This is a short update on the earthquake swarm in Fagradalsfjall mountain and nearby area. This is written on 1-August-2022 at 13:47 UTC.
The situation on Reykjanes peninsula is always updating so information in this article can be in part or in whole get obsolete quickly. Largest earthquake during the night had a magnitude of Mw4,7. This might not be the largest earthquake today, since larger earthquakes are always a possibility.
Strong earthquake activity on Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.Time trace of the earthquake activity in the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
GPS data have started to show a large displacement over the last 48 hours. The 24 hour GPS displacement can be found here and 8 hour GPS displacement data can be found here (find Reykjanes peninsula). This shows that magma is pushing its way though the crust at fast speed, but has not yet broken up trough the crust. When that happens is impossible to know, but this might not be a long wait based on the speed the magma is going. Current depth of the magma is around 2 to 4 km.
This is going to be a short update because the situation is constantly changing. This update is written at 12:07 UTC on 31-July-2022.
At the writing of this article at 11:32 UTC no eruption has started in Fagradalsfjall mountain or nearby area. Over 3000 earthquakes have been recorded in the last 24 hours in and around Fagradalsfjall mountain since the earthquake activity started yesterday (30-July-2022). There have not been any major changes in the crater in Fagradalsfjall mountain, it does seem to release more gas than normal. That is at least how it appears, if that is real or not I don’t know.
Heavy earthquake activity on Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.The earthquake activity in the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
I think this might be a stronger activity than last year, but if that is correct estimate is a wait and see. There has not been any major change in GPS location and that suggest that the area is as inflated as it possibly can be. It is impossible to know when the magma breaks up in the crust, but earthquake activity suggests that it has reached the depth of 2 km, meaning the magma has moved up a lot in the last 24 hours, since this earthquake activity started on the depth of 8 km yesterday.
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I’ve been trying to wait for information about the activity in Grímsfjall volcano. A new cauldron was discovered yesterday (05-December-2021). It is possible that an small eruption took place in the side of Grímsfjall volcano and didn’t break the glacier. It might have been a short eruption if that is what happened. Harmonic tremor data is unclear on this so I can’t give any good answer. At 06:16 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,6 took place. I poorly recorded it my seismometer and it seems to have been a low period earthquake. Suggesting that a magma pushing up was the reason this earthquake happened. Continue reading “Earthquake with magnitude Mw3,6 in Grímsfjall volcano, no eruption yet”
Today (21-July-2021) few deep earthquakes took place in Fagradalsfjall mountain that is part of Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system.
This earthquake activity was not big and the largest magnitude recorded was a magnitude of Mw0,8. Most depth that appeared had a depth of 13,4km.
The earthquake activity in Fagradalsfjall mountain on Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
It is difficult to know what this means. What is possibly happening is that more magma is pushing up in the magma feeding that now exist where the eruption has been happening. If that is happening, it can result in new craters or fissure opening up and start erupting. At the writing of this article this earthquake activity seems to be ongoing, but at slow rate and small earthquakes only so far.
Fog continues to block view to the crater and Fagradalsfjall mountain. But harmonic tremor data shows that the Fagradalsfjall mountain eruption is currently not erupting.
This is a short update on the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain on 30-April-2021.
There has not been any major changes since last update. This are the noticeable changes since last update in the eruption in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system.
Just one crater is now erupting. All other craters have stopped erupting but for now some of them might contain lava lake for now that might be creating a flow in lava tubes under the surface in the lava field. This process might not be visible on the surface.
A lot of activity now is in form of high lava arcs (correct word?) are now being formed in the one crater because of increased gas content of the lava.
Lava fields are slowly filling up all nearby valleys that it is flowing into. This is a slow process and is going to take months.
There are no signs the eruption is about to end.
No other updates have been reported so far. Rúv has installed a new web camera to give better view of the eruption. That camera can be found on YouTube Rúv channel.
Vacation
I am going on a small vacation between 5th May and 10th May. That means next update about the eruption is going to be on 14th May. I don’t know if I can go to the eruption yet as that depends on the weather and the weather is always unstable in Iceland.
This is a short update on the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain on 23-April-2021 for the last week. Information is provided with best effort. The volcano that is erupting is Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system.
No major changes have been seen this week in the eruption. Here are the highlights.
According to last chemical analyse of the lava. The magma that is coming up is getting more primitive and from deeper part of the mantle. This increased the chance that the eruption is going to go on for months to years. Details can be found here on Twitter or here on Facebook.
Thickness of the lava is in most places just 16 meters. In Geldingadalur valley the thickness is at most 50 meters and getting thicker as the eruption continues and the valley slowly fills up. The lava doesn’t flow far and so it piles up next to the erupting craters.
At the writing of this article it seems that crater 1 is slowing down or shutting down. There seems to be some activity but it is low and mostly just gas is blowing out.
Craters continue to collapse as the eruption goes on. This happens at random and results in flood of lava happening.
The most active area now is the craters that opened on 7th of April and other time after that.
Other than this the eruption continues to be stable and the flow of lava is around 5m2/second according to last report I did read in the news.
