The earthquake activity in Skaftafellsfjöll mountain (part under Vatnajökull glacier)

Since May 2011 there has been an earthquake activity in mountain called Saftafellsfjöll. This is slightly north of Öræfajökull volcano and south of Grímsfjall volcano. This earthquake activity is now permanent in this area it seems. Some of it might be glacier quakes, but most of the earthquake activity there is not, because of the depth this earthquake activity is happening at.

Earthquake activity in Skaftafell in Skaftafellsfjöll mountain. Shown as blue, orange and yellow dots on the map of Vatnajökull glacier. Also on this map is earthquake activity in Askja volcano and Herðubreið shown with red dots.
Earthquake activity in Skaftafellsfjöll mountain. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
One year worth of earthquake data from Skjalftalísa program on Icelandic Met Office. It shows a clear concentration of earthquakes in Skaftafellsfjöll mountain over this time.
Earthquake activity in Skaftafellsfjöll mountain for 365 days. Picture is from Skjálftalísa on Icelandic Met Office website. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I don’t know for sure what is going on. This earthquake activity clearly shows that something is going on in this part of Vatnajökull glacier. It is my unverified opinion that there is a volcano there. Its not documented and map only show a extinct volcano in this area. This is unlikely to be earthquake activity in extinct volcano, its not impossible, what makes this unlikely is that this earthquake activity happens regularly and has been going on since May 2011. There is ice quake activity in this same area, but some of this earthquake activity is both deep and being located in areas with no glacier. If those are not measuring errors or something like that (I find that unlikely in many cases). I don’t think there’s going to be an eruption in this area, at least not for a long time if it ever happens. This earthquake activity might have been going on for a lot longer then from May 2011.

– This is not an registered or confirmed volcano in this area. Unless there’s an eruption, it might be a long time until a confirmation happens.