Month: July 2017

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Deep earthquakes in Katla volcano yesterday (09-July-2017)

Yesterday (09-July-2017) there was a minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano. Deepest of the earthquakes in this swarm had the depth of 28,9 km, the most shallow of the earthquakes that happened had a depth of 21,1 km. At this depth it is only magma that can create earthquakes.


The earthquake activity in Katla volcano during the past 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Since the earthquakes yesterday Katla volcano remains quiet with no oblivious sign of increase in earthquake activity. It is worth noting that it doesn’t seem that Katla volcano goes over 100 years between eruptions. If an eruption does not happen this year it might happen next year. There is a lack of data, but research on time between eruptions suggests that maximum quiet period between eruptions is 100 years. I don’t know if there is any error margin on that number, there might well be one.

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Ongoing earthquake activity north-east of Flatey in Skjálfanda fjord (north-east Iceland)

Earthquake activity that started in March 2017 in TFZ (Tjörnes Fracture Zone) is ongoing. I don’t know yet how many earthquakes have happened so far, but at last check Icelandic Met Office reported that the mark was at 800 and that was more then a month ago. The fluid that is pressuring up at this location between fault lines is most likely a magma in my view. If that results in a eruption is harder to say, at the moment the magma seems to be stuck at 10 km depth (in or around that depth).


The current earthquake at Flatey in Skjálfanda fjord. The location is where the yellow and orange dots mix (slightly east of Eyjafjörður fjord). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The earthquake activity at this location continues with little signs of stopping. What is also interesting is the fact the magma doesn’t seems to be making any progress up the crust at the moment. With fault line already in place the path to the surface is almost direct in this area if nothing is preventing the magma from moving upwards (impossible to know). At the moment this earthquake activity is limited to minor earthquakes and this magma seems to be lacking pressure to reach the surface at the moment. At this location there are no known volcanoes.

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Please remember to support my work with donations. As it helps keeping me working on this website and paying the bills. Recent donations did exactly that and that is a big support. Thanks for the support. 🙂