the geophone, its working as expected and that got confirmed today when a minor (magnitude 2,1) earthquake took place not far from the Böðvarshólar geophone.


Böðvarshólar geophone.


Heklubyggð geophone.


Detailed image of the earthquake at Böðvarshólar geophone.


Detailed image of the earthquake in Heklubyggð geophone.

The difference is appearance of the P-wave and the S-wave. I don’t know why this is or why it happened. I’ve not seen this before.

Donations

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

Article updated at 21:32 UTC on 07.04.2017.

Posted on

Minor earthquake activity in Hofsjökull volcano

On the 30th of March-2017 there was some minor earthquake activity in Hofsjökull volcano. This was a minor earthquake activity, with the largest earthquake having the magnitude of 1,3 at depth of 4,5 km. The deepest earthquake had magnitude of 1,0 and depth of 10,1 km.


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

I’m not expecting anything more to happen in Hofsjökull volcano. This volcano does not have any known eruption during the last 12.000 years that I know of. I don’t know what the latest research into activity in Hofsjökull volcano says, I was also unable to find any information about possible time frame when last eruption took place in Hofsjökull volcano. As it currently stands, I don’t expect anything more to happen besides maybe one or two extra earthquake appearing in Hofsjökull volcano.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donation. It helps me to keep writing new articles here and paying the bills. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Strong earthquake swarm 80 km north of Kolbeinsey Island

During the night of 26-March-2017 there was an strong earthquake swarm about 80 km north of Kolbeinsey Island. This is around 250 km from the coast in north Iceland. It is not clear what is happening in this location, since this area has been seeing higher than usual earthquake activity in recent months. This is the largest earthquake swarm so far to take place.


The earthquake swarm as it appears on Icelandic Met Office maps. Green stars are earthquakes with magnitude above 3,0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquakes in this swarm had the following magnitudes. Magnitude 4,6 (EMSC Information here), magnitude 5,0 (EMSC information here), magnitude 4,8 (EMSC information here). The largest earthquakes where not felt due to distance from the coast. It is not possible due to distance to see if there is an eruption taking place at this location. All harmonic tremor get lost due to distance from nearest SIL station. A really large eruption might slightly appear on tremor plot on Icelandic Met Office website, at the moment that has not happened.


The magnitude 5,0 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.


The magnitude 5,0 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Heklubyggð. This image is under Creative Commons Licence, please see CC licence for more details.

It is difficult to know if an earthquake activity is continuing in this area or not. Since the distance from nearest SIL stations does not allow for micro-earthquakes to be detected properly or at all.

Donations

Please remember to donate to help me keeping this website up and running and allow me to buy food (since I need that to write). Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano 21-March-2017

Yesterday (21-March-2017) there was an earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano. Largest earthquakes where magnitude 3,1 and 3,0. Other earthquakes that happened where smaller in magnitude.


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

There isn’t much to say about this earthquake activity (for those how do not know, please check older articles on Bárðarbunga volcano). This activity is happening due to continued inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano since the eruption ended in February-27 in 2015, inflation started in September that same year. Earthquake activity had started to drop in February, it now appears to be increasing again. When or if that results in a eruption soon is impossible to know.

Donations

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

Posted on

Earthquake swarm close to Herðubreið

All of last week there has been a minor earthquake swarm close to Herðubreið volcano crater. Yesterday (17-March-2017) the earthquake swarm increased from several earthquakes an hour and up to around several dozen earthquakes an hour. Largest earthquake so far had the magnitude of 2,9 but earlier report suggested it had a magnitude of 3,3 it was then downgraded. Since midnight (18-March-2017) around 200 earthquakes have happened. Currently the earthquake swarm is ongoing and this article might get outdated quickly.


The earthquake swarm close to Herðbreið volcano crater (red dots). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I don’t expect an eruption in this area, since currently there isn’t anything suggesting that magma might be responsible for this activity. This part of Iceland is also outside all major volcano areas, but it might possibly leak magma for some unknown reason. Last eruption in this area took place during the last glacier period in Iceland, when exactly is something I don’t know, but it ended 11.700 years ago. Eruption in this area would also create a larger earthquake activity then is currently happening, due the fact the crust in this area is cold and would require a magma to break it before it reached the surface.

This article is going to be updated if needed.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. Since it takes time to write this articles and try and figure out what is going on in each area when something is going on. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Posted on

Earthquake swarm in Tungnafellsjökull volcano

A small earthquake swarm took place in Tungnafellsjökull volcano during the night of 18-March-2017. All earthquakes that happened where minor in magnitude with many earthquakes having depth from 3 to 13 km.


The earthquake activity in Tungnafellsjökull volcano (yellow dots, north of Bárðarbunga volcano). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is not clear why this earthquake activity happened in Tugnafellsjökull volcano. This might be a dyke intrusion at depth or it might also just be a stress adjustment in the crust due to the inflation happening in Bárðarbunga volcano. It is not known at the moment if this is due to magma or stress adjustment in the crust. This is the first earthquake activity in Tungnafellsjökull volcano after considerable period of quiet.

Posted on

Strong earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

During the night (13.March-2017) a magnitude 3,7 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake happens just few days after a strong earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga (March 8th). There was no other noticeable earthquake activity following the magnitude 3,7 earthquake. Few minor earthquakes took place after the main earthquake.


The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It seems that magnitudes in the earthquakes that are taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano is increasing. The reason for this is inflation in Bárðarbunga volcano, it remains to be seen if this ends in a eruption.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. At the moment I’m on what I call “scraping by budget” since I don’t have any money to do anything and I just make it. I expect my money situation to get better from July. I had to make few changes due to problems with billing (see earlier articles). Thanks for the support. 🙂