The earthquake activity at Kistufell (Bárðarbunga volcano)

There is been a highly localized earthquake swarm in Kistufell area in the highland. This area is well known in Iceland for high earthquake activity and often makes earthquakes that are close to Mb5.0 in size. The current earthquake swarm is rather small in comparison to many earthquake swarms that have taken place in this area before.

This does not mean that there is going to be a eruption there. As this area is highly activate in regards to tectonics forces in this area. But this area can erupt and has done so in the past. But this area belongs to the Bárðarbunga volcano and it has fissure types of eruptions when it erupts.

Here is a picture with the activity of this area in December 2009. As can be seen there, this area has a lot of earthquake activity almost all of the time. The text with the picture can be found here in Icelandic. Use Google Translate with the normal risks involved.