Day: October 23, 2022

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Earthquake swarm in west part of Fagradalsfjall volcano

This morning on 23-October-2022 an earthquake swarm took place in west part of Fagradalsfjall volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm so far had a magnitude of Mw3,0.

Green star just west of main Fagradalsfjall volcano. Few blue, yellow and red dots on the map showing earthquakes in other nearby volcanoes
Earthquake activity west of Fagradalsfjall volcano. Picture from Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is the result of magma pushing up into the crust at around 5 km depth. This is not a large dyke intrusion and possibly won’t result in a eruption, unless there’s a sharp increase in earthquake activity and that has happened (the August 2022 eruption started this way). This is currently a situation that requires monitoring for changes. If anything is going to happen is impossible to know.

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Earthquake swarm north of Herðubreið mountain

During the night of 23-October-2022 an earthquake swarm started north of Herðubreið mountain. This looks like a tectonic earthquake swarm, rather then a magma related activity. At the writing of this article, over 500 earthquakes have been recorded.

Earthquake swarm north of Herðubreið mountain, a lot of red dots and green stars on the map. Located east of Askja volcano and south of Herðubreiðartögl volcano
Earthquake activity north of Herðubreið mountain. Picture is from Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquake at the writing of this article had a magnitude Mw4,0 and one magnitude Mw3,1 earthquake took place. Second largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,3. This earthquake swarm is ongoing at the writing of this article and there’s still a risk of larger earthquakes happening north of Herðubreið mountain. The largest earthquake was felt in Akureyri according to news reports.