September 2013 – Iceland geology

September 30, 2013September 30, 2013

Update on Tjörnes Fracture Zone earthquake swarm

It has been almost a week since the earthquake swarm started in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Today (30-September-2013) this activity continues. Since this earthquake swarm just around 1000 earthquakes (according to news) have so far been recorded by Icelandic Meteorological Office (when this words are written). The largest earthquakes have had the magnitude of 2.8, but no earthquake so far has reached the magnitude above 3.0.

The earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Currently there is no sign of this earthquake swarm ending. So far it has not been felt by anyone and so far. I do not know how this earthquake swarm is going to develop. It’s however important to keep an eye on this earthquake swarm, since it’s impossible to know what happens next in this area.

September 29, 2013

Earthquake south of Hekla volcano

Tonight (28-September-2013) at 21:47 UTC an magnitude 2.0 earthquake took place south of Hekla volcano. Depth of this earthquake was 2.9 km according to automatic results from Icelandic Meteorological Office. So far no future earthquakes have been detected and there are no signs of eruption starting in Hekla volcano.

The earthquake south of Hekla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This is the second earthquake that takes place inside Hekla volcano system this month. Last earthquake that took place in Hekla volcano was in the main volcano in the start of September. I wrote about it here. I am not expecting any more activity, but I might be wrong since it is difficult at best to know how Hekla volcano is going to behave before an eruption. Earthquake activity at Hekla volcano appears clearly on my geophone at Heklubyggð, it can be viewed here (updated every 5 min.).

September 27, 2013September 27, 2013

Earthquake activity continues on Tjörnes Fracture Zone

The earthquake swarm that started two days ago (wrote about it here) in Tjörnes Fracture Zone continues and appears to be growing in the past few hours. So far the largest earthquakes have not been stronger then magnitude 2.6 or 2.7 (automatic and reviewed results).

The earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

None of this earthquakes have been felt that I know. Since they are good distance (~20 km) from populated areas and are small at the moment. That might change if larger earthquakes start to happen in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Currently this earthquake swarm activity is mostly continuous with just few stops in it, no stop has so far not lasted more than 1 to 3 hours so far. Currently this earthquake swarm activity is ongoing and I do not expect it to stop at the moment.

September 27, 2013

Magnitude 5.5 earthquake deep on the Reykjanes Ridge

Last night (26-September-2013) an earthquake took place deep on the Reykjanes Ridge. This earthquake had the magnitude of 5.5 according to reviewed results from EMSC. This earthquake was close to 1000 km from the south coast of Iceland so it was not felt by any human. Fish and crabs might have been disturbed however at that location. More information about this earthquake can be found here on EMSC website.

The earthquake location on the Reykjanes Ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to EMSC.

An aftershock with the magnitude of 4.6 was recorded on the same location. Information about that earthquake can be found here on EMSC website. It is possible that more smaller earthquakes took place in this location, but due to distance from any seismometer network any smaller earthquakes then this are not detected at all.

September 27, 2013September 27, 2013

Closing down comments

I have decided to follow in the footsteps of Popular Science and close down comments. The reason is that comments have not served this blog well, in fact comments almost did bring down this blog back in the year 2011 and in part did do so to some extent. Since allowing comments is allowing people to argue and that can have huge negative effects. I have also been having a major issue with spam comments, you don’t see it since I have set-up good filtering system against spam comments. But they remain a problem and have been so for a long time now.

So I am closing down comments on the following blog from now on.

Europe geology blog
Canary Island geology blog
Spacewatch
Falkland Islands

I am not closing comments for good. If I have to I am going to open up comment. This applies if an major events takes place in Iceland, Europe and in Canary Islands. If you want to comment, you can do so on my Google+, Facebook page or on my Twitter site.

I hope that people understand why I am following into the footsteps of Popular Science. This needs to be done and often my time is better spent on doing something else than to watch out for comments and spam on this website.

More information on Popular Science decision can be found below

Blog post updated on 27-September-2013 at 03:02 UTC.

September 25, 2013

Earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Today (25-September-2013) an earthquake swarm started in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. This earthquake swarm started slowly and was mostly making small earthquakes early on. The largest earthquake today had the magnitude of 2.8 according to automatic results from Icelandic Meteorological Office. Currently the earthquake swarm is ongoing.

Earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I am expecting this earthquake swarm to continue for the next hours at least. TFZ is highly active when it comes to earthquake activity so this earthquake swarm is no surprise. If any major earthquake take place in TFZ it’s possible to see them here on my webicorder website.

September 19, 2013

New email postlist and update to webicorder website

I have updated my webicorder website. I have added two new geophones from New Zealand to the website “Other webicorder networks”. I have moved the geophone in Denmark to it’s own website, it makes it easier to view and now it is not with the Icelandic geophones. My webicorder website can be found here.

New email post-list

People can now sign-up to email post-list . This one is cheaper then the one I once had. I still have some setting up to do so it might not work perfectly as is. I hope to get the minor issues fixed soon. But it should work as is already. Signing up is easy and can be done in the side bar.

September 9, 2013

Minor earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano

An minor earthquake swarm took place in Öræfajökull volcano today (09-September-2013). This was just minor earthquake activity and it was at shallow depth, just around 2.6 to 4.8 km. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2.0.

Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. Öræfajökull volcano is located south-most part of Vatnajökull glacier (next to the km line on the map). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquake activity is not common in Öræfajökull volcano and that makes this activity interesting. So far this is just earthquake activity and I am not expecting anything else to take place. More earthquakes might happen in next few days to weeks. Or nothing else might happen Öræfajökull volcano.

September 7, 2013September 7, 2013

Interesting earthquake activity in Hamarinn volcano

Over the past few days interesting earthquake activity has been taking place in Hamarinn volcano. The earthquakes have been aligning along two east-west lines. Possibly an fissure in the volcano. I am not sure why this is happening, but I did record one earthquake from Hamarinn volcano today (07-September-2013) and that trace suggests this earthquakes have there origin in magma movements in the Hamarinn volcano. That has not yet been confirmed and this might never be confirmed due to lack of data. Largest earthquake so far had the magnitude of 2.2 at the depth of 4.5 km.

Hamarinn volcano earthquake activity. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Last eruption in Hamarinn volcano was on 11 – 12-July-2011. It was an minor eruption and I did cover it here and here. Small eruptions are common in Icelandic volcanoes just as the are in other volcanoes around the world. Before the minor eruption in the year 2011 there was several months of earthquake activity in Hamarinn volcano. The area that now has this earthquake activity is the same area that had this minor eruption in the year 2011. I do not know if current activity is an early indicator that it is going to happen again. It however cannot be ruled out currently. What can be done is to monitor current levels of activity and just wait and see what happens next.

September 6, 2013

Minor earthquake swarm in Esjufjöll volcano

Today (05-September-2013) an minor earthquake swarm took place in Esjufjöll volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2.2 and the depth of 4.9 km.

Earthquake swarm in Esjufjöll volcano. Esjufjöll volcano are located in south part of Vatnajökull glacier, just northeast of Öræfajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquakes in this area are because of magma movement it is believed. Now there are more SIL stations in the area, so more earthquakes are being recorded. Few years ago the lowest magnitude that Icelandic Meteorological Office was able to detect in Esjufjöll volcano was magnitude 1.5 and above.

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