Posted on by Jón Frímann

Strong earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano [updates pending]

This article is going to be updated later with more details.

A magnitude 3,5 earthquake happened in Öræfajökull volcano at 16:57 UTC. This is a automatic magnitude and is going to be corrected later. A swarm of earthquakes seems to have started in Öræfajökull volcano.


Earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The harmonic tremor images have not yet updated so I don’t know at the moment if any harmonic tremor has started following this earthquake swarm.

This article is going to be updated later with new information.

5 Replies to “Strong earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano [updates pending]”

  2. No volcanic tremors according to IMO. Over the last week or so Earthquake activity in this area has sure picked up

  3. On the IMO site in the news section, they mention fractures in Svínafellsheiði and a potential rockslide on Svínafellsjökull. This looks fairly close to Öræfajökull. They say “Recent analysis of remote sensing data shows that the area between the fractures and the glacier margin has moved at a rate of 2 to 4 cm per year in the period from late August 2016 to late August 2017. The area in motion is about 0.5–1 km2 in size. A rough estimate indicates that about 60 million cubic metres of material are in motion. It is possible that the entire mass may be released as a single rockslide, it is also possible that the material may be released as several smaller rockslides. They also say that “Rockslides and rock avalanches on glaciers may break up the surface of the glacier, thereby adding ice to the moving material. In addition, the slide may sweep water from glacial lagoons on its way, creating a fast-flowing slurry of rock, ice, water and even air. Debris flows of this type can travel large distances.”

    I can’t imagine what 60 million cubic metres of material in motion looks like.

Comments are closed.