Posted on by Jón Frímann

New earthquake swarm in Tungafellsjökull volcano

New earthquake swarm started in Tungafellsjökull volcano earlier today (13-January-2015). The earthquakes start at 13 km depth and go up to around 2 km depth far as I can tell.

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Earthquake activity in Tungafellsjökull volcano for the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I am having problems knowing at the moment if this earthquake swarm is growing or slowing down, at the moment however it appears to be steady in number of earthquakes taking place at the moment. Largest earthquake that has taken place in Tungafellsjökull volcano had the magnitude of 3,1. More strong earthquakes are to be expected. Some of this activity can be traced to Bárðarbunga volcano eruption and stress changes it is creating in nearby volcanoes. This is just half the story, since from the year 2013 there have been deep earthquakes (20 – 30 km depth) been taking place in Tungafellsjökull volcano. Suggesting that magma had already at that time started to move into the volcano at depth. It remains unclear if an eruption is going to take place in Tungafellsjökull volcano, it cannot be ruled out at this moment.

Earlier articles

Deep earthquake swarm in Tungafellsjökull volcano (jonfr.com, 2013)

7 Replies to “New earthquake swarm in Tungafellsjökull volcano”

  1. I commented o this a while ago after studying dfm’s 3d models of up to date data. It showed a pathway of small eqs between bb and tungnafellsjokul, similar to that claimed to be responsible for the holuhraun feed.

    I think it is more complex than that, and as you note Jon, it has been going on for some time. I suspect all of this is deep source pressure using any fractured routes available to find a way up. There has been so much tectonic shift that many such routes must logically exist.

  5. I can’t say I’ve tracked all the Tungna quakes, but there is a recent shift in where they are which seems to indicate a change below. There was a small swarm in this area a few months? back over a day or two, but it didn’t progress much at all.

    The tracking between Bardar and Tungna is interesting. It’s mainly been random EQs between the two but occasionally some progressive type of pattern, like the path towards the fissure, but very very sparse in comparison. Also, it seems that the paths of these EQs never went “through” the boundary between the two systems. That’s not to say that couldn’t happen, but there isn’t much of a sign that it is happening. The main link between the two may be very very deep, but more notably as Jon said, the effects of pressure movements in Bardar will effect all sites around it, as well as the general micro plate movement effects in that area.

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