Month: October 2012

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TFZ earthquake swarm update at 11:54 UTC

This is short TFZ earthquake swarm update at 11:36 UTC. The strongest earthquake so far was a magnitude Mb5.2. It has been followed by many earthquakes that are 3.0 to 4.8 in magnitude. Number of earthquakes that are below that magnitude is around 300 to 350. But this number is updating constantly so it is going to be outdated once this blog post is up.


The earthquake area today at 11:25 UTC. The green stars show earthquakes that are above ML3.0 in magnitude. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.


The tracker showing how dense this earthquake swarm was at times. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.


The earthquake swarm on Hvammstangi geophone station. This image is released under Creative Commons licence. See licence page for more details.


The earthquake swarm on Heklubyggð geophone station. This image is released under Creative Commons licence. See licence page for more details.


The tremor plot at Hraun á Skaga showing this earthquake swarm clearly. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.


The tremor plot at Siglufjöður. This SIL station is closest to the earthquake swarm. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.


The tremor plot in Grímsey Island. This tremor plot is showing the earthquake swarm clearly. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake swarm is not over at current time. But earthquake activity has dropped something for the moment.That might change at any time. Since this earthquake swarm does not show any signs of being over at the moment. There is no risk of volcano activity in this area following this earthquake swarm. Since there are no volcanoes in this area of Iceland. This earthquakes are strike-fault earthquakes. I am going to post more updates on this earthquake activity during the day, or when something major happens in this area.

This earthquake swarm has been felt in Siglufjöður town. The largest earthquake was felt over most of north Iceland. Some minor damage has been reported following that earthquake.

Blog post updated at 11:54 UTC on 21.10.2012. Added images that I forgot to add the first time around.

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Heavy earthquake activity in TFZ

At the moment there is heavy earthquake activity taking place in TFZ. With earthquakes taking place every second. Strong earthquakes taking place every 2 to 10 minutes. One earthquake has at least reached the magnitude 5.0 and more earthquake with that magnitude is currently taking place on TFZ.

This earthquake activity can be monitored live (5. min, delay) on my geophone network web page here. I am going to post more information when I have more details.

Update 1: According to USGS the largest earthquake had the magnitude of M4.8. I do not know if this is reviewed data or not. USGS data can be viewed here.

Blog post updated at 01:02 UTC on 21.10.2012.

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Earthquake activity update on 20.10.2012 at 14:51 UTC

Today (20.10.2012) has been busy in terms of earthquake activity in Iceland. So I am expecting to write a second update later today on this activity.

Hekla volcano

At 05:28 UTC there was an earthquake in Hekla volcano. This earthquake had the magnitude of ML1.1 with the depth of 0.6 km. No other earthquakes have followed this single earthquake. What this means is impossible to know at this time. But so far everything remains quiet in Hekla volcano.


Earthquake in Hekla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Kverkfjöll volcano

Earthquake activity continues in Kverkfjöll volcano. This earthquake activity is the result of dike intrusion into Kverkfjöll volcano. So far this earthquake activity is taking place in short burst of earthquake swarm.


Earthquake activity in Kverkfjöll volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Tjörnes Fracture Zone

At 02:07 UTC earthquake activity did start in TFZ. Just off the coast of Iceland. This earthquake activity is taking place in area that last had earthquake swarm in September. I did cover that earthquake activity in details on this blog. So far the largest earthquakes in this area of TFZ have had the magnitude of ML2.9. This is purely tectonic earthquake activity.

Earthquake activity in TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is difficult to know what happens next in TFZ earthquake activity. But it likely going to continue for the next few hours to days like earlier. It is best to keep an eye on this earthquake activity. This earthquake activity also sometimes stops for few hours before it continues again. Most of this earthquake activity can be seen on my geophone network web page.

If anything major happens in this earthquake activity. I am going to post new blog post with updated information on that activity.

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Earthquake swarm in Kverkfjöll volcano

At 20:03 UTC an earthquake swarm started in Kverkfjöll volcano. The strongest earthquake so far has the magnitude of ML2.6, the depth is 1.1 km according to automatic estimate. Both size and depth of this earthquake are expected to change once it has been reviewed by Icelandic Meteorological Office. So far no harmonic tremor has been detected following this earthquake swarm. The most likely explanation for this earthquake swarm is that dike intrusion of magma has started in Kverkfjöll volcano. This has been happening on regular basis now for several years.


The swarm in Kverkfjöll volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The earthquake swarm is currently ongoing. It is hard to know what happens in Kverkfjöll volcano following this earthquake swarm. But Kverkfjöll volcano are among Iceland most active volcanoes. With last eruption being in the year 1968 (small I think). This is clearly magma on the move inside Kverkfjöll volcano. But I do not know if this is going to result in a eruption or not. At the moment. It is my estimate that eruption is unlikely to happen. But that might change without warning at any time. But changes in Kverkfjöll volcano might be rapid and without warning. I am going to continue to monitor this activity and post new blog post if there are any major changes in activity in Kverkfjöll volcano.

