Category: Hekla

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Two minor earthquakes in Hekla volcano

I am sorry being late with this blog post.

On Wednesday (23-October-2013) two earthquakes took place in Hekla volcano. One earthquake took place outside the main volcano, but inside the Hekla volcano system. All earthquakes were small with the largest one having the magnitude of 1,6 km. The two earthquakes in the main Hekla volcano are shallow earthquakes, the largest one (magnitude 1,6) just having the depth of 1,3 km. What is creating this earthquake activity remains unclear at present time.

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Earthquake activity in Hekla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

So far there are no signs of an eruption going to take place soon in Hekla volcano. Web cameras of Hekla volcano can be found here (jonfr.com), here (Rúv.is) and here (livefromiceland.is). My webicorder data can be found here (jonfr.com) online. The geophone at Heklubyggð detects earthquakes down to magnitude 0,0 if the weather is good, so if an eruption starts in Hekla volcano all the signs are going to appear clearly on that geophone as the activity starts.

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Earthquake south of Hekla volcano

Today (08-October-2013) at 04:48 UTC an earthquake with the magnitude of 1,9 took place south of Hekla volcano, it’s depth was 7,3 km. A second earthquake took place at 04:59 UTC and had the magnitude of 0,8, it’s depth was 5,8 km. This earthquakes where not felt. It is also unclear what is creating this activity, the most likely reason is change is magma pressure inside Hekla volcano plumbing system. This does not mean an eruption is about to take place in Hekla volcano.

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The earthquake south of Hekla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquake activity in Hekla volcano has been unusually high for the past few months. Improvements have also been made on the SIL network close to Hekla volcano, this means that more smaller earthquakes have been recorded now then in the past. So far there are no signs of this connecting to an imminent eruption in Hekla volcano, the volcano has remained quiet so far and it’s unlikely to change at the moment.

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Earthquake south of Hekla volcano

Tonight (28-September-2013) at 21:47 UTC an magnitude 2.0 earthquake took place south of Hekla volcano. Depth of this earthquake was 2.9 km according to automatic results from Icelandic Meteorological Office. So far no future earthquakes have been detected and there are no signs of eruption starting in Hekla volcano.

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The earthquake south of Hekla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This is the second earthquake that takes place inside Hekla volcano system this month. Last earthquake that took place in Hekla volcano was in the main volcano in the start of September. I wrote about it here. I am not expecting any more activity, but I might be wrong since it is difficult at best to know how Hekla volcano is going to behave before an eruption. Earthquake activity at Hekla volcano appears clearly on my geophone at Heklubyggð, it can be viewed here (updated every 5 min.).

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Minor earthquake in Hekla volcano

Today (04-September-2013) a minor earthquake took place in Hekla volcano. The magnitude of this earthquake was just 0.4 and the depth was 0.1 km, so this earthquake was not connected to magma movements of any type.

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The earthquake in Hekla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Based on how shallow this earthquake was, it is unlikely that it means anything in terms of possible eruption in the volcano. At the moment there are same chances for Hekla volcano eruption as any other day of the week, that has not changed at all.

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Minor earthquake in Hekla volcano

A minor earthquake was detected in Hekla volcano on 21-June-2013. This earthquake was at north-east side of Hekla volcano, it had only the magnitude 0.6 and depth of 8.3 km. This is not at good detection according to Icelandic Meteorological Office person that I did speak to about this earthquake today.

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The earthquake in Hekla volcano to the north-east side. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake is just one earthquake in series of earthquakes in Hekla volcano. While this earthquake was poorly located due to almost not being detected, I am sure that the only reason this earthquake was recorded is due to more SIL stations around Hekla volcano that have been set-up in the past two years.

There are no signs of eruption is about to start in Hekla volcano.

Blog post updated at 00:22 UTC on 22-June-2013.

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Earthquake in Hekla volcano

Today (04.05.2013) at 05:06 UTC a magnitude 1.5 earthquake took place in Hekla volcano. This earthquake had the depth of 7.8 km. No other earthquakes have so far taken place following this earthquake and no change has taken place in tremor plots around Hekla volcano. This earthquake follows a pattern of earthquakes that have been taking place in Hekla volcano for the past several weeks.

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The earthquake in Hekla volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

My Heklubyggð geophone is currently offline due to network problems in the area. I do not know when they are going to be resolved, it might take few days. Data is being recorded currently if the computer that handles this task is up and running.

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Earthquake activity in Hekla, Katla, Krísuvík and Bárðarbunga volcanoes

Before I start. I want to remind people that donations help me to keep this blog up and running. I only have social welfare from Iceland and that is barely enough to make end meets. Just 10€ go a long way for me. Thanks!

Hekla and Katla volcanoes

I am going to write about both this volcanoes here. Since I am going to be using the same image anyway for both volcanoes.

Yesterday (26.04.2013) there was a magnitude 1.1 earthquake in Hekla voclano. This earthquake was in the same area that triggered uncertainty level to be declared just before Easters in March. It was later cancelled when nothing more happened.

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Earthquake in Hekla volcano. Also on this picture earthquake activity in Katla volcano (read more below). Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Katla volcano has been having some earthquake activity in past days. So far it has just been minor earthquakes and nothing more. But it has been taking place where a minor eruption took place in Katla volcano during the summer of 2011. That minor eruption created a minor glacier flood. But it did destroy a bridge and closed down the ring road (road 1) in this part of Iceland.

