Posted on by Jón Frímann

The earthquakes in Eyjafjallajökull volcano

The night of the 6th of January 2011 had few earthquakes in the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. This minor earthquake activity has been reported by the Icelandic media this morning. The news on this is not a long one. But confirms that some of the earthquakes in Eyjafjallajökull volcano are real (but might be wrongly located by the automatic SIL system). In the same news it is claimed that icelandic geologist are not concerned about this minor earthquake activity in Eyjafjallajökli volcano. But none of the earthquakes that did happen tonight (on the 6th of January 2011) did get over the size of ML2.0.

The news on the earthquake activity in Eyjafjallajökli volcano. Use Google translate at own risk.

Nokkrir jarðskjálftar í Eyjafjalla- og Mýrdalsjökli (Vísir.is)

46 Replies to “The earthquakes in Eyjafjallajökull volcano”

  1. I’m not concerned either, not yet. But, when the activity picks up in coming weeks, we’ll see bigger quakes and stronger swarms. Then I’m starting to be worried, as I have to travel quite a bit during this year. This year will definitely be an interesting one…

    1. The question is if we would get big quake swarms before an repeated eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. The vent is open, so there is probably not much needed, to get it working again.

  2. Following the blog for a quite some time and now the time has come that I feel the need to comment.. Someone noticed the new amount of earthquakes under the volcano..! THe ones that are properly located have a nice depth.. Seems to me that there is really something going on in the volcano

  3. Following this blog for some time already and I think it’s a great and informative blog!
    Anyone noticed the new earthquakes under the volcano! . The earthquakes that are properly located have a nice depth.. Seems like there is something going on.

  4. Lots of earthquakes both around Eyjafjallajokull and Katla. Is this because of new stations installed?
    I never see such a day with so many earthquakes. But most of them are weak and shallow quakes.

    1. Exactly what we were discussing on the New SIL seismometers around Eyjafjallajökull volcano and Mýrdalsjökull (Katla) thread. So far I don’t think anyone is sure, but I am suspecting it is not entirely the new seismometers and that we probably have a real swarm as well, which is just being exaggerated a bit by the new seismometers. I am no expert though.

    2. I have my doubts over this being entirely due to new seismometers. The increase may affect the number of weak quakes, but not the stronger ones…

      1. I agree. I would expect the sub Mag 1.0 count to increase dramatically due to the new equipment… not the > Mag 1.0 .

  5. There is nothing specacular on the GOD tremor plot though there is a bit going on, so probably most of it, but not all, is the new seismometers – is my guess Come on Jon, we need an expert to interpret this because we are not used to the new seismometers yet.

    1. Thats probably because there is a storm going on and the data might be lost in the recorded noise of wind and waves.

      1. The glacier is cracking in the cold, registers as quakes on the new meters.

  6. Opps! spectacular, not specacular! And I have no excuse. English is my own language!

    1. I’ve proofread/edited two books and a lot of other stuff by native English speakers. Making a typo is quite common; not knowing their own language is, unfortunately, even more so.

      The fact that some think I’m a native English user is a bit worrying and speaks a lot about the educational systems, especially in the U.S. Unfortunately, similar downward trend is evident in other languages. My education in languages is highschool level, but I’ve used them… for some years.

      1. Same problem here… I left my thesis for a professional, half-native English language teacher (university level) for proof-reading. She was very disappointed to find not a single mistake in it!

      2. “speaks a lot about the educational systems, especially in the U.S.”

        We don’t have an education system in the U.S. It can probably be best described as an indoctrination system.

        2 + 2 = Apple.

  7. A M2 right in Katla cardera right now!
    Thursday
    06.01.2011 14:55:28 63.622 -19.197 4.3 km 2.0 62.6 3.3 km SE of Goðabunga

  8. Yes, I think something real is happening, but I don’t yet know how significant it is.

  9. No, it’s the cold moving the meters. Disgusting weather now and the next days.

    http://www.mbl.is/mm/frettir/forsida/2011/01/06/kuldabrestir_a_skjalftamaelum/

    “Cold suggests tremors.

    Cold is affecting sensitive earthquake indicators around Mýrdalsjökull that now file frost and glacier movements that occur falsly. Considerable movement has been seen in the area recently.

    “It’s just the cold that makes so many earthquakes being registered” said Steinunn S. Jakob, at IMO. She said that most of these movements can not be located. Surface in these areas is cooling down.”

    1. Thanks for that The Other Lurker. So they are so sensitive that they are probably registering minor cracking ice and similar and even the instruments may be affected by the cold.

