Category: Öræfajökull

This is a update on the earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano on 26-June-2018.

Reviewed earthquake magnitude of the largest earthquake that happened at 16:57 UTC in Öræfajökull volcano has placed the magnitude at Mw3,1. Other earthquakes were smaller in magnitude, but strongest earthquake after the main earthquake had a magnitude of 2,1 (at 16:59 UTC).

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

Earthquake activity seems to have quieted down around 20:15 UTC. It might resume without much warning later tonight, tomorrow or days from now. It is not possible to know when the earthquake activity is going to resume. No harmonic tremor was detected following the magnitude 3,1 earthquake. That means this was just volcano-tectonic earthquake due to inflation (assumed) in Öræfajökull volcano.

This article is going to be updated later with more details.

A magnitude 3,5 earthquake happened in Öræfajökull volcano at 16:57 UTC. This is a automatic magnitude and is going to be corrected later. A swarm of earthquakes seems to have started in Öræfajökull volcano.

Earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The harmonic tremor images have not yet updated so I don’t know at the moment if any harmonic tremor has started following this earthquake swarm.

This article is going to be updated later with new information.

The day after increase in earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano a second earthquake swarm started. This earthquake swarm was slightly bigger in magnitude than the earthquake swarm that happened yesterday (20-June-2018).

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

Largest earthquake in this earthquake swarm had a magnitude of 2,6 and all other earthquakes were smaller in magnitude. The largest earthquake was felt on nearby farms.

Böðvarshólar geophone station

Due to a computer hardware (damaged motherboard) the Böðvarshólar geophone station is offline and is going to remain offline until I can afford upgrading it to a Raspberry Shake seismometer. At the moment I don’t know when that is going to happen but that is going to require a different hardware set-up and for the gif image to appear that requires me to have the main earthquake computer online. Currently that computer is offline due to lack of housing I am having in Iceland (that is going to resolve it self when I move to Denmark or Germany in next few months [I hope]).

Today (20-June-2018) a swarm of small earthquake happened in Öræfajökull volcano. Current earthquake activity is vastly different than what appeared during the months and weeks before the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. There was less earthquake activity happening in the months and weeks before an eruption eventually happened.

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

Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 1,8 and all other earthquakes where smaller. Most around magnitude 0,5. Depth is 5 to 8 km at present time. In my view this earthquake activity suggests that Öræfajökull volcano is going to be a major problem in the future.

Yesterday (29-May-2018) there was a minor increase in earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. The increase in earthquake activity was mostly in line with what has been happening in recent months.

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

Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2,1 and all other earthquakes were smaller in magnitude. That magnitude is from 0,0 and up to magnitude 1,0.

Moving to Iceland

I am going to be moving to Iceland in one day. That means there might be a slight delay in me writing a new article if something happens while that is in progress. At the moment I am only working on a laptop in a limited capability. At the moment I don’t know when I get up to full capability, but at the latest that won’t happen until August.

During the night of 10-May-2018 an earthquake swarm took place in Öræfajökull volcano. This was not a large earthquake swarm as is common for Öræfajökull volcano. Less than a dozen earthquake happened this time around. At the moment there doesn’t seems to be any earthquake activity happening in Öræfajökull volcano.

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

Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 1,5 and the second largest magnitude was 1,4. All other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude. At the moment this seems to be the normal earthquake pattern for Öræfajökull volcano. When that changes is impossible to know.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. At the moment I am extremely broke due to my bill situation. The good news is that May is final month (I hope) were I am going to have this problem. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Future plans

My plan on moving to Spain failed due to how limited amount of money I can save to buy an apartment in Spain (it would take me over 10 years to save up for a payment [30% + 11% costs]). That means I am going to move to plan B. That plan means I am going to be moving to Frankfurt Am Main, Germany. I don’t know for sure when that happens. I am at the moment estimating that I’ll be living in Iceland for 3 to 4 years as things currently stand. I can move to Frankfurt Am Main, Germany soon as I have 9000€ (around maximum amount) saved for all the costs (plus 300.000 ISK for transport of my belongings to Germany).

Article updated at 18:36 UTC. Minor text fixes and addons in Future plans section.

Yesterday (05-May-2018) and today (06-May-2018) a earthquake swarm took place in Öræfajökull volcano. In yesterday earthquake swarm the largest earthquake had a magnitude of 1,5 and most other earthquakes had magnitude lower than 1,0. In today earthquake swarm largest magnitude was 1,0. Today earthquake swarm was considerably smaller than yesterday activity.

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

Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull remains at low levels but well above background levels for Öræfajökull volcano. At the moment there are no clear signs of when or if a volcano eruption is going to happen. Some time ago Icelandic Met Office moved Öræfajökull volcano from Yellow to Green status.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. I am going to be extremely broke this May due to bills I have to pay in Denmark. Thanks for the support. 🙂

Please note that at the end of May I am moving back to Iceland because I got annoyed and sick of being always broke while living in Denmark. I’ll post more details when I get closer to moving back to Iceland.

During the night of 9-April-2018 a swarm of earthquake appeared in Öræfajökull volcano. This activity has quieted down again for now. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 1,5 but all other earthquakes appear to be smaller than 1,0 in magnitude. Depth seems to have been at 6 – 8 km, but depth information doesn’t seems to be fully accurate. I don’t know why that is. Total number of earthquakes was 22 in this swarm.

Last 15 days in earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake trends in Öræfajökull volcano since 2005. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The latest 48 hours in earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I am not sure why this earthquake swarm activity pattern happens and then vanishes. I do find it troubling that it does this and I think this is happening more frequently now than before. Earthquake magnitudes continue to be small but that might not be the whole story of what is currently happening in Öræfajökull volcano. There is no major change in conductivity in the glacier rivers from Öræfajökull volcano.

This is a short update on the activity in Öræfajökull volcano.

Over the past month the earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano has been mostly stable and majority of the earthquakes happening are small in magnitude and most in the range of 0,0 – 1,0. One magnitude 2,8 and magnitude 3,0 earthquake have happened in this time period (article here).

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

This earthquake activity is easily masked by strong winds and bad weather in the area. As summer approaches in Iceland risk of such storms is now smaller than during high winter. It is only when larger earthquakes start to appear that the risk of an eruption becomes serious. Until then this is just earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano that needs to be monitored.