This is a short update on the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain that is part of Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system.
The crater that started erupting on 5-April-2021 has stopped erupting. I am unclear when it stopped erupting but that must have happened sometimes in last few days.
Smaller vents have opened up but none of them have been able to create any major eruption crater. Most of those have also stopped erupting and been buried by fresh lava from others craters when they stopped erupting.
Earthquake activity has been appearing along the dyke in last few hours. I am unclear what that means at the writing of this article.
New fissures with steam or hot air have been reported south of current eruption. I am unclear where they are located. There don’t appear to be any new fissures north of the crater that has stopped erupting at the writing of this article.
Crater 1 has now started to smoke a lot. While the second vent continues to erupt a smaller eruption. I am unclear on why one of the vent is smoking as it has been doing for the last few days.
The eruption is now 1 month old today. The eruption started on 19-March-2021.
Amount of lava being erupted has increased since the start of the eruption according to latest reports.
I don’t have any more reports today but that might change without warning. If that happens. I am going to write an article soon as I can.
Yesterday (15-April-2021) it was reported (late) that harmonic tremor seems to have been increasing in the eruption since midnight. This normally happens if new craters have opened up. The weather is really bad at the eruption site currently so viewing the eruption with any web camera is difficult if not impossible. Rúv web cameras failed last night because of the weather that has been seeing wind peaks up to 41 meter/second with heavy rain. Current weather forecast is that the weather is not going to start improving until late today (Friday 16-April-2021). The increased tremor might be weather but weather is in general easy to filter out and doesn’t affect the lower bands (0.5 – 1Hz) that much as it does higher bands (2 – 4hz). What is happening won’t be clear until the weather starts getting better.
This is not a update on the eruption. There has not been any major change in the eruption at the writing of this article.
University of Iceland has released a report that can be read here (pdf) showing that the magma that is now erupting comes from the depth of 17 to 20 km. Crust at this location on the Reykjanes peninsula is around 17 km deep. A 3D map can be found here of the eruption. I think it is going to updated regularly by ÍSOR. The lava that is now erupting is part of Tholeiitic magma (Wikipedia). The lava is 1180C when it erupts from the ground.
What seems to be now happening is that a shield volcano is forming. It is a question if this is going to result in a formation of new magma chambers along the dyke where it formed. There is continued risk that new vents and fissures eruptions opens in this change can happen without warning. Based on earthquake activity it seems that the dyke continues to be active rather than having turned into rock by cooling.
It is now estimated that the Geldingadalir valley is going to overflow in 8 to 18 days and currently a lava pond is forming at this location. Once that happens the lava is going to flow into nearby valley (I can’t find the name of it). One of the valley the lava is in the end going to flow into Nátthagi valley if the eruption lasts long enough.
This is a short article about the eruption in Geldingadalur. The volcano that is erupting continues to be Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system. This might change at later date. This article is written on 22-March-2021 at 17:30 UTC.
The eruption is now mostly just in one crater. There is some activity in two other craters but it seems to be getting smaller as the eruption goes on.
This eruption is tiny and one of the smallest eruption observed in Iceland.
There is risk of new eruption opening up once this eruption ends or starts to get close to ending.
There is a fissure in the ground on the right side of the main crater (as seen on the web camera). A lot of volcanic gas comes from that fissure but no eruption has taken place so far.
There has not been any noticeable deflation according to GPS data from today (22-March-2021).
The main crater is now estimated to be 30 meters high but it is unstable and collapses often.
The lava is estimated going to fill Geldingadalur valley in 10 to 14 days if the eruption continues this long.
Earthquake activity has almost stopped on Reykjanes peninsula after the eruption started. Once the eruption stops earthquake activity might increase again.
This is a image from Google Earth and shows Geldingadalur valley that is now being filled slowly with lava. Copyright of this image belongs to Google Earth/Google and other companies that Google has made this image available with its Google Earth program.
The last eruption period on Reykjanes peninsula lasted from the ~700 to the year ~1400. It can be estimated that current eruption period that has now started on Reykjanes peninsula is going to last until the year ~2400 to the year ~2600. During this time shortest time between eruptions is 1 year but the longest time between eruptions might be up to 10 years. How this going to be exactly is a big question but this estimate of mine is based on the limited historical data that I have read somewhere (I no longer remember where that was).
According to the evening news on Rúv the lava and magma that is now flowing into the valley of Geldingadalur is around 1200C and is a primitive magma of Tholeiitic magma series (Wikipedia). The source of this eruption is a magma chamber with the depths of 17 km to 20 km and the origins of the magma it self is far deeper into the hotspot below Iceland. This magma has a lot of CO and CO2 gases that are highly dangerous. There is also a lot of SO2 gas in the eruption and that is dangerous gas.
News in Icelandic about this
Since the eruption is now in stable activity I am going to limit update to if anything major happens. Next update about the eruption should be on Friday 26-March-2021. Other activity in Iceland is going to be reported as normal if anything happens.
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Article updated at 18:32 UTC. New web camera added. Article updated at 20:50 UTC. Web camera information updated. Article updated at 23:57 UTC. Information added about the eruption.
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