Reykjanes and Krýsuvík volcanoes updates on 26-February-2021 at 15:37 UTC

This is a short update on activity in Reykjanes and Krýsuvík volcanoes.

At 12:06 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,4 took place in Fagradalsfjall mountain. Swarm of earthquakes with magnitude above Mw3,0 have taken place and that activity is ongoing. It is difficult to write any good article with this high level of earthquake activity on Reykjanes peninsula. Deformation of the crust because of this earthquake activity has been detected by Icelandic Met Office. Nothing suggests that magma has found a path to the surface so far.

Green stars on the Reykjanes peninsula from south-west to north-east. A lot of new earthquake activity shown by red dots on the map.
Earthquake activity on Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Unusual amount of hydrogen volcano gas have been detected in Svartsengi for the last day. It is unclear why this change is happening and more research is needed to see what is going on there. There is no report of increase in other volcano gases at the writing of this article.

If anything major happens I’ll post update soon as possible.