Category: Herðubreiðarfjöll

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Overview of week 41 activity in Iceland

Week 41 in Iceland was rather quiet, compared to last two weeks in Iceland. Here is a overview over the highlight in the earthquake activity in Iceland.

South Iceland Seismic Zone (SISZ)

Constant earthquake activity has been in SISZ over the week and it has been ongoing for the past weeks, none of the earthquakes have been large, with almost all of them being less then magnitude 1,0. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2,5.

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The earthquake activity on SISZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Bárðarbunga volcano

For most part earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano was normal this week, with regular earthquake swarms taking place in the usual places. The most interesting earthquake this week took place under Trölladyngju, it was only magnitude 0,7, but it was on depth of 26,2 km.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Herðubreið

Earthquake swarm has been taking place all week in Herðubreið. Earthquake swarms are common in this area and often have magnitude 3,0 earthquakes or larger. The earthquake swarm is ongoing when this is written.

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Earthquake activity in Herðubreið/Herðubreiðarfjöll area (north of Askja volcano). Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

Reykjanes ridge

A magnitude 3,4 earthquake took place deep on the Reykjanes ridge this week. The earthquake was not felt and there might have been more than one earthquake. My geophone in Heklubyggð shows more than one earthquake one hour after the magnitude 3,4 earthquake happens.

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Earthquake activity on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.

A magnitude 3,0 earthquake also took place around 200 km off the coast of Reykjanes peninsula (around 153 km south of Eldeyjarboða). That earthquake location was poor due to the distance from the SIL network.

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Earthquake activity update on 16.11.2012

Here is a short update on earthquake activity in Iceland. It has been stormy few weeks so recorded earthquake activity has not been a lot in Iceland.

Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Earthquake activity continues in TFZ. A bit less then when it did start on 20. October 2012. But it still moves along. The risk of large earthquake area remains for this area. When, where and how big remains unknown factors so far.


Earthquake activity in TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Herðubreiðarfjöll volcano

Herðubreiðarfjöll volcano is a small volcano (no GVP entry that I know of) just north of Askja volcano. But Herðubreiðarfjöll volcano are in fact part of Askja volcano fissure swarm. But I do not think they are part of Askja volcano as such.


Earthquake activity in Herðarbreiðarfjöll volcano (the blue dots). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The earthquake activity in Herðurbreiðarfjöll volcano was most likely a minor dike intrusion into the volcano. What that means is too early to say at this moment. But most likely it does not mean anything for now at least.

There has been some minor ice-quake activity in Iceland when the temperature drops below 0 degrees in Iceland.

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Deep earthquake in Herðurbreiðarfjöll volcano (Askja volcano fissure swarm)

Today at 06:57 UTC in Iceland there was a ML0.2 earthquake east of Herðurbreiðarfjöll volcano. While the size of this earthquake is really small. It is the depth that is interesting in this case. The depth of this earthquake was at 25,7 km depth. This is a interesting depth given the increase in earthquake activity in Askja volcano.

According to my geological map (a rather new one) the mountain named Herðubreiðarfjöll is a volcano that is inside Askja volcano fissure swarm. A common thing that happens in Iceland. This area has many active fault lines and has erupted in modern time. But I do not know when this volcano last erupted, as there are no information on Herðurbreiðarfjöll volcano activity in the GVP database and I have not found anything useful on the internet about this volcano.

Earthquake activity continues in Askja volcano. But at slower rate then before. Other then this, it is quiet in Iceland as it has been for the past few weeks.