New earthquake activity in Upptyppingar tuff mountains

During last week and on 5. January 2012 there where few earthquakes in the Upptyppingar tuff mountains. This mountains are not volcano by definition (yet anyway). But since the year 2007 there has been magma intrusion into that area. This magma intrusion however stopped and has been stopped for several years now. But that might be about to change. As on 5 January 2012 there where few small earthquakes with the depth of 12 km. Last eruption that took place in the Upptyppingar tuff mountain area where about 12.000 years ago, around the end of the last ice age. Considerable deformation has taken place in the crust in Upptyppingar tuff mountain since magma started to build up there. Current earthquake activity in Upptyppingar tuff mountain is not high at the moment however. But it has remained rather constant for the past 7 to 10 weeks at least. But due to lack of SIL stations in the area, it is hard to know how many earthquakes have exactly been taking place there at the moment.

Upptyppingar tuff mountains are part of Kverkfjöll volcano system. This new magma into Upptyppingar tuff mountains suggests that Kverkfjöll volcano might be about to enter an new time of activity. But they have been dormant since the year 1968 at least. But Kverkfjöll volcano have also been seeing some earthquake activity on its own.

It is most likely is the case that we are going to see eruption taking place in Upptyppingar tuff mountain one day. But the wait for it might be long however.

A research papers into the activity in Upptyppingar tuff mountain.

Resarch #1 (pdf file)
Research #2 (pdf file)