Category: Magma

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Strong earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today at 16:13 UTC (29-April-2018) a magnitude 3,9 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Earlier earthquake had a magnitude at 2,8 and took place at 05:01 UTC. This was also the second largest earthquake that happened today.


Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is normal for Bárðarbunga volcano at the moment. This earthquake activity happens since Bárðarbunga volcano is inflating after the eruption in 2014-August to 2015-February. Current rate of this type of earthquake activity is a magnitude 3,0 or larger earthquake every 2 to 4 months. This used to happen weekly in 2015 and 2016. Earthquakes are now fewer but magnitude is often larger.

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Article updated at 19:37 UTC. Minor text fixes.

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Small earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

On 25-April-2018 and on 26-April-2018 small earthquake swarm took place in Katla volcano. The earthquake activity took place in the south part of the Katla volcano caldera.


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

Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 2,1 and 1,8. All other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude. This also suggests that summer earthquake activity in Katla volcano is starting and more earthquake swarms like this can be expected in next few months.

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Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull and Tungnafellsjökull volcanoes

This article contains information about two volcanoes. There is currently also a lot of earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. But that is going to be a different article if needed.

Öræfajökull volcano

At the moment there is a continuous minor earthquake activity happening in Öræfajökull volcano. Largest earthquake in current swarm had the magnitude of 2,0 and second largest earthquake had a magnitude of 1,5.


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


Earthquake rate in Öræfajökull volcano for the last 15 days. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

What worries me about Öræfajökull volcano is that it already seems to be at stage two in its path to an eruption. Article explaining that can be read here, Seismic patterns help forecast eruptions from quiet stratovolcanoes

Tungnafellsjökull volcano

There has been minor earthquake activity in Tungnafellsjökull volcano in recent days but mostly in last few hours. It remains unclear at the moment why this earthquake activity is happening. It is a possibility that this just tectonic stress due to Bárðarbunga volcano activity in 2014 – 2015 eruption.


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

As it currently stands I don’t think anything is going to happen in Tungnafellsjökull volcano for now.

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Sharp increase in earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano (it’s quiet again)

During the night of 9-April-2018 a swarm of earthquake appeared in Öræfajökull volcano. This activity has quieted down again for now. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 1,5 but all other earthquakes appear to be smaller than 1,0 in magnitude. Depth seems to have been at 6 – 8 km, but depth information doesn’t seems to be fully accurate. I don’t know why that is. Total number of earthquakes was 22 in this swarm.


Last 15 days in earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Earthquake trends in Öræfajökull volcano since 2005. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


The latest 48 hours in earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I am not sure why this earthquake swarm activity pattern happens and then vanishes. I do find it troubling that it does this and I think this is happening more frequently now than before. Earthquake magnitudes continue to be small but that might not be the whole story of what is currently happening in Öræfajökull volcano. There is no major change in conductivity in the glacier rivers from Öræfajökull volcano.

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Monthly update on Öræfajökull volcano – March 2018

This is a short update on the activity in Öræfajökull volcano.

Over the past month the earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano has been mostly stable and majority of the earthquakes happening are small in magnitude and most in the range of 0,0 – 1,0. One magnitude 2,8 and magnitude 3,0 earthquake have happened in this time period (article here).


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

This earthquake activity is easily masked by strong winds and bad weather in the area. As summer approaches in Iceland risk of such storms is now smaller than during high winter. It is only when larger earthquakes start to appear that the risk of an eruption becomes serious. Until then this is just earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano that needs to be monitored.

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Magnitude 4,3 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

Yesterday (21-March-2018) at 22:56 UTC a magnitude 4,3 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake is at the usual place inside the Bárðarbunga volcano caldera, but this location that had activity now is also the place that has high energy hydrothermal hot springs. This area of hydrothermal activity is high enough to melt trough the 100 meters of glacier at this location.


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

Earthquake activity appears to be ongoing at the moment in Bárðarbunga volcano and nearby SIL station show that more smaller earthquakes are currently happening in Bárðarbunga volcano than are showing up on the map of Bárðarbunga volcano.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (07-March-2018) there has been deep earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake activity was in two areas. In the main volcano and south-east of it.


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

The earthquake swarm in the main volcano is normal and is connected to current inflation activity of Bárðarbunga volcano. Earthquake activity happens mostly when magma is pushing the crust upwards when it flows into the volcano from depth. The earthquake swarm to the south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano is more interesting. That is a dyke and it has been in this area for numbers of years already. At the moment this dyke remains at depth of 15 – 23 km but this increase in activity might be increasing the risk of eruption if it does not quiet down. The increased magma activity in Bárðarbunga volcano has increased the earthquake activity in this dyke over the last few months.

There is a high risk of strong earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano in the next few days to weeks.

What also happened in this earthquake swarm was a high intensity tremor on the mid-band (1-2Hz) during the earthquake swarm. This is highly unusual. What it means is less clear.


The tremor activity (close to the end) on a SIL station close to Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

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Ongoing earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano, fresh earthquake activity in Tungnafellsjökull volcano

At the moment the earthquake activity that started in Öræfajökull volcano on 25-February-2018 is currently ongoing. Most of the earthquakes happening are small, most are smaller than magnitude 1,0.


Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull and Tungnafellsjökull volcanoes. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Tungnafellsjökull volcano

Directly north-west of Öræfajökull volcano is a another volcano making earthquakes. That volcano is named Tungnafellsjökull volcano. Most of its earthquake activity is also small earthquakes with magnitude smaller than 1,0. After the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano 2014 – 2015 earthquake activity increased in Tungnafellsjökull volcano. Earthquake activity was also high during the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano due to stress changes in the crust. It is likely that current earthquake activity is due to adjustment of tectonic stresses.

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Fresh earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano

Yesterday (24-February-2018) and today (25-February-2018) earthquake activity increased in Öræfajökull volcano after a long quiet time. Largest earthquake recorded had a magnitude of 2,2. Other magnitude where from 0,6 and up to 1,2. All earthquakes are marked as at shallow depth, but that might not be correct.


Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano (south to the right on this image). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano is due to magma pushing up into the volcano. This is above background level of activity in Öræfajökull volcano since background level activity is around 1 – 2 earthquake a year (up to 10 earthquakes a year).

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Hydrothermal activity creates dangerous ice cave in Hofsjökull volcano

Hydrothermal activity has formed a ice cave in Hofsjökull glacier (volcano details here). According to an announcement by Icelandic Met Office this ice cave is dangerous due to sulphur (SO2) pollution and that it goes above 60ppm. That can result in loss of breathing, loss of vision and damage to eyes and lungs. People should only enter this ice cave with gas monitoring hardware on them. One seven year old girl passed out due to sulphur poising some weeks ago in a trip to this newly formed ice cave. There is also a high risk of collapse from the roof of the ice cave as ice appears to be loose above it and can collapse down without warning at any time.

There is also a risk of hydrothermal activity increasing and that is going to result in more sulphur (SO2) gas in the cave and other dangerous gases coming up. This appears to the same location that had increased activity 15 years ago that also formed an ice cave. The reason for this increase in hydrothermal activity is unclear since no earthquake activity has been recorded in Hofsjökull volcano for the past 10 years. This means earthquake activity above background levels, one or three earthquakes are recorded each year in random part of the caldera or parts of Hofsjökull volcano outside of the caldera area. Höfsjökull volcano is on its own rifting zone (information here, related paper here) (marked as SRZ on some documents) along with Kerlingarfjöll volcano (it is now under GVP as Hreppar. I don’t know why that is).

Icelandic News

Veðurstofa varar við íshelli í Hofsjökli (Rúv.is, Picture, Icelandic)

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