Category: Magma

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Magnitude 3,1 earthquake in Öræfajökull volcano

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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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano (Week 03-2018)

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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Sharp increase in earthquakes in Katla volcano

Yesterday (05-January-2018) a warning was issued about higher conductivity in glacier rivers from Mýrdalsjökull glacier. This is due to increased activity in Katla volcano. At the moment the conductivity is around 613 µS/cm according to Icelandic Met Office (I can’t find that number on their website for unknown reasons). Volcano gas has also been registered at Láguhvolar SIL station (a gas measurement takes place there). Last time this happened was in November-2017 when a slightly larger glacier flood took place.


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

Following the glacier flood was a sharp increase in earthquake activity. It is unclear why that happened as glacier flood do not require special earthquake activity to happen. There are no clear sign of minor eruptions happening on SIL stations around Katla volcano. I have not seen any change in tremor plots from SIL stations around Katla volcano. As it now stands I am expecting more earthquake activity and more glacier flood activity if this follows earlier pattern. That might not happen and it is difficult to know for sure what is going to happen next. Largest earthquake in current activity had the magnitude of 2,1 and all other earthquakes have so far been smaller in magnitude. All earthquakes have depth shallower than 1 km.

Sorry if my English is bit off. I did travel for good 14 hours (start time at ~04:10 and got home at ~18:40) on 4th of January-2018. This is the time it takes me to travel home (Denmark) from Iceland. I was completely exhausted once I got home.

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Small earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

Today (30-December-2017) a small earthquake swarm took place in Katla volcano. This earthquake activity was a minor one and the largest earthquake only had a magnitude of 1,4 and all other earthquakes where smaller.


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

It is difficult to know if more earthquake activity is going to happen in Katla volcano. Winter months are normally quiet when it comes to earthquake activity in Katla volcano.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Magnitude 3,5 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

During the night of 16-December-2017 at 02:41 UTC an earthquake took place in close to central caldera of Bárðarbunga volcano. Depth of this earthquake was 11 km and no aftershocks followed this earthquake. Both location and lack of earthquakes following this earthquake is unusual.


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

I suspect there is now coming a time period of stronger earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano, close to one that was earlier this autumn. When a earthquake with magnitude 4,7 happened.

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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.

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