Posted on by Jón Frímann

Minor earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano

Over the past few weeks there has been a slight increase in earthquakes in Öræfajökull volcano. Due to glacier quake activity I’m only using earthquakes that have confirmed depth of 1,5 km or deeper. This earthquake activity is minor and doesn’t suggest that an eruption is imminent, it however does suggest that something is going on.

160324_1900
Öræfajökull volcano is to the south on this image (two red dots). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This activity has a long history, it started happening in 2012 at the earliest that I know of and has been going on slowly since then. Öræfajökull volcano did go from having no earthquakes and up to having two to five earthquakes a year. Sometimes more. There are clues in this activity that magma might be starting to push it self up into the volcano, but at the moment it doesn’t seems to be going far up into the volcano. Based on the current depth and low seismicity in Öræfajökull volcano. I don’t expect this to change any time soon. Since most of the time, at least for the moment there is little to no earthquake activity taking place in Öræfajökull volcano.

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29 Replies to “Minor earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano”

    1. Yes, from 14th of April until 29th of April. I will have some internet access, but it is going to be limited and I might not be able to write articles during those days.

  2. Hekla Aktivität ! The Icelandic Civil Protection has issued a warning and a stage of uncertainty due to tremors around Hekla volcano and a possible eruption. Aviation traffic protocol has also been raised to level yellow around the mountain indicating unusual activity. Stage of uncertainty means increased surveillance of events that later can lead to endangerment of peoples health and safety or a threat to human habitat. Declaring a state of uncertainty is standard protocol when tremor activity over a certain limit and other factors around a volcano indicate possible volcanic activity. It is issued to insure the formal outlet of information and attention to appropriate parties. Stage of uncertainty is the least of three warning stages leading up to a possible eruption. Warnings have been issued and the public is deterred from hiking or traveling on and around mount Hekla at this point. A live webcam on Mount Hekla can be found at Míla.

    #Icenews http://www.icenews.is/2016/03/27/tremors-around-hekla-easter-eruption-possible/#ixzz447wFPOGc

    2. Nothing happening at Hekla volcano. Somebody was recycling three year old news. Its bit windy in South Iceland at them moment and that is all of the activity I’m seeing today.

      1. Although not as notable as in VON, I think some spikes/raised activity is also apparent in the DYN and GRF tremor plots.

  4. Hey Jon have you started the count down to move in hours yet??
    Quick question is there any significance to the 5.0 just east and south of Svalbard?
    2016-03-29 10:32:08 UTC 10.0 km 5.0 119km ESE of Longyearbyen, Svalbard and Jan Mayen

    1. At the moment I’m only counting the days. Still few more days until I’m in Denmark again.

      The Svalbard earthquake is possibly related to glacier melt and the stress changes that brings. It’s tectonic in nature. There are no active volcanoes in this area that I know of.

  5. Deep intrusion under Katla?

    Wednesday
    30.03.2016 03:45:18 63.627 -19.078 26.9 km 0.8 99.0 5.3 km NNE of Hábunga
    Wednesday
    30.03.2016 03:41:41 63.619 -19.124 20.3 km 0.9 99.0 4.5 km NNW of Hábunga
    Wednesday
    30.03.2016 03:40:55 63.614 -19.120 22.6 km 1.5 99.0 3.9 km NNW of Hábunga
    Wednesday
    30.03.2016 03:40:38 63.625 -19.135 19.2 km 0.8 99.0 5.3 km NNW of Hábunga

      1. Possibly an M3 earthquake in Katla, 16:55. It has still not been manually corrected, though.

  6. @John I would not go as far as to say that Iceland is shuddering but looks like underneath both Vatnajökull and Mýrdalsjökull there is a whole heap of shivering going on today 🙂

      2. Yeah I pointed that out on VC,when they were getting hysterical about an eruption being forthcoming and they censored and pretty much banned me lol.They had the audacity to suggest that IMO must be mistaken because the signal was on your recorder Jon.Those guys are discredited completely in my opinion.

      3. JB I’ve never seen you on VC. And I don’t think it helps anyone getting personal.

      4. It’s Geyser Mike,I appreciate that you first mentioned the signal,but when it was confirmed it was artificial you were equally emphatic that it was false.If you look at my comments ,I posted the picture of a snowcapped as a subtle reference that this was probably a man made signal.Carl and GL despise my input and that’s their perogative it’s their blog.

  8. Ring of fire heating up several quakes yesterday and today all around the Pacific with this one being the biggest so far:

    6.0 56km SE of Shingu, Japan 2016-04-01 02:39:07 UTC 10.0 km

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