Survey of dangerous Icelandic volcanoes has started

Rúv News reports that survey on Iceland volcanoes and possible risk factors has already started in Iceland. It is expected that this survey is going to take about 20 years. But there is a lot of science research following this survey.

This survey is going start with the volcanoes that are closest to populated areas in Iceland and cover risk factors like volcano ash, lava flow and field, earthquake risk and so on. The list is long and so is the work ahead for the people doing this survey and study.

Rúv News about this survey

Byrjað að kortleggja eldstöðvar

Earthquake swarm in TFZ continues, little earthquake activity in Katla voclano, new earthquake activity in Askja volcano

Here is a short update on activity in Iceland for the past few days.

Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Earthquake activity continues in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. But this earthquake activity has been ongoing since 20 October, 2012. Every once in a while a magnitude 3.0 earthquake takes place, or larger. The risk of large earthquake taking place in this area remains. General alert for this area is also in effect because of this danger of large earthquake taking place in this area.


The earthquake activity in TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Katla volcano

Winter has come. At least when it comes to earthquake activity in Katla volcano. But little to none earthquake activity is now taking place in Katla volcano. Earthquake activity is now well below background level. It can be expected that current status is going to remain in Katla volcano until next summer.


Earthquake activity in Katla volcano for the past few days. Nothing important is taking place in Katla volcano as this image clearly shows. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Askja volcano

While Katla volcano is getting quiet. It seems that Askja volcano is getting slightly more active. But earthquake activity in Askja volcano during the past few weeks suggests a minor magma intrusion (dike intrusion) might have taken place. But none of the earthquakes that took place where above magnitude 2.0 in size.


Earthquakes in Askja volcano during the past few days. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I do not think this earthquake activity in Askja volcano means it is getting close for an eruption. Since there are no signs in that direction at the moment. But this earthquake activity is interesting. What ever it means in the short term for Askja volcano. It is also common that volcanoes have earthquake activity without anything happening at all following such earthquake activity.

Earthquake swarm update for TFZ and Kverkfjöll volcano at 12:55 UTC

Earthquake swarm in TFZ continues. But earthquake activity continues to drop at fast rate. The largest earthquake so far from midnight has the magnitude of 4.0 (reviewed magnitude). Several smaller earthquakes have taken place during the night in TFZ. But no larger earthquakes have so far taken since midnight. Current earthquake activity has moved little bit east since it started on 21.10.2012.


Current earthquake activity in TFZ for the past few months. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Kverkfjöll volcano

Earthquake activity has continues since it started again in Kverkfjöll volcano. The strongest earthquake so far had the magnitude 3.3. This earthquake activity in Kverkfjöll volcano has it source in magma movements inside Kverkfjöll volcano. This is most likely not going to start an eruption. But it is worth keeping an eye on.


Earthquake activity in Kverkfjöll volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquake activity has been slow in Kverkfjöll volcano. This is normal. As this is not tectonic movements, as in TFZ. But magma often moves slower and makes fewer earthquakes then just pure tectonic movements.

Blog post updated at 14:06 UTC on 23.10.2012
Blog post updated at 14:14 UTC on 23.10.2012

New earthquake swarm in Kverkfjöll volcano

It seems that earthquake activity has started again in Kverkfjöll volcano. So far this is just small earthquakes. But earthquake activity started in Kverkfjöll volcano on 20.10.2012. That was also just small earthquakes. This is most likely minor dike intrusion taking place in Kverkfjöll volcano.


Earthquake in Kverkfjöll volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is impossible to know what this activity means. But I do think it is going to remain as is for now. At least it is unlikely for the time being that something bigger is going to happen in Kverkfjöll volcano. But it is worth keeping an eye on this activity. As this might be a clue that Kverkfjöll volcano are waking up from there dormancy. But it might just be minor earthquake activity that happens occasionally in volcanoes, without any other activity taking place in them following such activity.

Earthquake activity update on 20.10.2012 at 14:51 UTC

Today (20.10.2012) has been busy in terms of earthquake activity in Iceland. So I am expecting to write a second update later today on this activity.

Hekla volcano

At 05:28 UTC there was an earthquake in Hekla volcano. This earthquake had the magnitude of ML1.1 with the depth of 0.6 km. No other earthquakes have followed this single earthquake. What this means is impossible to know at this time. But so far everything remains quiet in Hekla volcano.


Earthquake in Hekla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Kverkfjöll volcano

Earthquake activity continues in Kverkfjöll volcano. This earthquake activity is the result of dike intrusion into Kverkfjöll volcano. So far this earthquake activity is taking place in short burst of earthquake swarm.


Earthquake activity in Kverkfjöll volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Tjörnes Fracture Zone

At 02:07 UTC earthquake activity did start in TFZ. Just off the coast of Iceland. This earthquake activity is taking place in area that last had earthquake swarm in September. I did cover that earthquake activity in details on this blog. So far the largest earthquakes in this area of TFZ have had the magnitude of ML2.9. This is purely tectonic earthquake activity.

Earthquake activity in TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is difficult to know what happens next in TFZ earthquake activity. But it likely going to continue for the next few hours to days like earlier. It is best to keep an eye on this earthquake activity. This earthquake activity also sometimes stops for few hours before it continues again. Most of this earthquake activity can be seen on my geophone network web page.

If anything major happens in this earthquake activity. I am going to post new blog post with updated information on that activity.

