Inflation continues in Fagradalsfjall mountain, eruption expected close to or in Nátthagi valley

This is a short article because the situation is always changing. This article is written on 15-March-2021 at 21:23 UTC. This article is about Fagradalsfjall volcano but Icelandic Met Office updates go to Krýsuvík volcano so I link to that volcano also.

Between Friday and Monday the activity in Fagradalsfjall volcano was really strong. Several earthquakes with magnitude above Mw4,0 took place and the second largest earthquake took place on Sunday 14-March at 14:15 UTC with the magnitude of Mw5,4. Earlier that day at 12:34 UTC an magnitude Mw5,2 earthquake had taken place. According to the news (Icelandic) over 50.000 earthquakes have taken place since 24-February-2021 when this earthquake activity started (20 days ago). Of those six have been larger than magnitude 5, earthquakes with magnitude between 4 to 5 have been 53 and total of 524 earthquakes with magnitude between 3 to 4. Inflation is now reported to be 20 cm or 10 cm on both sides of the dyke. Eruption is expected to happen close to or in Nátthagi valley soon. When that happens is impossible to know but the magma inflow into the dyke doesn’t show any signs of slowing down or stopping.

A lot of red dots on Reykjanes peninsula showing the earthquake activity in Fagradalsfjall mountain area where the eruption is going to happen. Few green stars showing the largest earthquakes on the map.
Earthquake activity in Fagradalsfjall mountain and nearby area. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It has also been reported that the magma dyke managed to push it self a little more south in the line it had been then compared to Friday according to newest data that scientists have access to. Today (15-March-2021) earthquake activity has been small and slow but after 16:30 UTC it started to increase again but at the writing of this article no major earthquake has happened. It has mostly been small earthquakes taking place.

If anything major happens I’ll post update soon as possible.

Web cameras

Beint vefstreymi af skjálftasvæðinu – Borgarfjall (Rúv.is) Nátthagi valley web camera
Beint vefstreymi af skjálftasvæðinu – Efstaleiti
Road camera 1
Road camera 2 (night vision/infrared)

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5 Replies to “Inflation continues in Fagradalsfjall mountain, eruption expected close to or in Nátthagi valley”

  1. This is a little out of date already… the activity at the south (Natthagi) end of the dike has almost stopped in the last few hours, and now the new activity in the last few hours is all at the north end of the dike, north of Keilir!

    This dike is teasing us, we don’t know where or if it will erupt, but the energy seems to be going to expanding it, and extending it at both ends, not upward to break the rock and erupt.

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