Day: May 30, 2020

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Earthquake swarm north-east of Grindavík town

Today (30-May-2020) at 01:07 UTC an earthquake swarm started north-east of Grindavík town in the volcano of Reykjanes (Svartsengi part). Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw2,7 and other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude. This earthquake swarm is currently ongoing and this information is going to get outdated quickly. Current activity doesn’t suggest that an eruption is about to happen.


The earthquake swarm north-east of Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This signals that the inflation in this part of the volcano has started again at earlier speed possibly but this requires a confirmation from GPS data and such confirmation takes a few days. This is information that I don’t have access to because its from satellites that NASA runs to monitor volcanoes. Only Icelandic Met Office and University of Iceland has access to this type of information.

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Magnitude Mw3,5 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano during the night (30-May-2020)

A single earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano at 01:20 UTC. This earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,5 and no other earthquakes took place following this earthquake. This type of earthquake has been followed by stronger earthquake activity later but this is not always the case. This earthquake activity is due to inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano after the eruption in Holuhraun in August 2014 to February 2015. This earthquake was in its normal place in north-east part of Bárðarbunga volcano.


The green star shows the Mw3,5 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This activity is normal and does not signal any eruption risk because after the eruption of 2014 and 2015 it is going to be a while until next eruption happens in Bárðarbunga volcano, probably.