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Update on Geophone network plan

I sometimes change my mind on my plans. I have changed my mind on turning off my geophone network in Iceland. After 10 years I am not going to be shutting it down. But I am going to continue to run it in the future. But after 10 years I am going to due some changes. What changes that are going to be exactly I am not sure yet. Depends on my wealth and what I can do. But one thing is for sure. I am am going to start building a geophone / seismometer network in Falkland Islands (link to my Falkland Islands geology blog) after 10 years. Regardless if I move there or not. Details on that plan depends on many factors that are not clear yet. Things often change when it comes down my plans. But that is just how it goes.

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Glacier-quakes and ice-quakes taking place in Iceland

In some parts of Iceland, mostly in the high areas of Iceland the ground is freezing over this time of the year. This is creating a lot of glacier-quakes and ice-quakes in Iceland. On Icelandic Meteorological Office earthquake maps this appears as earthquakes with extremely poor quality. Many of the earthquakes in and around Mýrdalsjökull glacier and Eyjafjallajökull volcano are glacier-quakes and ice-quakes.

So while it might appear as a lot of earthquake activity is taking place. That might not be true earthquakes. In this case, it is best to wait for reviewed data on this activity. To see what is real earthquake activity and what is not real earthquake activity.

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Weak harmonic tremor pulse from Hamarinn volcano

Since around 19:00 UTC (16.10.2012) a harmonic tremor pulse has been taking place in Hamarinn volcano (Bárðarbunga volcano). There is in my view no eruption taking place at the moment. This is most likely a dike intrusion of magma somewhere in the area of Hamarinn volcano. That might however trigger an eruption. But we just need to wait and see on that for the time being. This activity is interesting, as there was a small eruption in this area in July 2011.


The harmonic tremor pulse is strongest on this SIL station. But it is weak regardless. The signal suggest this event is taking place close to this SIL station location. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.


The harmonic tremor pulse also appears on Skrokkalda SIL station. But is weak and can hardly be detected on it. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The harmonic tremor pulse can be seen at the end of the above SIL station traces. The harmonic tremor pulse is higher then normal background noise (wind, ocean waves, human traffic, etc) on the SIL station. I do not expect this to be noise. The signal is too strong for that. It also hard to travel in this part of Iceland in October due to bad weather and difficult conditions in the high areas of Iceland.

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New hydrothermal area found in Steingrímsfirði, north-west Iceland

New hydrothermal area has been found somewhere off the coast of West-Iceland. In a fjord named Steingrímsfjörður. The exact location of this hydrothermal area is not known at current time. But it’s existence was confirmed by a rock that was found by a fisherman in the area. But it was captured by his fishnet.


The hydrothermal area is somewhere in this area out in the ocean. Exact location is unknown at present time. Image is from Wikipedia. Original copy can be found here.

Little is known of this area for now. But it is there based on the evidence of the rock formation. The water in this hydrothermal area is around 60 to 80C warm. That is a guess based on other well known hydrothermal areas close to this area.

Icelandic news about this. With limited details on this.

Hverastrýtur í Steingrímsfirði (strandir.is)

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New earthquake swarm east of Grímsey Island

This night there where two minor earthquakes on TFZ (according to the Richter scale). According to automatic results from Iceland Meteorological Office. The first earthquake had the magnitude of ML3.7 and the second earthquake had the magnitude of ML3.5. Many smaller earthquakes took place between this earthquakes. Most of them with the magnitude of 1.0 to 2.5. Earthquake activity is currently ongoing in this area at the moment. Earthquake activity started east of Grímsey Island around 00:04 UTC, 13.10.2012. The first earthquakes where smaller then 2.0 in magnitude.


The earthquake swarm on TFZ during the night. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This area of TFZ is well known for earthquake activity. During past few weeks it had several earthquake swarms around this location. More earthquakes should be expected in this area in next few hours to days. I do not know if any of this earthquake activity has been felt in Grímsey Island.

Blog post updated at 08:05 UTC.

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New volcano monitoring project in Iceland

A new volcano monitoring project and a study is about to start in Iceland. This project hopes to provide real time information in volcano activity in Iceland. It has been funded by EU grand of 6 million euros. The reason for this project is the Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption, among other volcano activity in Iceland. Among this project goals is to setup coordinated European volcano monitoring system.

Freysteinn Sigmundsson geophysics is the controller of this project. Icelandic Meteorological Office and University of Iceland also take part in this project. In total, 26 partner in 9 European countries are going to take part in this project during its duration. Something about 200 scientists are going to take part in this project during its duration. It is going to be interesting to see what comes out of this project in the long run.

Update 1: I forgot the name of this project. It is called; European volcanological supersite in Iceland: a monitoring system and network for the future

Icelandic news on this

Bætt mannlíf nærri eldfjöllum (Rúv.is)
Milljarður í eldfjallaverkefni íslensks vísindamanns (Vísir.is)
Fá 950 milljónir í rannsóknarstyrk (mbl.is)

Blog post updated at 14:26 UTC.