While this activity is currently nothing to worry about. It is worth keeping a eye on it. Just in case it increases, or if some other changes start to take place in Katla volcano.

Krísuvík volcano

A minor earthquake swarm took place in Krísuvík volcano today (27.04.2013). The largest earthquake had the magnitude of 1.9. The depth of this earthquakes was around 8.6 km. Activity in this area is normal and there does not seem anything strange about it. But Krísuvík volcano has been having periods of inflation and deflation for the past three years. Earthquake activity increases when Krísuvík volcano is in period of inflation. If that is the case now I do not know.

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Earthquake activity in Krísuvík volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Bárðarbunga volcano

A minor earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano today. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 1.3. Depth range was from 18.8 km and up to 11.1 km. This earthquake swarm is important. Since it appears that this is a dike intrusion in Bárðarbunga volcano. But a minor dike intrusion also took place in this area few weeks ago. That also resulted in a minor earthquake swarm in this same area.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Most likely due to minor dike intrusion into the volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

A minor dike intrusions into a volcano does not mean a eruption is going to take place. In many Icelandic volcanoes (and around the world also) dike intrusions into the volcanoes are common event and in most cases do not result in any eruptions. But it is worth keep a watch out for this type of eruptions. Since it might signal a more active period ahead in Bárðarbunga volcano. But it might also just equally don’t mean anything. There is no way to know for sure.

Other then this activity. It has been rather quiet in Iceland at the moment. No larger earthquakes have been taking place in the past two weeks since activity slowed down in Tjörnes Fracture Zone.

Blog post updated at 22:32 UTC on 27.04.2013.
Blog post updated at 22:53 UTC on 27.04.2013.

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Earthquake activity in Hekla, Askja volcanoes and TFZ

Before I start. I want to remind people that donations are import to me. Since they help me keeping this blog and my earthquake web page up and running.

Hekla volcano earthquake activity

A minor earthquake activity took place in Hekla volcano yesterday. None of the earthquake was larger then ML1.2. The depth of this earthquake activity was around 8.4 km. This earthquake activity took place outside the main volcano. But was in the connected fissure swarms that extends from Hekla volcano.

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Earthquake activity in Hekla volcano system. The earthquakes are the orange dots just south-west of Hekla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquakes have been taking place in this area for few years now. I do not know what they mean. This might just be a earthquake activity and nothing else. Uncertainty level has been canceled for few weeks now due to lack of any more activity in the main Hekla volcano.

Askja volcano

There has been minor earthquake activity in Askja volcano this past weeks. All of the earthquakes have been smaller then magnitude 1.5. Depth of this earthquakes is around 18 to 22 km. Suggesting that current earthquake activity has its source in magma movements rather then tectonic earthquakes.

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Earthquakes in Askja volcano. Askja volcano is the volcano north-east of Vatnajökull glacier. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone has slowed down since 2. April when a large earthquake swarm started in it. But earthquake activity remains as is. Even if the earthquakes are smaller and fewer. This means the earthquake activity has been continuous for the past three weeks.

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Earthquake activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. It remains in two areas as of now. New activity has also been taking place. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is difficult to know for sure what happens next in TFZ. But tension in it remains as before and so does the risk for larger earthquake in this area. For the moment however, it remains rather quiet. When that might change is impossible to know for sure.

Blog post updated at 18:16 UTC on 24.04.2013.

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Uncertainty level declared on Hekla volcano

Uncertainty level has been declared on Hekla volcano due to strange earthquake activity in it for the past week or so. But in total of seven earthquakes where recorded in Hekla volcano at the depth of 11 to 12 km. This is highly unusual for Hekla volcano. People are advised against going up to Hekla volcano while uncertainty level is in force. It is also dangerous to be too close to Hekla volcano. Since if an eruption starts, it is going to start without any warning at all.

I am going to post updates on Hekla volcano as needed if anything happens. It is possible to watch activity live from Hekla volcano on my geophone page here. But I have a geophone located about 16 km away from Hekla volcano. List of web cameras that I know of are online and focused on Hekla volcano can be found here. Update 1: Web camera that is showing Hekla volcano (pictures) can also be found here.

News about this in English

Seismic activity in Mount Hekla (Rúv.is)

News about this in Icelandic

Ekki mikið um jarðskjálfta við Heklu (Rúv.is)
Óvenjuleg jarðskjálftahrina í Heklu (Rúv.is)
Engin bráðahætta á eldgosi (Rúv.is)
Jarðhræringar í Heklu: Óvissustig í gildi (Rúv.is)

Óvissustig vegna Heklu (mbl.is)
Engin sjáanleg merki um eldgos í aðsigi (mbl.is)
Hægt að fylgjast með Heklu (mbl.is)

Óvissustig vegna hugsanlegs goss í Heklu (Vísir.is)
Ferðamenn varaðir við að vera nærri Heklu (Vísir.is)
Fyrirvarinn yrði einn til tveir tímar (Vísir.is)

Ó­vissu­stig vegna ó­venju­legra hræringa í Heklu (DV.is)
„Hekla gaus með litlum fyrirvara síðast“ (DV.is)
Eftirlitsstig vegna Heklu hækkað úr grænu í gult (DV.is)

Blog post updated at 17:26 UTC on 26.03.2013.