Posted on by Jón Frímann

Two strong earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano

During the night of 20-December-2017 an earthquake swarm started in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake swarm started at 02:17 UTC with a magnitude 1,4 earthquake. The first magnitude 4,1 earthquake took place at 04:57 UTC and the second large earthquake took place at 05:29 UTC and had the magnitude of 4,4. All other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude and around 40 to 48 earthquakes happened.


Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Green stars show the location of the earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity was in the usual north-east part of the caldera of Bárðarbunga volcano. Currently hydrothermal activity is high and remains high in Bárðarbunga volcano. That means there is serious amount of magma inside Bárðarbunga volcano at shallow depth. That has not resulted in any small eruptions at the moment but that might change without warning (watch out for small magnitude focused earthquake activity).

Deep earthquake activity continues south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano (red dot on the image). That is magma movement but that activity doesn’t appear to be getting any shallower at the moment. That activity is focused in one location and might be high risk for an eruption in the future.

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6 Replies to “Two strong earthquakes in Bárðarbunga volcano”

  1. I assume you received the PayPal donation. PayPal doesn’t use Islandic currency so I assumed you and your bank could sort that out. I left it in dollars rather than try and choose between Danish and German currency. For next time, what should I choose?

    1. I use euro as main currency. I let PayPal change it over to Danish krona for the moment. Once I move to Germany it is only going to be euro. Donations in other currencies are not a problem, all banks in Europe (far as I know) just exchange it for their local currency without issue.

  2. How long do you think it will be calm in katl?. It’s to calm. No big earthquake in months.

  3. Dear, at the moment I am in America but I fligh on the 5th home to Europe and I really have to be home the 7 the of January. Do you think there is a possibility that the vulcano will erupt? Should I take an early flight home?

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