Magnitude Mw5,2 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

During the night of 8-December 2024 at 01:49 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw5,2 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is a inflation related earthquake, as Bárðarbunga volcano continues to inflate from the collapse during the 2014 and 2015 eruption.

Green star in Bárðarbunga volcano, showing the largest earthquake. With lot of smaller dots in the caldera.
The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

A lot of smaller earthquakes also happened before and after the main earthquake. This is not unusual, there are just more of them now. Why that happened is not clear. This is an ongoing earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga and is going last for the next 30 to 90 years in the longest. Depending on how this evolve in Bárðarbunga volcano.