Day: November 11, 2023

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Update on the Sundhnúka / Kálffellsheiði / Reykjanes volcano / Fagradalsfjall volcano / Grindavík dyke intrusion

This is a short update. Information here might go outdated quickly and without warning. This update is written on 11. November at 22:42 UTC.

  • The dyke is 15 km long at the writing of this article. It might be extending both north-east and south-west. Earthquake activity remains heavy but the magnitudes have dropped for now.
  • The inflation in the area is around 120 cm or more since start of this yesterday (10. November 2023).
  • The dyke now extends into the ocean and the part in the ocean is around 3 to 5 km. At shallow depth, this is going to result in explosive eruption for the first few hours to days.
  • The magma is now at depth of 800 meters, where it is the most shallow. That might not result in a eruption at that location.
  • Eruption is going to start without warning. Since Icelandic Met Office has issued that they can’t see the harmonic tremor start because of heavy earthquake activity in the dyke.
  • There is now a major risk of large earthquakes both east and west of the dyke because of all the displacement resulting from him. Those might happen days or even weeks in the future.
  • Icelandic Road Administration published pictures on Facebook here, showing the damage from the displacement and from the earthquakes. The ground is falling apart and opening up.

 

Image of the dyke in direct 15 km line from north-east to south-east.
The dyke location. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is difficult to know what happens next and this eruption is not going to be small or tourist friendly.

Hundreds of green stars showing earthquakes larger than magnitude 3,0 next to Grindavík and nearby area.
The insane amount of earthquake activity next to Grindavík town in last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I’ll post updates once I know more.

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Dyke has formed or is forming under Grindavík town, mandatory evacuation ordered

This is a short article. Its going to outdated quickly.

  • Dyke has or is forming under Grindavík town. This dyke starts at Sundahnjúkar in north-east of Grindavík town and is going to down to Grindavík. This is at the moment around 4 to 7 km long dyke. It might get longer and reach the ocean.
  • There’s a mandatory evacuation order in place. Everyone in Grindavík town has two hours (from around 23:00 UTC) to leave the town. Many people had already left because of the heavy earthquake activity today (10. November 2023).
  • Earthquake activity remains heavy, but is lower than it was at around 17:00 to 19:00 UTC. This might change again without warning.
  • GPS data suggests this is more magma than in all of last three eruptions combined.
  • This magma might be from Fagradalsfjall volcano. This is currently only an idea. That means the magma in Reykjanes volcano has not started to move to the surface. That might also happen without warning at any time, since that inflation continues.

I’ll post more information when I got them. The situation is unclear and there’s a lot of wrong information out there so check your sources.