This is a short update on the activity in Grindavík on 19. November 2023. Information here might go out of date without warning. This article is written at 22:28 UTC.
Krýsuvík earthquake
This morning an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,7 took place in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano. This earthquake was felt in Reykjavík area. This earthquake happens because of all the displacement that is now happening next to Grindavík town.
Daily update
This is also an update for 18. November 2023. I was trying to get a little time off from writing.
- Little has changed in last two days. Parts of Grindavík town continue to sink or rise depending on location. Most measured movements is around 25 cm last I did see. If that is correct today I am not sure.
- Inflation in Svartsengi is around 130mm since Friday 10. November 2023 according to GPS measurements and satellite measurements.
- Inflow of magma into Svartsengi is estimated to be around 50m3/sec when this article is written according to the news. Inflow of magma into the dyke was 75m3/sec or more few days ago. That has possibly changed to a lower number in last few days.
- Earthquake activity remains about the same in the dyke. Around 800 to 2000 earthquakes a day along the 15 km long dyke.
It is impossible to know when this area is going to erupt. It can take up to three to four weeks to happen. It might be a shorter time period, it is impossible to know what happens when it comes to volcanoes and dyke activity.
If anything happens. I’ll post an update quickly as I can.
The large (purple) area further east that is sinking seems significant*; it surprised me. Is there more information? At minimum this illustrates how much tectonic tension is present (Grindavík presently being a weak spot). But volcanic activity sometime later in southern and/or eastern-central Iceland probably can’t be ruled out. Some of the larger (and famous) volcanoes there might even wake up.
* It’s an educated guess, but the speed of what’s happening in Grindavík may be indicative of it being only one aspect of a much larger process (over a much bigger area). Yikes.
You don’t have to worry about that. I am not sure how this map works outside of the area they are focusing on. But the area on the right on the map are volcanoes, but remain dormant for now.
I saw this on mbl.is (english). He says there has been a dramatic uptick of the inflow.
The land around the Svartsengi power plant is rising much faster than it did before the earthquake swarm that started on November 10, or about 5.5 times faster. The magma inflow is also about ten times faster.
This is what volcanologist Þorvald Þórðarson said to mbl.is today.
Signs of magma being closer to the surface
“The flow of magma into this storage chamber, which is at a depth of 4.5 kilometres, is 8 to 10 times higher than what people were talking about before November 10. Then it was about 5 to 7 cubic metres per second, but now it is about 50 cubic metres per second,” Þórðarson says.
https://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2023/11/19/land_is_rising_faster_near_svartsengi/
This is the differences between 18 and 19 nov. I am not sure about the period before, but it might be that a larger part of the Peninsula has been uplifted and now the flow is concentrating towards Svartsengi, deflating part of the area near Krysuvik. This interpretation might explain as well the earthquake activity at Krysuvik