Volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland
Today (23.01.2017) an earthquake with magnitude 3,9 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is the strongest earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano for several weeks now.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano are due to inflation of the volcano after the Holuhraun 2014 – 2015 eruption.
On 19-January-2017 a magnitude 3,5 earthquake happened in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is a normal earthquake activity for Bárðarbunga volcano at the moment and happens just about weekly at the moment.
The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
I don’t expect any activity outside of what has been happening for the last several months.
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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On the 4th and 6th of January 2017 earthquakes took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. The earthquake on 4th of January had the magnitude of 3,3 (I think) and the earthquake on the 6th of January had the magnitude of 3,5. Both earthquakes where inside the crater of Bárðarbunga volcano, along the fault rims. The reason for this earthquake activity is the inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano, that appears to be rather rapid and mostly steady process. Influx of magma happens in pulses and those pulses are in different size and how long they last.
The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
This type of earthquake activity is a regular feature of Bárðarbunga volcano at the moment. I don’t expect that to change any time soon. What might change is the magnitude of the earthquakes happening, I suspect that with time they are going to get more rare but larger in magnitude instead.
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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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During the night of 12-December-2016 a earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake activity happens because the volcano is inflating currently after period of deflation during the eruption from August-2014 to Februar-2015. As before, most of earthquake activity happens in the north-east part of the caldera. Why that is the case is not known to me at the moment.
The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
The earthquake swarm lasted for about ~1 hour this time around. Slower and smaller earthquake swarm has been going on for the past ~10 days in Bárðarbunga volcano. I call those “slow earthquake swarm” [not a scientific term], they are more difficult to detect, but they often happen (but I have not yet seen them mentioned in any science papers yet, so this is just my personal view). Largest magnitudes in this earthquake swarm where 3,9 (04:10), 3,8 (04:24), 4,2 (04:29). Other earthquakes where smaller in this swarm.
This earthquake activity is due to the fact that magma is flowing into Bárðarbunga volcano magma chamber at depth (~10 km) and inflating the volcano after it collapsed during the eruption 2014 – 2015. This inflation is faster then anyone expected I suspect, since after the eruption ended in February-2015 it was expected that Bárðarbunga volcano would be quiet for a long time after such large eruption. That has not happened, even if no new eruption has happened so far.
It is not possible to know when next eruption happens or where it is going to happen. Deep earthquakes have been happening under Trölladyngja, suggesting magma movements under that area. Last two eruptions in Trölladyngja took place in the year 5000 BCE and 7100 BCE (GVP information), that means eruption can happen again in this shield volcano (inside Bárðarbunga volcano fissure swarm). There are many other locations that eruptions can happened, at the moment it is expected that possible next eruptions continue to happen north east of Bárðarbunga volcano, close to Holuhraun lava field or in that direction. It is good to remember that if the magma cannot go to the sides, its either going to stay in its place or if the pressure is high enough, it is going to go straight up along the caldera fault line. Hydrothermal activity on the rims of Bárðarbunga volcano caldera suggests that this has already happened and magma now sits at ~1 km depth already. It just didn’t erupt during the last eruption sequence in 2014 – 2015 (it at least has not yet been confirmed).
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Over the past few days it has been quiet in Iceland. There hasn’t been overall lot happening. Biggest earthquake activity that is currently taking place is happening around 340 km north of Kolbeinsey Island (it’s a tiny Island, with nothing on it, not even birds make use of it).
The earthquake activity north of Kolbeinsey Island. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Largest earthquake have had the magnitude around 3,3.
Bárðarbunga volcano
Currently there isn’t much happening earthquake wise in Bárðarbunga volcano. Current earthquake activity has however exposed the ring fault in the caldera, suggesting that its moving upward at decent speed (few mm/month). This also means that Bárðarbunga volcano is inflating as is.
The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Deep earthquake activity is also around Trölladyngja (shield volcano). This deep earthquake under Trölladyngja is unusual and that is my view eruption might happen there soon. It is impossible to know when such a event happens.
Katla volcano
Earthquake activity in Katla volcano has been quiet. It is normal that earthquake activity drops in Katla volcano this time of the year. I’m expecting quiet few weeks in Katla volcano.
There is little earthquake activity in Katla volcano at the moment. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Hekla volcano
Two earthquakes appeared in Hekla volcano on 8-December-2016. No other activity happened after that.
Reykjanes ridge
A minor earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes ridge on 8-December-2016. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2,9.
Earthquake activity on the Reykjanes ridge. The earthquake swarm is where the blue dots are. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
I think this is most of the earthquake activity that has happened in and around Iceland during the last few days. Due to software problems on my server and on my desktop computer I was unable to write an update about what was happening in earthquake activity for the past few days.
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Over the past few hours a sequence of deep earthquakes has been taking place in Bárðarbunga volcano. The depth of those earthquakes is from 19 km and up to 11 km, how they spread out suggesting a dyke intrusion in Bárðarbunga volcano fissure swarm or on the edge of the volcano.
The deep earthquakes taking place almost south of the main caldera in Bárðarbunga volcano (few blue/yellow dots). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Deep earthquake activity suggests that fresh magma is pushing into the volcano at more pressure than in past few days. The clues about this happening have been the stronger earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano over the past few weeks. New dykes can also form without warning and start an eruption if the pressure is enough in them, such eruption might not last long, not even a whole day in some cases.
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During the night (26-November-2016) a swarm of earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Largest earthquake had the magnitude of 3,8 other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.
The magnitude 3,8 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
On 22-November-2016 a magnitude 3,6 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. That earthquake took place in the south-west part of the caldera, close to the place where the dyke broke out in 2014.
The magnitude Mw3,6 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano on 22-November-2016. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
This type of earthquake activity is now so common in Bárðarbunga volcano that I can’t write about them all. If I did write about them all, there would be nothing but articles about Bárðarbunga volcano on this website.
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