Month: March 2013

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Earthquake swarm east of Grímsey island (TFZ)

Today at 05:25 UTC a earthquake swarm started east of Grímsey island. But this island is located in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone. The largest earthquake today is a magnitude 2.8. No larger earthquakes have taken place so far.

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

Earthquake activity is common in this area of Iceland so this is nothing unusual. This earthquake swarm is not connected to any volcano activity that I know of. If anything major happens. I am going to write a blog post about it soon as I can do so.

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Deep earthquakes in Askja and Kverkfjöll volcanoes

This is a update for both Askja and Kverkfjöll volcanoes. Since they both had deep earthquakes today. None of this earthquakes where larger then magnitude 1.0. There depth was around 22 to 24 km inside the volcanoes them self.

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Earthquakes in Kverkfjöll and Askja volcanoes. There depth was around 22 to 25 km. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

GVP Kverkfjöll volcano profile. GVP Askja volcano profile.

It is impossible to know for sure what this means in terms of future activity. But this are both active volcanoes and should be treated as such.

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Magnitude 3.5 earthquake south of Langjökull glacier

Today at 17:24 UTC a magnitude 3.5 earthquake took place south of Langjökull glacier. This earthquake had pre-earthquakes with the magnitudes from 2.1 and up 2.8. There where also several smaller earthquakes at the same location. This earthquake did appear clearly on my geophones in south and north Iceland. My webicorders can be viewed here.

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Langjökull earthquake activity today. Copyright of this picture belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This appears to be normal tectonic earthquake swarm that are common for this area. They are not related to any volcano activity at present time. But this area often has earthquake activity with it being connected to any volcano activity. The earthquake swarm is continuing when this blog post is published. This earthquake swarm might stop at any time, or pick up at any time without a warning. If that happens. I am going to write a new blog post about it soon as possible.

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Magnitude 4.4 earthquake north of Kolbeinsey Island

Today at 17:32 UTC there was a magnitude 4.4 earthquake north of Kolbeinsey Island. I do not know if this earthquake was tectonic or volcanic in nature. I do know that there where several aftershocks following this earthquake. Since I did register them on my geophone in north Iceland. The geophone web site can be viewed here. More information about the earthquake can be found here, on EMSC web page.

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Regional view of the area where the earthquake took place. Copyright of this image belongs to EMSC.

Icelandic Meteorological Office did also detected many of this earthquakes that took place there. But detection from this location is difficult due to distance from the SIL network.

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The earthquake swarm location according to Icelandic Meteorological Office. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

For now this is just a earthquake swarm and nothing else. Regardless of what happens later. Earthquake activity has been common in this area of the rift zone for several months now. I do not know why that is. The ocean depth in this area is around 3 to 4 km where it is the deepest. So if an eruption takes place there it is not going to be noticed due to the depth of the ocean.

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Deep earthquakes in Askja volcano

Today (26.03.2013) at 08:09 UTC there where three deep earthquakes in Askja volcano. The most depth of this earthquake swarm was 25.5 km. None of the earthquake had the magnitude above 2.5. The strongest earthquake had the magnitude 2.1 with the depth of 20.4 km

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Earthquakes in Askja volcano. Askja is located to the north of Vatnajökull glacier and the lake is round in shape on this map. Marked by the orange dots on it. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This activity is part of an progress that started in Askja volcano back in the year 2010. So far this has not lead to any eruption. But it has created some odd changes. Along one was that Askja lake was ice free last year (winter 2012). The reasons for that are still not known to me.

Blog post updated at 16:32 UTC on 26.03.2013.

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Uncertainty level declared on Hekla volcano

Uncertainty level has been declared on Hekla volcano due to strange earthquake activity in it for the past week or so. But in total of seven earthquakes where recorded in Hekla volcano at the depth of 11 to 12 km. This is highly unusual for Hekla volcano. People are advised against going up to Hekla volcano while uncertainty level is in force. It is also dangerous to be too close to Hekla volcano. Since if an eruption starts, it is going to start without any warning at all.

I am going to post updates on Hekla volcano as needed if anything happens. It is possible to watch activity live from Hekla volcano on my geophone page here. But I have a geophone located about 16 km away from Hekla volcano. List of web cameras that I know of are online and focused on Hekla volcano can be found here. Update 1: Web camera that is showing Hekla volcano (pictures) can also be found here.

News about this in English

Seismic activity in Mount Hekla (Rúv.is)

News about this in Icelandic

Ekki mikið um jarðskjálfta við Heklu (Rúv.is)
Óvenjuleg jarðskjálftahrina í Heklu (Rúv.is)
Engin bráðahætta á eldgosi (Rúv.is)
Jarðhræringar í Heklu: Óvissustig í gildi (Rúv.is)

Óvissustig vegna Heklu (mbl.is)
Engin sjáanleg merki um eldgos í aðsigi (mbl.is)
Hægt að fylgjast með Heklu (mbl.is)

Óvissustig vegna hugsanlegs goss í Heklu (Vísir.is)
Ferðamenn varaðir við að vera nærri Heklu (Vísir.is)
Fyrirvarinn yrði einn til tveir tímar (Vísir.is)

Ó­vissu­stig vegna ó­venju­legra hræringa í Heklu (DV.is)
„Hekla gaus með litlum fyrirvara síðast“ (DV.is)
Eftirlitsstig vegna Heklu hækkað úr grænu í gult (DV.is)

Blog post updated at 17:26 UTC on 26.03.2013.

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Two earthquakes on Reykjanes ridge

During the night and last night (20.03.2013) there where two earthquakes on the Reykjanes ridge. Location of this earthquakes is not the same and several hundreds of km between them. So they are in fact not connected at all. This is just by chance this activity takes place at the same time. As often is the case in this type of area.

The first earthquake was an magnitude 5.4 earthquake deep on the Reykjanes ridge. This earthquake was on 10 km, or at least that is the best estimate by EMSC. The distance from Reykjavík is about 1100 km. More information on this earthquake can be found here on EMSC web site.

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The magnitude 5.4 earthquake deep on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to EMSC.

The second earthquake was an magnitude 4.3 earthquake, with the default depth of 10 km according to GFZ. It had the distance about 850 km from Reykjavík. More information on this earthquake can be found here on EMSC web site.

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The magnitude 4.3 earthquake on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to EMSC.

It is impossible as before to know what is happening on at this location. Due to the depth of the ocean at this place and how remote this location is.

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New earthquake in Hekla volcano

This morning there was an earthquake in Hekla volcano at 08:23 UTC. This earthquake had the magnitude of 1.4 according to the reviewed data from Icelandic Meteorological Office. The depth of this earthquake was 11,2 km. But that is considerable depth for this location. This is most likely not tectonic earthquakes. But it is hard to be sure on that detail as of this moment.

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The earthquake in Hekla volcano is marked by an orange dot on this map. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I do not have a clue what Hekla volcano is up to at the moment. But this is highly unusual activity for this volcano. Since normally there are no earthquakes in Hekla volcano until just before an eruption takes place in it. For the moment. The only thing that can be done now is to monitor what is taking place in Hekla volcano.