Posted on by Jón Frímann

Hekla volcano is quiet

I have been seeing some rumors about Hekla volcano might be about to erupt. This is wrong. For the moment Hekla volcano is quiet as it has been since the last eruption in the year 2000. For few years Hekla volcano did erupt for about every 10 years. That might have change already. Nobody is sure on that now. But one thing is clear Hekla volcano is going to erupt one day. But when is always the question.

People have been speculating on the earthquakes west of Hekla volcano. This earthquakes do not belong to Hekla volcano. They are part of activity in the SISZ (South Icelandic Seismic Zone). Earthquakes in this area tectonic in nature, not volcanic. So in worst case, this earthquakes might be sign of new major earthquake preparing to take place some day in the future.

For the moment however. Everything is quiet in Hekla volcano.

30 Replies to “Hekla volcano is quiet”

  1. Tuesday
    03.01.2012 02:12:59 64.812 -17.250 5.7 km 2.9 90.06 4.0 km NNW of Kistufell

    Tuesday
    03.01.2012 02:13:29 64.811 -17.247 4.6 km 2.7 90.01 3.8 km NNW of Kistufell

  2. Good luck with all your pland for the year Jon. Which will go first – Katla or Hekla? I suppose we’ll find out soon enough. As long as people are safe and don’t lose their livliehoods we can watch with interest. Happy 2012 to all 🙂

      1. Bardarbunga is too big to go off just due to couple of M2+ quakes. It will take months of heavy quaking with numerous M4+ quakes, before Mr. B sets off.

      2. I disagree. Hamarinn (which belongs to Bardarbunga fissure system) erupted last July, and with almost no earthquake before!

        However for larger eruptions, especially those inside Bardarbunga caldera, I do expect several larger earthquakes beforehand.

        But volcanoes are known for tricking us, as we have seen with Grimsvotn this year; no earthquakes followed by a large eruption.

    1. Yes, that is scaremongering news and nothing else. I do not think that anything else should be expected from Ekstra Bladet.

      Tomas, On the blog post before this I am asking if anyone knows about good rental company in Denmark (Like Sab-bolig.net in Sønderbog). I would be really thankful if you can see if you know of any such companies that rent out apartments close to Copenhagen with stove (komfur). I do have a fridge and freezer already.

      3. Yes its true! People start rumours with this kind of stuff! It’s like the Mars hoax, every year in August expect that strange email, ever since 2003.

  5. Carl is famous with his forecast on Hekla launching before summer 2012, so these rumours must have be originated by his prediction…

    1. Carl has been speculating about Hekla in one of his latest blog posts. The thing is: If Hekla erupts until next summer, he can claim that he was right, even if this is not true.

  6. Just remember, when you state Hekla is quiet, it’s valid for the next one hour only!

  7. Today i dreamed that i was seing the iceland earthquake site and sudenly apear two new earthquakes in vatnajokul, one of M3.8 and other of M8.5. Then a volcano erupted. Earthquakes of this magnitude are possible there or i had a bad dream? Thank’s!

      1. You don’t need earthquakes to have an eruption in Vatnajokull, or at least in Grimsvotn, as we saw this May. This is because that volcano erupts often, so magma pathways are probably quite “open” for new flows.

        In 1996, Grimsvotn erupted after a large 5.0 earthquake in Bardarbunga. Bardarbunga also erupted then, but it was a very small event. I doubt that much bigger earthquakes can happen there, probably the largest earthquakes would be around 6.0 and would signal a large eruption about to happen, like one from Bardarbunga, Oraefajokull or even Kverfjoll.

        In 1362 one the largest eruptions in Iceland’s history occured in Oraefajokull after several large earthquakes. Something similar seems to happen before large eruptions of Katla. And the same occurred before Laki. At least from what we read of historical reports.

        At the moment, everything is calm in Vatnajokull. The only sign of unrest is noted in Bardarbunga by its inflation and recent events occuring near Hamarinn. It is well known that this volcano is approaching a more significant eruption, but no one knows when. No worries!

  11. Magnitude ML 3.6
    Region Iceland Region
    Date time 2012-01-03 21:12:42.4 utc
    Location 63.90 N ; 22.11 W
    Depth 14 km
    Distances 28 km S Reykjavík (pop 113,906 ; local time 21:12:42.4 2012-01-03)
    19 km SW Hafnarfjörður (pop 22,289 ; local time 21:12:42.4 2012-01-03)
    15 km SE Vogar (pop 982 ; local time 21:12:42.4 2012-01-03

  12. Magnitude ML 3.6
    Region ICELAND REGION
    Date time 2012-01-03 21:12:42.4 UTC
    Location 63.90 N ; 22.11 W
    Depth 14 km
    Distances 28 km S Reykjavík (pop 113,906 ; local time 21:12:42.4 2012-01-03)
    19 km SW Hafnarfjörður (pop 22,289 ; local time 21:12:42.4 2012-01-03)
    15 km SE Vogar (pop 982 ; local time 21:12:42.4 2012-01-03)

  13. Earthquake with 3,6 near Krysuvik which could be felt Reykjavik:
    2012-01-03 21:12:42,3 14,2 3,6 90,04 2,7 km WNW of Krýsuvík

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