Posted on by Jón Frímann

Earthquake activity continues in Krýsuvík volcano [updated]

Early morning today (2. March 2011) there was a spike of earthquakes in Krýsuvík volcano. This earthquake swarm took place west of Kleifarvatn lake as the main center of the activity has been for the past two years. This type of activity can be expected in Krýsuvík volcano in the coming weeks in my opinion. Both long earthquake swarms and short ones, like the one that did happen early morning today.

The Icelandic Met Office has released a picture showing the earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano from the year 2004. Along with accumulated strain from those earthquakes and other useful data.


Picture is from Icelandic Met Office web page. The Icelandic Met Office owns the copyright to this picture.

Frame 1: Monthly number of earthquakes.
Frame 3: Total number of earthquakes. Second line: Collected strain from earthquakes.
Frame 4: Depth of earthquakes.

Here is a picture of the location of the last week earthquake swarm in Krýsuvík volcano. This is depth view. This view does not contain all the earthquakes that took place in Krýsuvík volcano.


Picture is from Icelandic Met Office web page. The Icelandic Met Office owns the copyright to this picture. Note: Dýpi = Depth

Update: Here is a updated earthquake plot of Krýsuvík volcano. This is the location of the earthquakes in Krýsuvík volcano along with the depth of the earthquakes. This is the earthquakes in Krýsuvík volcano from 25.02.2011 to 02.03.2011. This picture is from here.


Picture is from Icelandic Met Office web page. The Icelandic Met Office owns the copyright to this picture. Note: Dýpi = Depth

A overview picture of the activity in Krýsuvík volcano shows well the fissure direction the earthquakes line them self up on. The direction is almost north-south one. This map does not contain all the earthquake that where recorded in Krýsuvík volcano in last week.


Picture is from Icelandic Met Office web page. The Icelandic Met Office owns the copyright to this picture.

The pictures are from the Icelandic Met Office web site that contains weekly overview of earthquake activity in Iceland. Click on the pictures to get high resolution of them.

I am expecting more earthquake activity in Krýsvík volcano area. But at the moment it is a bit hard to know for sure if this is going to result in a volcano eruption. But in my opinion that is going to be the result in the end. But currently it is all a question about when, rather then if in my opinion.

Update: There was a earthquake with the size ML3.6 at 17:56 UTC according to the automatic data from Icelandic Met Office. This earthquake was a more south the earthquakes that happened last weekend. This can clearly been seen on the map data that Icelandic Met Office has released (see above). The depth of this earthquake was 3.6 km.

Press disclaimer: I am not a geologist and my opinion is not the one of a expert in this matter.

News about the earthquake swarm in Krýsuvík volcano this morning. Use Google Translate carefully.

Enn skelfur jörð í Krýsuvík (Vísir.is)

Blog post updated at 20:25 CET on 02.03.2011. A new picture is added and information about the newest earthquake swarm is added.
Blog post updated at 20:36 CET on 02.03.2011.

40 Replies to “Earthquake activity continues in Krýsuvík volcano [updated]”

  1. I still hate their seismic moment plot.

    Nothing wrong with it, it’s just that I can’t get their formulation down. seismic moment requires a bit more knowledge about the system than I have and the only similar looking one I can generate is just a summation of the energy release for the same area.

    Pisses me off to no end. (mainly at myself)

    The good part is that they are doing one for this system and it is very enlightening.

    Doing my “knock off” energy release plot for Arkansas was amusing… looked ominous. That is until you compare it to what the systems in Iceland are doing. Krýsuvík, though tiny in comparison to Grímsvötn in energy release, is still magnitudes greater than Guy Arkansas. (which is non-volcanic).

  3. anoter “big” Earthquake
    17:56:53 63,894 -22,052 3,8 km 3,6 90,07 1,0 km NA af Krýsuvík

  4. Another quake, this time said to be M3.7, already lowered to a M3.6. Seems to my theyr are deeper now resulting in spikes.

    1. Could be the start of another swarm, or just a small ‘spike’ like we saw earlier today with the M2.9 quake.

  5. Wednesday
    02.03.2011 18:02:51 63.895 -22.039 3.7 km 2.2 90.05 1.6 km ENE of Krýsuvík

    Possible swarm ahead.

    I read on some sites, Christchurch EQ’S might be Volcanic, Open question if any has an idea?

    1. Absolutely NOT, the small peninsula near Christchurch are the eroded remains of a large shield volcano which is gone extinct millions of years ago. This earthquake was purely tectonic. There is no possibility that a volcano could produce this size of earthquake. (except for the onset of a VEI 6+ eruption, but that’s not the case)
      It’s just a newly-discovered fault line running right through Christchurch.

