Volcano and earthquake activity in Iceland
This morning (17-March-2022) an earthquake swarm took place in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano.
Largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,0. Other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude. Bad weather in last few weeks have prevented good detection of small earthquakes. More earthquake activity might have taken place than appears on Icelandic Met Office maps.
This morning (5-March-2022) an earthquake swarm started north of Kolbeinsey island. Three earthquakes with magnitude above Mw3,0 took place in this swarm and there where few smaller earthquakes recorded. Because of distance from the SIL network only the strongest earthquakes have been detected.
The strongest earthquakes with magnitude of Mw3,1 and Mw3,2. There is still a chance of stronger earthquakes in this area. It is unclear what is going on because this area is remote and under the ocean. If an eruption happens at this location there is a chance it won’t be noticed or just noticed on SIL seismometers.
At 10:11 UTC today (22-February-2022) an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,8 (Icelandic Met Office) or Mw5,0 (EMSC) took place in Bárðarbunga volcano.
Yesterday (21-February-2022) at 14:08 UTC there had been a earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,0 in Bárðarbunga volcano, along with few smaller earthquakes. This earthquake activity shows that Bárðarbunga volcano continues to inflate after the eruption in the year 2014 to 2015. It is impossible to know when next eruption happens in Bárðarbunga volcano, it might be 10 years from now or 100 years from now. Last eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano before the 2014 eruption was in the year 1902.
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Earthquake activity has been increasing on Reykjanes peninsula as inflation continues after the end of the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain. New eruption can start on Reykjanes peninsula without much warning in Fargardalsfjall mountain. The current activity is now north-west of Grindavík town in a volcano named Reykjanes.
Continue reading “Earthquake activity in Reykjanes volcano”
Yesterday (14-February-2022) at 17:27 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,0 took place north of Grindavík town. This earthquake is in Reykjanes volcano, but might also be part of inflation related earthquakes that happen because of inflation in Fagradalsfjall volcano.
Continue reading “Earthquake activity north of Grindavík town”
Yesterday (13-Februrary-2022) at 23:50 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,1 took place in Hengill volcano.
Continue reading “Felt earthquake in Hengill volcano”
At 19:10 UTC today (02-February-2022) an strong earthquake swarm started in Katla volcano. Strongest earthquakes so far had a magnitude of Mw4,0 (19:10 UTC) and Mw3,4 (19:44 UTC).
At the writing of this article it is unclear if this is going to result in an eruption. The chances are good, but this activity might still slow down and stop before any eruption, small or large happens in Katla volcano.
This article is going to be updated if needed or new article is going to be written if the situation changes enough from what it is now.
Today (1-February-2022) at 00:05 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,7 took place close to Húsafell. This earthquake was felt in Reykjavík. This earthquake swarm is ongoing, it is slow moving and often stops A second earthquake with magnitude Mw3,0 took place at 01:15 UTC. During the last 48 hours a total of 107 earthquakes have happened in Húsafell area.
Largest known earthquake in this area has a magnitude of 5,5 in the year 1974. That is all I know about this earthquake, that earthquake was also slightly more north then current swarm. Why this earthquake activity is happening is unclear since there are not any known volcanoes in this area or earthquake faults. There is a low (as in degrees of hot water) hydrothermal area in this area and recent news articles have suggested that this earthquake activity might be connected to that area. That is at best speculation and nothing has been proved so far. The existence of this low hydrothermal area shows that magma is in the crust in this area at shallow depth and has been for a while. For hydrothermal area to form, both cracks in the crust needs to be open and magma needs to reach 1 to 2 km up in the crust to warm up ground water in the crust.
During the night of 29-January-2022 an earthquake swarm started south of Grímsey island. This earthquake swarm is rather strong at the writing of this article.
Since December 2021 an earthquake swarm has been ongoing south-west of Langjökull glacier. This area is not part of any known fault zone or any volcano. This is just tectonic earthquakes and is outside of main earthquake areas. This intra-plate earthquakes happens sometimes in Iceland. Why that is remains unknown, but best idea is this happens because of stress changes because of tectonic movement. Earthquake magnitude can go up to Mw5,5 or larger. But such events are extremely rare, but do happen.
This is the second earthquake with magnitude Mw3,3 in this area, with the earlier one happening on 18th January 2022. The hill this earthquake swarm is happening in is called Húsafell.