      1. According to http://www.belgingur.is/ (prediction, not fact) it looks like it’s -15°C there right now, not adding wind chill factor.
        Makarfljót -10°C & wind 13 meters pr second.

        Midnight tonight is expected to be the worst part but continuing cold weather tomorrow & Saturday.

    2. So… the new seismos now give us the ability to measure the activity of thermal gradients as the weather changes?

      Gee, whoda thunk.

    3. I don’t buy the ‘cold’ explanation without qualification, especially given the depths of many of the quakes (though many are also shallow, yes); why no similar swarms around other icecaps?

  10. There is a lot of false earthquakes going on at the moment. Due to the cold weather. So any earthquake with the quality lower then 50.00 might well be a frost quake (a false earthquake). I am going to write a little about this later on.

    1. Most of these quakes have a quality of greater than 50.00. Many are in the 99.00%! Does that mean they are real earthquaking? or can frostquakes give results like we are observing? If real eathquaking, is this just because of better detection with the new seismometers?

      1. Earthquakes with quality 99.99 have manually been located by a seismologist at Icelandic Met Office. So real earthquakes have that quality when they have been reviewed. Frost earthquakes have extremely low quality and seismologist can easily see the difference between a real earthquake and a frost quake (a false earthquake) because of the different wave form that a false earthquake creates.

        The frost in this area is going to go down to -20C in the next 24 hours, so a lot of false earthquakes are going to appear in that time. Not just in Eyjafjallajökull volcano and Mýrdalsjökull volcano. But also in other parts of Iceland also.

      2. Most of these are 99.0%!

        Earthquake table Date Time Latitude Longitude Depth Magnitude Quality Location
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 16:41:51 63.556 -19.546 7.5 km -0.5 31.52 3.9 km NW of Skógar
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 16:00:11 63.600 -19.066 7.5 km 2.1 35.56 2.8 km NE of Hábunga
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 14:55:28 63.622 -19.197 4.3 km 2.0 62.6 3.3 km SE of Goðabunga
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 14:16:05 63.681 -19.519 8.7 km 0.2 35.93 1.9 km WNW of Básar
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 13:22:02 63.620 -19.623 1.0 km -0.2 99.0 9.5 km SW of Básar
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 12:42:36 63.602 -19.912 6.8 km 0.0 99.0 4.1 km ESE of Seljalandsfoss
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 12:05:41 63.594 -19.826 11.4 km 0.2 99.0 8.4 km ESE of Seljalandsfoss
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 11:29:19 63.734 -19.472 1.1 km 1.9 30.01 6.3 km N of Básar
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 11:06:01 63.685 -19.651 12.0 km 0.2 99.0 8.4 km W of Básar
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 11:06:00 63.701 -19.536 10.7 km 0.6 39.61 3.8 km NW of Básar
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 10:04:43 63.617 -19.057 11.4 km 0.7 99.0 4.7 km NNE of Hábunga
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 09:59:37 63.441 -18.518 1.0 km 1.7 99.0 24.2 km E of Vík
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 09:32:51 63.629 -19.657 1.1 km -0.5 99.0 10.2 km WSW of Básar
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 09:11:41 63.543 -19.099 1.0 km 1.7 99.0 4.1 km S of Hábunga
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 09:11:03 63.743 -19.281 0.1 km 1.8 58.48 11.5 km N of Goðabunga
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 06:48:40 63.356 -19.905 22.7 km 1.1 99.0 20.5 km ESE of Heimaklettur
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 06:23:09 63.648 -19.339 1.0 km 1.1 99.0 4.5 km WNW of Goðabunga
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 06:21:28 63.662 -19.325 1.0 km 0.4 99.0 4.5 km WNW of Goðabunga
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 05:04:18 63.839 -18.613 1.0 km 0.1 99.0 27.6 km SE of Landmannalaugar
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 04:55:12 63.632 -19.442 9.9 km 2.0 54.19 5.4 km SSE of Básar
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 04:20:44 63.673 -19.158 6.7 km -0.4 32.01 5.8 km NE of Goðabunga
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 02:55:46 63.557 -19.884 1.1 km -0.3 99.0 8.3 km SE of Seljalandsfoss
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 02:48:35 63.661 -19.701 1.7 km 0.7 48.51 11.0 km W of Básar
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 02:36:23 63.651 -19.169 5.1 km 0.3 99.0 4.2 km ENE of Goðabunga
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 02:36:04 63.627 -19.750 6.3 km 0.0 99.0 11.9 km E of Seljalandsfoss
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 02:19:48 63.901 -19.299 0.1 km 0.0 99.0 5.7 km NW of Álftavatn
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 02:19:34 63.523 -18.985 0.4 km 0.6 99.0 8.5 km SE of Hábunga
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 02:12:43 63.669 -19.428 5.2 km 0.1 99.0 2.8 km ESE of Básar
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 01:56:09 63.668 -19.432 1.1 km 1.9 35.07 2.6 km ESE of Básar
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 01:53:50 63.716 -19.166 1.2 km 0.6 99.0 9.4 km NNE of Goðabunga
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 01:50:54 63.750 -18.665 5.1 km -0.5 99.0 28.5 km NE of Hábunga
        Thursday
        06.01.2011 01:44:04 64.016 -18.686 1.0 km 1.0 99.0 18.5 km E of Landmannalaugar
        Wednesday
        05.01.2011 21:15:41 63.646 -19.328 1.0 km 0.3 99.0 3.9 km W of Goðabunga
        Wednesday
        05.01.2011 19:41:43 63.648 -19.312 1.0 km 1.6 99.0 3.2 km WNW of Goðabunga
        Wednesday
        05.01.2011 17:28:18 63.695 -19.412 0.1 km 0.4 99.0 4.0 km ENE of Básar
        Wednesday
        05.01.2011 16:53:00 63.656 -19.444 1.0 km 0.0 99.0 3.0 km SE of Básar
        Wednesday
        05.01.2011 13:22:49 63.661 -19.323 1.0 km -0.1 99.0 4.3 km WNW of Goðabunga
        Wednesday
        05.01.2011 05:33:48 63.738 -19.376 0.1 km -0.3 99.0 8.5 km NE of Básar
        Wednesday
        05.01.2011 01:39:22 63.627 -19.792 1.0 km -0.7 99.0 9.8 km E of Seljalandsfoss
        Tuesday
        04.01.2011 22:42:31 63.647 -19.197 1.0 km 0.5 99.0 2.7 km ENE of Goðabunga
        Tuesday
        04.01.2011 20:11:40 63.671 -19.352 0.1 km 0.0 99.0 6.1 km NW of Goðabunga
        Tuesday
        04.01.2011 20:11:15 63.642 -19.414 0.1 km -0.1 99.0 5.1 km SE of Básar
        Tuesday
        04.01.2011 19:00:46 63.918 -19.097 1.0 km 0.9 99.0 8.3 km SSW of Landmannalaugar
        Samtals skjálftar: 43

