Information in this article might get outdated quickly due to fast moving nature of the current earthquake swarm in TFZ.
The earthquake swarm that started on 28-January-2018 continues (article here). A strong earthquake swarm started east of Grímsey island almost 18 hours ago (it started around 18:00 UTC on 14-February-2018). Over 500 earthquakes have been recorded so far, most of them are between magnitude 0,0 – 2,0. In the last 48 hours three earthquakes with magnitude above 3,0 have been recorded.
Many, many earthquakes. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Earthquake activity is dense at the moment. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
At the moment there is nothing suggesting that this earthquake swarm is connected to any magma movement. It seems to be just connected to tectonic movements in this area. This earthquake activity appears to be taking place in a volcano but that volcano doesn’t have any documented historical eruption so it is impossible to know what might happen. Last eruption in this area was in a volcano south of current earthquake activity. That volcano erupted in the years 1867 December – 1868 January, Global Volcanism Profile can be found here.
I am going to update this article as needed as this activity develops.
Can it be combined with hydrothermal activity?
It seems to be a very high frequency and summary magnitude to be from tectonic movements only.
That is a possibility. This earthquake swarm might also change the hydrothermal area in this location from what it was before the earthquake swarm started.
This is a considerable ‘cluster-bomb’ of activity.
Considerably stronger readings around 19:35.
http://hraun.vedur.is/ja/drumplot/drumplot/gri_highpass_2.0.png
Biggest EQ in the swarm so far. M4.5 at 19:37 local time.
Earthquake number is now at 665. The Mw4,5 earthquake is slightly north of the main earthquake swarm. I don’t think that is good news.
How come?
666? 😀
The number of earthquakes at the moment is 699 earthquakes.
It signals a stress change in other nearby fault lines. That Mw4,1 earthquake might not be part of the current earthquake swarm, but rather a start of a new earthquake swarm in nearby area.
Soon 1000 eq. Is this going to culmenate in something big?
How does it feel if you live on this little island Grimsey ?
People that live there are reporting that they can feel earthquakes above magnitude ~2,1. Anything over magnitude 3,0 is clearly felt. Latest report was that people had grown tired of this earthquake swarm hoped it would stop soon.
Last time there were this many earthquakes happening at one location an eruption started. I don’t know if that ‘s going to happen now.
Maybe a new sub volcano in the making?
I am going to sleep. I am going to post update early in the morning about the activity of the night in this article. If anything major happens during the night I’ll post a new article rather than updating this one.