Today (18-February-2016) and yesterday (17-February-2016) there has been deep earthquake activity in Askja volcano and in Bárðarbunga volcano.
Askja volcano
Since March 2010 Askja volcano has been having period activity taking deep inside Askja volcano. This suggests that both deep dyke intrusions are taking place in the volcano system, yesterday and today (close to Dreka area and Herðubreiðartögl volcano). None of those dyke intrusions is going to reach the surface. They are going to remain at depth. This does show that since 2010 magma activity at depth is possibly increasing in Askja volcano. When a eruption might take place is impossible to know, but it might be a really long time until it happens. Unless Bárðarbunga volcano enters the mixture and speeds things up. Earthquake activity close to Herðurbreið are normal tectonic earthquakes at shallow depth >10km.
Bárðarbunga volcano
Most of this week Bárðarbunga volcano has been quiet. That might be about to change, since today few deep earthquake appeared in the northern part of the volcano. This suggests that fresh magma from deep magma chamber is pushing up now. The resulting earthquakes are due to pressure change inside the volcano that fractures the rock in the process. Earthquake activity has also been in the dyke (Holuhraun eruption) at the edge of the glacier. I don’t know why that is. A clear dyke intrusion took place in Hamarinn volcano on 17-February-2016, with earthquakes at the depth of 12 – 13 km. This is the first dyke activity in this volcano for a while now. Magma is shallow in Hamarinn volcano, making it sensitive to pressure changes and possible eruptions.
Earthquake activity in Askja and Bárðarbunga volcanoes. Along with earthquake activity close to Herðurbreið area. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Met Office.
Maps of Iceland
For people who want to know what I’m often taking about there is a map that can be bought. This is a geological map of Iceland, it shows all the volcanoes, both active and extinct ones in Iceland. Along with fault zones and fissure swarms. It can be bought from here. Please note that I don’t get anything from this, it’s just so that people can have access to information about Iceland. The prise of this map is €13,80 without shipping, or 15,31 USD without shipping today.
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Neat summary of what are interesting developments, thanks 🙂
Looks like you may have chosen a good time to put some distance between you and both Askija and Bardy. The view from Denmark might just be a bit safer, lol. As usual great summery of things Jon keep up the great work!
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Great cant even spell summary even after Chris used it!!
Yup they are talking about it on the “other” blog,I smiled and got booted for another week lol,I guess their sense of humor does not extend to being wrong.Be nice guys ?
What are they scaremongering about? (I don’t go there.)
JB is pretty much a jerk to anybody who doesn’t agree with him.
a320er – Please don’t flame people here. Doing so might result in me adding you into the moderation queue.
Well I thought the pic you posted of Mr Putin eating popcorn was funny and well timed, but I guess it might have rubbed Carl up the wrong way!
Carl thinks an eruption at Bardarbunga is possible it seems and is irritated that he might of been wrong to say otherwise,well that was my interpretation and the popcorn meme,made him choke lol.
New eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano is going to happen. Since rift episodes in Bárðarbunga volcano and in this area often last 10 – 20 years (at the longest). Eruptions not connected to Bárðarbunga volcano (rift zone eruptions) are also possibles, those are eruptions without a central magma chamber and they are even harder to know about than eruptions from a central volcano.
Lots of new quakes at Bárðarbunga. Is she gonna blow?
Not yet. It’s just new earthquake activity taking place.
Actually much activity on Iceland?
Rare eruption of Iceland’s most famous hot spring Geysir
http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/nature_and_travel/2016/02/21/rare_eruption_of_iceland_s_most_famous_hot_spring_g/
Sunday 21.02.2016 19:16:56 64.624 -17.469 0.6 km 2.9 99.0 3.3 km ESE of Bárðarbunga so is this a settling down from the 3′ +s we’ve been seeing the last few weeks? Also does the recent eruption at Geysir indicate that the rift is getting more active?
Geysir is an hydrothermal area. It’s on a top of a volcano that is cooling down at the moment and doesn’t show any signs that it’s about to erupt any time soon.
Bárðarbunga volcano is doing the regular earthquake activity. I suspect more earthquakes might happen soon.
Heklubyggð geophone station is not updating due to technical issues at the moment. I hope they are fixed tomorrow.