Category: Bárðarbunga

During the night of 08-March-2017 a strong earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 4,1 and the second largest earthquake swarm had the magnitude of 3,9. Other earthquakes in this swarm where smaller in magnitude.

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

Earthquake activity happens in Bárðarbunga volcano mainly due to magma being injected into the main volcano at depth. This goes into magma chambers somewhere in the volcano, current data suggests that the magma chamber that erupted in in August 2014 to February 2015 is currently inflating. The rate of this type of earthquake activity has gone down in Bárðarbunga volcano, this used to be a weekly activity but now only happens every 2 to 4 weeks at the moment. This slowdown in activity is likely to continue if nothing else happens (new eruption or dyke activity).

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This morning (01.03.2017) there was an strong earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano. Strongest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 4,1 and other earthquakes where smaller. Total of 5 earthquake happened with magnitude above 3,0.

The earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano. Green stars are the earthquakes with magnitude above 3,0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is how the largest earthquake with the magnitude of 4,1 appeared on my geophones.

The magnitude 4,1 earthquake at Heklubyggð geophone. Shows strong surface wave activity. Filtered at 1Hz. This image is under Creative Commons Licence. See CC Licence site for more details.

The magnitude 4,1 earthquake at Böðvarshólar geophone. Filtered at 4Hz. This image is under Creative Commons Licence. See CC Licence site for more details.

This earthquake activity happens due to magma influx into Bárðarbunga volcano, resulting in a inflation. The last month (February 2017) has been the most quiet since end of the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano in February 2015.

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Yesterday (30.01.2017) there was exactly one week (article here) since last earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. In this weekly activity there is an emerging pattern, that pattern is that earthquake magnitude is growing. Number of earthquakes happening in each swarm has not increased that I have noted (at the moment at least). Magnitude 4,3 earthquake moves the fault few mm upward in this case. Those millimetres have now started to add up. I don’t know what the inflation currently is due to lack of GPS data at the moment.

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

Latest earthquake swarm had magnitude (in the order they happened), magnitude 4,3, magnitude 4,1, magnitude 3,4. Depth of this earthquake swarm was also slightly different, being from 9,4 – 8,3 km. It is difficult to know for sure what is going on at this depth, magma might be creating path for it in the crust on its way to the surface or this simply might just be the fault inside the caldera moving upward at slow phase. Earthquake activity happens when fresh magma is injected into Bárðarbunga volcano. This is going to continue to happen for a long time, maybe until next eruption.

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On Friday 6th of January 2017 it was noted by one of my readers that a deep earthquake activity had happen in Bárðarbunga volcano, the earthquake in question was a magnitude 1,6 at depth of 25 km. At that depth the only earthquakes that happen are due to magma movement, at that depth the pressure is such tectonic (as explained by Icelandic geologists) earthquakes do not commonly happen at this depth. Today, 8th of January 2017 a magnitude 3,3 earthquake happened in Bárðarbunga volcano at the depth of 7,3 km and the earthquake had the magnitude of 3,5.

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

The inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano is now at considerable levels, it is not known if or when an next eruption happens. It appears, based on historical data that eruption cycles in Bárðarbunga volcano last for up to 20 years (depending), during such time there is an eruption every few years. At the moment there is also a rifting taking place in this area, making already a complex situation a lot more complex and harder to figure out. Since besides the main volcano, a volcano named Hamarinn can also erupt during this cycles. It has already erupted and did so in July-2011 when it had a 8 – 12 hour long eruption resulting a massive glacier flood, but it did not break the surface of the glacier (Vatnajökull).

Good example of this cycle and repeated eruption pattern can be found in historical data on Global Volcanism Program website (link above).

The last eruption cycle took place in the late 19th century and ended in early 20th century. The following eruptions happened (documented, there is a good chance that some eruption might have been missed due to how remote Bárðarbunga volcano is),

1862 June 30 – 1864 October 15 (error margin +- 45 days). Area of eruption was Tröllagígar.
1872 – Date not know nor eruption site, Dyngjuhals suspected.
1902 December – 1903 June. Eruption site not known, Dyngjuhals also suspected.
1910 June 18 – 1910 October, Loki-Fögrufjöll (East loki Cauldron). This is also known as Hamarinn volcano.

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In 2016 Bárðarbunga volcano kept busy all year with inflating and preparing for the next eruption.

On 31-December-2016 a swarm of earthquake happened in Bárðarbunga volcano, largest earthquake in that swarm had the magnitude of 3,6 and the second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 3,3. On 02-January-2017 few earthquake happened, the largest one having the magnitude of 2,8.

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

At the moment, the Bárðarbunga volcano continues to inflate at what seems to be a rather fast rate. When that might lead to an eruption is difficult to know. Other more complex factors are also at work here that I don’t know to well and are impossible to figure out.

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This morning a earthquake swarm started in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake swarm started at 03:31 UTC and lasted until 03:35 UTC when a small break happened, the earthquake swarm resumed at 09:35 UTC with two earthquakes. Those two earthquakes had the magnitude of 3,0 and 3,1.

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

On Monday (19-December-2016) a swarm of deep earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Suggesting that new magma got injected into the volcano from deep within the mantle (~100 – 200 km depth). This type of pattern has appeared before and it can be expected to happen again.

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