Today (02-June-2017) there have been two earthquake swarms taking place in Iceland. Both are minor in terms of magnitude, the second earthquake swarm is now getting close to 60 – 80 earthquakes at the moment.
Western Icelandic Seismic Zone
This earthquake swarm is taking place on the edge of the slow moving Western Icelandic Seismic Zone (as I call it). This is a earthquake active zone between Langjökull, Snæfellsnes and Vestfjörð up to Táknafjörður village. It sometimes has earthquakes with magnitude up to 5.5.
The earthquake swarm in western Iceland. I don’t think anyone of this earthquakes did go above magnitude 2,0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Herðubreið – Herðubreiðartögl
Also today there has been a earthquake swarm in Herðubreið and Herðubreiðartöglum. This is a common earthquake swarm. Far as I know none of the earthquakes that have happened so far have reached magnitude 2,0 at the moment. As this earthquake swarm is currently ongoing it is impossible to know for sure what happens next.
The earthquake swarm in Herðubreið and Herðubreiðartöglum (to the north-east of Bárðarbunga volcano). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
What is known is that magma has been migrating in this direction, but at this moment there is nothing suggesting that this magma has found a path to the surface and it remains at ~15 km depth. Earthquake swarms in this area normally last up to two weeks at the most.
Iceland geology Twitter
I have now moved this website to its own twitter account. It cuts out the noise on my own personal twitter account. It is possible to follow Iceland geology on twitter by pressing this button.
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