Month: June 2018

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Ongoing earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano (update 29-June-2018)

There is currently ongoing earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano. This earthquake swarm started on 26-June-2018 with the magnitude 3,1 and it has been mostly ongoing since then. All earthquakes are minor in the volcano at the moment. A magnitude 2,1 earthquake happened outside the volcano (but those earthquakes appears to be connected to it) and suggest crustal stresses are changing at the moment at expectational speed (my view).


Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano (red dots). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

What also appeared today is a earthquake swarm in the side of Öræfajökull volcano. If this earthquake activity continues it is worrying as it suggests that an eruption might happen in Öræfajökull volcano side and that might be a major issue if a eruption vents opens up in such area. Since this is close to Road 1 and warning time might be limited or close to none in worse case. This type of activity warrants more monitoring in my view.

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Short earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge

Yesterday (28-June-2018) and today (29-June-2018) during the night a short but strong earthquake activity took place on the Reykjanes ridge. Strongest earthquake had a magnitude of 3,2 or 4,1. It is unclear (to me) at the moment what magnitude is correct. Since I did get a signal on Dellukot geophone station that was considerable larger than for magnitude 3,2 earthquake (given distance from the station). Böðvarshólar geophone station remains down due to a broken computer (that I can’t fix).


Green stars show the location of this earthquake activity. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is unclear at the moment if this earthquake activity is going to continue. At the moment it appears to have stopped, but distance from land makes it impossible to detect smaller earthquakes in this area.

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Update on the earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano

This is a update on the earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano on 26-June-2018.

Reviewed earthquake magnitude of the largest earthquake that happened at 16:57 UTC in Öræfajökull volcano has placed the magnitude at Mw3,1. Other earthquakes were smaller in magnitude, but strongest earthquake after the main earthquake had a magnitude of 2,1 (at 16:59 UTC).


Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake activity seems to have quieted down around 20:15 UTC. It might resume without much warning later tonight, tomorrow or days from now. It is not possible to know when the earthquake activity is going to resume. No harmonic tremor was detected following the magnitude 3,1 earthquake. That means this was just volcano-tectonic earthquake due to inflation (assumed) in Öræfajökull volcano.

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Strong earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano [updates pending]

This article is going to be updated later with more details.

A magnitude 3,5 earthquake happened in Öræfajökull volcano at 16:57 UTC. This is a automatic magnitude and is going to be corrected later. A swarm of earthquakes seems to have started in Öræfajökull volcano.


Earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The harmonic tremor images have not yet updated so I don’t know at the moment if any harmonic tremor has started following this earthquake swarm.

This article is going to be updated later with new information.

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Magnitude 3,3 earthquake in Tjörnes Fracture Zone

At 22:41 UTC a magnitude 3,3 earthquake took place 6 km north of an area called Gjögurtá. This earthquake had a magnitude of 3,3 and was followed by several smaller earthquakes. Activity seems to be ongoing at the moment.


The earthquake 6 km north of Gjögurtá in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake activity is common in this part of Iceland. There are no active volcanoes in this area and no known volcanism in this exact area.

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Earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano on 21-June-2018

The day after increase in earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano a second earthquake swarm started. This earthquake swarm was slightly bigger in magnitude than the earthquake swarm that happened yesterday (20-June-2018).


The earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquake in this earthquake swarm had a magnitude of 2,6 and all other earthquakes were smaller in magnitude. The largest earthquake was felt on nearby farms.

Böðvarshólar geophone station

Due to a computer hardware (damaged motherboard) the Böðvarshólar geophone station is offline and is going to remain offline until I can afford upgrading it to a Raspberry Shake seismometer. At the moment I don’t know when that is going to happen but that is going to require a different hardware set-up and for the gif image to appear that requires me to have the main earthquake computer online. Currently that computer is offline due to lack of housing I am having in Iceland (that is going to resolve it self when I move to Denmark or Germany in next few months [I hope]).

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Earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano on 20-June-2018

Today (20-June-2018) a swarm of small earthquake happened in Öræfajökull volcano. Current earthquake activity is vastly different than what appeared during the months and weeks before the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. There was less earthquake activity happening in the months and weeks before an eruption eventually happened.


Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 1,8 and all other earthquakes where smaller. Most around magnitude 0,5. Depth is 5 to 8 km at present time. In my view this earthquake activity suggests that Öræfajökull volcano is going to be a major problem in the future.

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Felt earthquake north of Grindavík today (18-June-2018)

A magnitude 3,0 earthquake was felt in the village of Grindavík today (18-June-2018) at 10:24 UTC. This earthquake happened 4,3 km north of the village. There were few minor earthquakes that followed the main earthquake.


The earthquake north of Grindavík village. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake activity is common in this area and nothing special about this earthquake activity.

Moving back to Denmark

I am moving back to Denmark because I can’t get a apartment in Iceland. This attempt in moving to back to Iceland was a massive mistake on my part and I only blame my self for it. I should be back in Denmark in about 9 to 10 months if everything goes according to plan (and I’ll make sure that it does so). That means from mid-January-2019 to mid-February-2019. Until then I’ll be running at limited capability in writing on this website. This is at least until November when I stop working (because there won’t be any more work to have). If anyone wants to help in moving back to Denmark, donations are welcomed. Thanks for the support. 🙂

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Earthquake off the coast of Siglufjörður village

A single magnitude 3,5 earthquake has happened off the coast of Siglufjörður village. At the moment this is the only earthquake that has been detected so far.


The earthquake off the coast of Siglufjörður village (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It happens every few months that a single earthquake happens somewhere in Iceland. There is a possibility that more earthquake activity might happen in this location. Sometimes however that does not happen.

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Strong earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (14-June-2018) a large earthquake swarm happened in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Largest earthquake had a magnitude of 4,9 (at 15:05 UTC) and this is the strongest earthquake since January. Other magnitudes where 4,1 (at 13:04 UTC), magnitude 3,3 (at 13:25 UTC), magnitude 3,1 (at 13:36 UTC), magnitude 3,5 (at 16:35 UTC). Other earthquakes were smaller in magnitude.


The earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake swarm is the strongest since January-2019 (article here). The difference is that this earthquake swarm seems to be larger then the one in January. This earthquake activity is the result of a inflation happening in Bárðarbunga volcano. There was no harmonic tremor following this earthquake activity. I don’t know how much Bárðarbunga volcano has inflated since end of the eruption in February-2015. This type of earthquake activity (swarm with large earthquakes) should be expected few times a year for next few years.

Thank you note

I’ve been having a bad time in last few days. What I did think as a solution turned into a major problem. The result of this is that I am going to move back to Denmark soon as November (it might get delayed until mid-January to February) if I have all the money issues in order and enough to pay for transport of my belongings back to Denmark (that is expensive, but I am going to sell some stuff now to lessen the amount along with stuff I’ve never transported to Denmark). This instability spilled a bit into this website, Facebook and twitter (both sites). I’ve removed the articles in question with comments and everything since I felt it was not right to keep the articles online.

I want to thank people that supported me with good and positive comments in the last few days. I decided do refund few donations that I got during this. I felt it unfair to keep them after the situation did calm down.

Work hours

I am working now 08:00 – 16:00 until September. From September until mid to end of October I am going to be working 07:00 – 18:00 (some days longer).