Posted on by Jón Frímann

Update on activity in Fagradalsfjall and Reykjanes volcanoes

This is a short update on what is going on in Reykjanes peninsula. This article is written at 16:29 UTC.

Volcanoes in this article

Fagradalsfjall
Reykjanes
Krýsuvík

  • Fagradalsfjall volcano has not erupted since Pleistocene. When last eruption took place is not listed or not known. This the first magma movement in Fagradalsfjall volcano in 11700 years.
  • Eruption risk is now in Reykjanes volcano*.
  • *This might also be a different volcano known as Svartsengi (no Global Volcanism Profile). There is no agreements between maps on this detail for now. Reykjanes volcano might only extend into Reykjanestá and then is mostly under ocean and might not extend into Reykjanes peninsula as sometimes is shown on maps.
  • Krýsuvík volcano has quieted down a little in the last 24 hours. Eruption risk is lower for now in that volcano.
  • Largest number of earthquakes detected in one day was over 3000 earthquakes.
  • In the last 24 hours 12 earthquakes with magnitude above Mw3,0 have happened. Most of them are felt in nearby populated areas.
  • No harmonic tremor has been detected since it ended during the night on 4-March-2021.
  • During the last 48 hours over 3300 earthquakes have been recorded by Icelandic Met Office.
  • New! Magma is now estimated to be at 5 to 6 km depth but might be as shallow as 2 km depth.

 

Dense earthquake activity in the volcanoes Reykjanes, Fagradalsfjall and Krýsuvík volcanoes
Heavy earthquake activity on Reykjanes peninsula in three volcanoes. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Maps of possible eruption areas has been made by Earth science department of University of Iceland and can be found here. University of Iceland Earth science department also made a lava flow prediction can that map can be found here. Both maps are updated daily on Facebook.

Web cameras

Beint vefstreymi af skjálftasvæðinu – Vogastapi (Rúv.is)
Keilir í beinni (mbl.is)
Óróasvæðið í beinni útsendingu (Vísir.is)
Live from Iceland
Keilir og skjálftasvæðið (YouTube)

Added at 21:12 UTC

Road camera 1
Road camera 2 (night vision/infrared)

Cameras and links might go offline without warning.

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Article updated at 16:53 UTC.
Article updated at 21:13 UTC.

8 Replies to “Update on activity in Fagradalsfjall and Reykjanes volcanoes”

  1. It is unfortunate that the Facebook pages you have mentioned are not public pages. If you are not a Facebook member you cannot see them.

    1. Because of copyright of University of Iceland I can’t post them here since I don’t have permission to do so. That is why I can only link to them where University of Iceland posts those maps.

      Some news in Iceland have permit to use the map images and I can try in the future to link to those also along with the Facebook links. I can’t always do this because sometimes the news doesn’t write a news article about the maps.

      This news here is in Icelandic and has the lava field map if an eruption happens with local names of affected areas.

      https://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2021/03/05/eldgos_yrdi_liklegast_vid_fagradalsfjall/

  3. It is rather surprising (unless something has happened to veður updating) that everything has been beautifully quiet since 20:17 this evening.

    1. It seems the site was frozen or just not updating for a time, but it now has and there was activity in the couple of hours after 20:17.

  4. I’ll be busy most of the Saturday (6-March-2021) so I won’t be able to post update until after 18:00 or at the latest around 22:00 Iceland Time.

  5. Still keeping a weather-eye on Katla (except the geologic/volcanic “eye” version..).

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