        Is this real earthquaking or something else?

  11. I see that Eyjafjallajökull has a dark cloud of something billowing. I don’t think it’s clouds…
    12:29 pm Eastern Time, Michigan, USA

      2. now it stops almost completely…was quite alot of steam betwen 17.28 and 17.45 icelandic time.

      1. possible…but i’m pretty sure all come from the same spot and going straight up, but it is is quite dark, so i am wrong maybe.

        damn i should made a print screen but didn’t expect that will end that soon 🙂

  12. Jon; as regards to ash etc. I too saw what I though was back lit wispy cumulus earlier but had discounted ash; will the ash from the last eruption now not be sitting under the snow cover on the top? I know from experience that snow as well as ash can blow around, but it certainly didn’t look like snow blow to me from the scale of things. The captured image is posted here http://www.ukweatherworld.co.uk/forum/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=39471&posts=31

    1. Steam is a rather logical explanation for any white plumes above the mountain. It has been said a lot, but once again, the lava and crater are still burning hot, and when a chunk of ice falls on top of it, it will vaporize in no time.

    2. What I’d like to add is the fact that these clouds have occured very often since the end of the eruption, and they will continue to happen for some time. It does not indicate any effusive activity and it can happen at all times.

      My opinion for the recent earthquakes (except te frostquakes) are collapsing conduit and other process which started after the eruption. I think the mountain is settling again untill a new intrusion occures. One of the reasons is the complete lack of GPS evidence for a new eruption. The mountain stopped inflating after the start of the eruption in march and has been increasingly deflating ever since. In order to start a new eruption there has to be pressure beneath the mountain, which would result in uplift on GPS data.
      Without this pressure there is a nihil chance of an eruption in my eyes, but hey, these are amateur eyes, who knows what surprises Princess Eyja has in store for us. 🙂

      3. And that is exactly where the inflation for the eruption started (if I remember correctly), at Fimmvörðuháls.

  13. I saw a cloud too and it was a lot bigger than on the picture. It was a big thick cloud looking like a “miniatombomb” 😉
    Started smal and then get thicker, and just dissapered.
    Sry for my bad spelling…

  14. I saw the plume as it began. At first it dissipated quickly, then it got larger and very dark so whatever caused it, must be steamy.

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