    3. NZ’s GeoNet website shows beautifully where the plate is subsiding under New Zealand (see second map on right). You can immediately see why strain would be building up in the south. Also why the volcanos are in the north.

  7. Lurking, just a little side note: it looks like there is a distinct wave on the LSF moving up to Yuha Wells Fault.

    1. Read this today while I was out and about.

      I’m currently setting up a new query for area between the Rivera microplate to the Mendocino triple junction. Expect plots later this evening or sometime tomorrow.

      (Having to recreate the query points… but at lest I will be using Dplot rather than Excel for the graphics. No promises, but it should look better)

  8. I’ve been reading some information on Kilauea at USGS website that may cast some light on present activity in Krýsuvik volcano: there are similar deflation /inflation periods which alternate between different rifting zones, and in the main vent, seismicity suddenly increases when deflation is at its peak.
    Not sure if it may apply for Iceland, but this periodicity in the swarms called my attention.

    1. I think that Krýsuvík volcano might behave more in the lines of Krafla volcano.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krafla
      http://www.volcano.si.edu/world/volcano.cfm?vnum=1703-08=&volpage=var

      But there might be a difference is style of the eruption due to difference in the rift zone. But we just have to wait and see what Krýsuvík volcano is up to. But I am rather sure that we are going to see a volcano episode there soon. But I might be wrong on that. All that can be done is to wait and see what happens next.

      1. Thanks Jón.
        I didn’t know that much about Krafla.
        I wonder how IMO scientists are dealing with this. Are they just sitting and waiting?
        Or are they brainstorming over this to find the whys, the whats, and the whens about Krýsuvik?
        So far, the 3.6 M earthquake hasn’t been checked. Why so? Because the bad weather makes it more difficult?
        I begin to believe we are seeing some activity soon.

      2. Far as I can tell it was ML3.2 when it was reviewed (seen on the interactive map that IMO has). It has been checked and reviewed. The web page has just not been updated.

        In the case of Krýsuvík volcano and in the case of every other volcano that is out there. The only thing that can be done is to wait and see what happens next.

      3. It seems that they normally review and correct earthquakes during working hours. The earthquake was at 18:05 and it’s currently 00:10 so best to check back in the morning I think.
        It is possible someone already looked at it as the original mag was 3.7 and now it is 3.6, but I don’t think it is final yet.

        I actually have a hunch that the last digit of the quality is used sort of like a version number, as the system or a person adjusts it then the last digit is incremented. I have seen quakes go from 90.01 to 90.02 to 90.03 and etc. Of course I don’t have any proof but it’s just I have observed.

      4. Probably an accurate assessment. To truly glean the meaning we would have to watch quite a few to see if the phenomena repeat.

        (Bored s-less sitting in a waiting room1)

  10. The M 3.6 has been taken out of the system, probably to return later (reviewed)

      1. They took all (6 or 7 quakes from yesterday) of them out. I can’t say that this approach looks professional at all. Why not leave all of them and then pick out those that are somehow ghost quakes ?

      3. And they are back. Many of the larger earthquakes are downgraded to exactly 3.0. Are there any reason for this?

  11. I spent the last few days in and around the Krysuvik area. I put a couple of videos on my facebook page. As an avid follower of this blog I was determined to spend some time there whilst on business in Reykjavik. I had one last visit there this morning. Strikingly beautiful place. Very lonely. Didn’t see a soul in the few hours that I was around. I filmed the steam vents but I’m not sure if this was a normal level or higher. There did seem to be quite a vent of steam from higher up the mountain which I filmed. At the lower level close to the road it didn’t seem particularly active.

      1. You mean Kleifarvatn? I think this difference is hard to see, when you don’t know the area from earlier visits. There are some flood markings on the beaches, but thats it pretty much.

      2. I wouldn’t know if it was lower or not. It looked relatively normal just licking the shoreline at what looked like the normal edge.

  12. Adrian, I would love to see your video’s but cannot get to your facebook.

    1. Hi Anne I think Chris has found the link above. Hope this works.

  13. Well, no bangs! Very quiet! But the inflation at Krýsuvík volcano is still happening, in fact it is slightly increasing in inflation rate. It is rather worrying that pressure is building up and it will be a big earthquake when the next swarm starts.

      1. The GPS unit which is behind the SELC graph is delivering his data online. So the device has the be read out every now and then.

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