Category: Bárðarbunga

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Moderate earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano this morning (21. April 2024)

This morning on 21. April 2024 at 06:37 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw5,4 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Largest aftershock had a magnitude of Mw3,0. There’s no earthquake swarm going on at the time of writing of this article. This earthquake was felt in some parts of Iceland but was possibly detected over most of Iceland in a quiet locations.

Green star showing the location of the large earthquake. Its located in the eastern part of Bárðarbunga volcano caldera.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is the strongest earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano since the eruption in Holuhraun in the year 2014 to 2015. This earthquake activity is a long term signal that inflation in Bárðarbunga volcano has reached a new level. Eruption is not going to happen or is extremely unlikely to happen following this earthquake or in next few years. Shortest time between eruptions in Bárðarbunga volcano is around 10 years.

This is how I recorded the earthquake on my own seismometer.

The wave form from the earthquake. A sharp dark spike on the recording of the seismometer. At the end there are strong separated waves that show the surface waves.
The magnitude Mw5,4 earthquake as it was recorded on my own seismometer.
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Earthquake with magnitude 4,7 in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (18. March 2024) at 00:45 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,7 (EMSC Information) took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Icelandic Met Office had this magnitude at Mw4,4.

Green star showing the largest earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano. Dots show smaller earthquakes happening in Bárðarbunga volcano.
Earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake is part of the inflation that is happening in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is going to continue to happen every few months for the next few years to decades until the magma chamber in Bárðarbunga volcano in it is fully inflated.

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Magnitude Mw4,9 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano yesterday (24. October 2023)

Yesterday (24. October 2023) at 22:19 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,9 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano north eastern part of the volcano. This time it was not in the caldera as is the most common location for this earthquake activity.

Green star in Bárðarbunga volcano, in Vatnajökull glacier. This green star is located slightly to the north east of the main crater of Bárðarbunga volcano. Few yellow dots are around the green star, showing smaller earthquakes.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is a inflation connected earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is the second earthquake this year that reaches magnitude of Mw4,9. There is no risk for an eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano at current time.

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Earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

Yesterday (14. October 2023) an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,6 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is one of many inflation earthquakes that have taken place in Bárðarbunga volcano since end of the eruption in 2015. This earthquake activity is going to continue for the next 50 to 100 years if nothing changes, but with rate of earthquakes getting lower as the time passes.

Green star in Bárðarbunga volcano, in the northern part of the volcano.
The activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is normal and won’t result in a eruption. This type of earthquake or larger happen currently every two to three months in Bárðarbunga volcano.

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Strong earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (4. October 2023) at 16:11 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,7 (Icelandic Met Office) or Mw5,0 (EMSC) took place in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Green star and red dots in Bárðarbunga volcano that is located north-west in Vatnajökull glacier.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is normal inflation earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano and large earthquakes like this happen every few months. This means that Bárðarbunga volcano continues to inflate after the eruption in 2014 to 2015. This earthquake activity is not going to result in a eruption and won’t result in a eruption for a long time.

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Two strong earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano

Yesterday (28. July 2023) at 23:42 UTC and 23:55 UTC two earthquakes with magnitude of Mw3,2 and Mw3,6 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. EMSC is reporting the earthquake at 23:55 as Mw4,7 and that information can be found here.

Two green stars in Bárðarbunga volcano in Vatnajökull glacier. Time on map is 29. july 2023 at 13:05 (UTC).
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There where few smaller earthquakes following this larger earthquakes. This is normal inflation activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and this is going to continue for next 30 to 70 years (based on earlier history).

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Two earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano

Because of other activity in Iceland. This article is going to be short.

Two earthquakes took place in Bárðarbunga volcano at 19:59 UTC and 20:02 on 4. July 2023. The magnitudes was Mw3,3 and Mw3,9.

Two green stars on top of each other in Bárðarbunga volcano in Vatnajökull glacier.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is normal activity and happens because of inflation in Bárðarbunga volcano.

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Second earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano in June (2023)

This month of June 2023. Bárðarbunga volcano has had it second earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,1. This is a normal inflation earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Green star in Bárðarbunga volcano. Few other earthquakes in other volcanoes that are close to Vatnajökull glacier area.
Green star in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is normal inflation earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano. It is going to be a long time until next eruption happens in Bárðarbunga volcano (expected, anything can happen).

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Regular earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

The regular once to two month earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano took place today (5. June 2023) at 00:04 UTC. This time the earthquake magnitude was Mw3,4. Few smaller earthquakes happened before the main earthquake took place. There has been minimal earthquake activity after the main earthquake.

Green star in Bárðarbunga volcano in Vatnajökull glacier. There is not a lot of other activity on this map. Time of map is 05. June. 23 time 12:00.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is regular earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. There is no risk of eruption from Bárðarbunga volcano at the moment.

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Earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

During the night of 23. April 2023 at 03:34 UTC an earthquake with the magnitude of Mw3,2 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This was just a single earthquake this time around. Depth of this earthquake was 4,6 km.

Green star in Bárðarbunga volcano. Showing the location of the newest earthquake in this volcano.
Green star in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake shows that Bárðarbunga volcano continues to inflate. This is now normal earthquake activity and happens every one to three months, sometimes the time between earthquakes is longer.