Earthquake swarm in Kverkfjöll volcano

At 20:03 UTC an earthquake swarm started in Kverkfjöll volcano. The strongest earthquake so far has the magnitude of ML2.6, the depth is 1.1 km according to automatic estimate. Both size and depth of this earthquake are expected to change once it has been reviewed by Icelandic Meteorological Office. So far no harmonic tremor has been detected following this earthquake swarm. The most likely explanation for this earthquake swarm is that dike intrusion of magma has started in Kverkfjöll volcano. This has been happening on regular basis now for several years.


The swarm in Kverkfjöll volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The earthquake swarm is currently ongoing. It is hard to know what happens in Kverkfjöll volcano following this earthquake swarm. But Kverkfjöll volcano are among Iceland most active volcanoes. With last eruption being in the year 1968 (small I think). This is clearly magma on the move inside Kverkfjöll volcano. But I do not know if this is going to result in a eruption or not. At the moment. It is my estimate that eruption is unlikely to happen. But that might change without warning at any time. But changes in Kverkfjöll volcano might be rapid and without warning. I am going to continue to monitor this activity and post new blog post if there are any major changes in activity in Kverkfjöll volcano.

Weak harmonic tremor pulse from Hamarinn volcano

Since around 19:00 UTC (16.10.2012) a harmonic tremor pulse has been taking place in Hamarinn volcano (Bárðarbunga volcano). There is in my view no eruption taking place at the moment. This is most likely a dike intrusion of magma somewhere in the area of Hamarinn volcano. That might however trigger an eruption. But we just need to wait and see on that for the time being. This activity is interesting, as there was a small eruption in this area in July 2011.


The harmonic tremor pulse is strongest on this SIL station. But it is weak regardless. The signal suggest this event is taking place close to this SIL station location. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.


The harmonic tremor pulse also appears on Skrokkalda SIL station. But is weak and can hardly be detected on it. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The harmonic tremor pulse can be seen at the end of the above SIL station traces. The harmonic tremor pulse is higher then normal background noise (wind, ocean waves, human traffic, etc) on the SIL station. I do not expect this to be noise. The signal is too strong for that. It also hard to travel in this part of Iceland in October due to bad weather and difficult conditions in the high areas of Iceland.

New volcano monitoring project in Iceland

A new volcano monitoring project and a study is about to start in Iceland. This project hopes to provide real time information in volcano activity in Iceland. It has been funded by EU grand of 6 million euros. The reason for this project is the Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruption, among other volcano activity in Iceland. Among this project goals is to setup coordinated European volcano monitoring system.

Freysteinn Sigmundsson geophysics is the controller of this project. Icelandic Meteorological Office and University of Iceland also take part in this project. In total, 26 partner in 9 European countries are going to take part in this project during its duration. Something about 200 scientists are going to take part in this project during its duration. It is going to be interesting to see what comes out of this project in the long run.

Update 1: I forgot the name of this project. It is called; European volcanological supersite in Iceland: a monitoring system and network for the future

Icelandic news on this

Bætt mannlíf nærri eldfjöllum (Rúv.is)
Milljarður í eldfjallaverkefni íslensks vísindamanns (Vísir.is)
Fá 950 milljónir í rannsóknarstyrk (mbl.is)

Blog post updated at 14:26 UTC.

Earthquake swarms in Brennisteinsfjöll volcano and TFZ

Over the past few days there has been continued earthquake activity in Breinnisteinsfjöll volcano. The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of ML2.5. It is possible that this earthquake swarms have there orgin in SISZ. Rather then Breinnisteinsfjöll volcano. But at current time is hard to be sure on this detail.


Earthquake activity in Breinnisteinsfjöll volcano during the past few days. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Earthquake activity has also been taking place east of Grímsey Island. This earthquake activity has mostly been small. But this are earthquake swarm did not have any earthquake that was above 3.0 in magnitude.


Earthquake swarm on TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of ML2.8. More earthquake activity should be expected in this area. As this is one of most active areas in Iceland when it comes to earthquake swarm.

Magnitude 3.1 earthquake in Katla volcano this morning

Today at 08:26 UTC this morning a magnitude 3.1 earthquake took place in Katla volcano. There was minor pre-earthquake activity before the magnitude 3.1 earthquake took place, the depth of this earthquake was around 100 meters (0.1 km). There was also some minor aftershock activity following this earthquake. No change in harmonic tremor took place following this earthquake. So there is a good chance this was just part of normal autumn activity in Katla volcano. This earthquake activity did appear clearly on my geophone network. It can be viewed here on my geophone network web page.


The earthquake as it did appear on my geophone station in Skeiðflöt. This image is released under Creative Commons licence. See CC licence page for more details.


The earthquake as it did appear on my geophone station in Heklubyggð. This image is released under Creative Commons licence. See CC licence page for more details.


The location of the earthquake in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

More earthquakes like this should be expected in Katla volcano. But it is impossible to know if there is going to be an eruption in Katla volcano any time soon. But so far everything is quiet in Katla volcano. Besides occasional earthquake swarm that is taking place in Katla volcano.

Icelandic news about this earthquake activity

Jarðskjálfti í Kötlu – 3,2 að stærð (Rúv.is)
3,2 stiga skjálfti í Kötlu (mbl.is)
Snarpur skjálfti í Kötlu (Vísir.is)

Blog post updated at 19:34 UTC on 03.10.2012
Blog post updated at 05:45 UTC on 04.10.2012