Category: Earthquakes

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Magnitude 3,4 earthquake 15 km north of Kolbeinsey island

Today (15-November-2013) at 05:32 UTC an magnitude 3,4 earthquake took place 14,9 km north of Kolbeinsey island. The depth of this earthquake was 3,9 km according to Icelandic Meteorological Office. Due to distance from the SIL network the magnitude and depth might be underestimated.

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The earthquake north of Kolbeinsey island is marked by the green star. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Due to distance from land it is difficult to know for sure what is happening at this location. So far no harmonic tremor has been detected so no eruption is taking place at this location. This earthquake did appear clearly on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. My geophone website can be found here.

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Minor earthquake swarm on Reykjanes Ridge

Today (04-November-2013) at 04:03 UTC an minor earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes ridge. The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 3,2 and the depth of 12,2 km.

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Earthquakes on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquakes are no uncommon in this area and there have been several earthquake swarm in past few weeks. Currently there are no signs of volcano activity taking place at this location and there are no clues or suggestions that such event is about to take place at present time. The largest earthquake did appear clearly on my geophone network and it can be viewed here on my geophone website.

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Two minor earthquakes in Hekla volcano

I am sorry being late with this blog post.

On Wednesday (23-October-2013) two earthquakes took place in Hekla volcano. One earthquake took place outside the main volcano, but inside the Hekla volcano system. All earthquakes were small with the largest one having the magnitude of 1,6 km. The two earthquakes in the main Hekla volcano are shallow earthquakes, the largest one (magnitude 1,6) just having the depth of 1,3 km. What is creating this earthquake activity remains unclear at present time.

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

So far there are no signs of an eruption going to take place soon in Hekla volcano. Web cameras of Hekla volcano can be found here (jonfr.com), here (Rúv.is) and here (livefromiceland.is). My webicorder data can be found here (jonfr.com) online. The geophone at Heklubyggð detects earthquakes down to magnitude 0,0 if the weather is good, so if an eruption starts in Hekla volcano all the signs are going to appear clearly on that geophone as the activity starts.

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New earthquake swarm on Reykjanes ridge

Today (19-October-2013) new earthquake swarm started on the Reykjanes ridge. So far this earthquake swarm has been small, with only 16 earthquakes recorded. Largest earthquake in this swarm had magnitude 3,3 at the depth of 6,1 km.

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge. The green star marks earthquakes with magnitude over 3,0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I am expecting more earthquake activity in this area of the Reykjanes ridge over the next few days and weeks. It is impossible to know when an new earthquakes swarm starts. The best way is to monitor current activity at Icelandic Metorlogical Office website and on my webicorder website.

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Earthquake activity continues in Eyjafjallajökull volcano

Minor earthquake activity has continued since last week in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. This earthquake activity is so small that none of the earthquake have had the magnitude of 1,0. This earthquake activity is also shallow, less than 5 km depth. So it’s clearly not magma (at least not new one) that is creating this activity. I am not sure what is creating this activity in Eyjafjallajökull volcano at this point and I might never know.

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Minor earthquake activity in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

At current time there is no risk for an eruption from Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Since there is no new magma flowing into the volcano at present time. If you want to watch Eyjafjallajökull volcano you can do so here (jonfr.com) and here (mila.is) web cameras.

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Earthquake swarm on Tjörnes Fracture Zone

On 14-October-2013 (Monday) an earthquake swarm started in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. This earthquake swarm has so far just been a minor one, with the largest earthquake being magnitude 2,5. The earthquake swarm appears to be currently ongoing.

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Earthquake swarm in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It’s hard to know for sure if this earthquake swarm is going to continue, but this area of TFZ has seen earthquake activity over the past few months. So there is a chance of more earthquake activity in the next days to weeks even months in this area.

Blog post updated at 23:25 UTC on 15-October-2013.

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New earthquake swarm on Reykjanes peninsula and Reykjanes ridge

Today (15-October-2013) at 01:43 UTC a new earthquake swarm started on Reykjanes peninsula and Reykjanes ridge. So far the largest earthquake has the magnitude of 2,5. At the moment no larger earthquakes have taken place. This earthquake swarm is currently ongoing, but the rate of earthquakes has dropped over the day and is currently low.

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge. It’s just off the coast. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This area of the Reykjanes has been seeing a lot of activity in recent days and its possible that more earthquake activity is going to take place at this location in next few days to months.

Blog post updated at 21:42 UTC.

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Earthquake swarm in Torfajökull volcano

Today (10-October-2013) there was an minor earthquake swarm in Torfajökull volcano. The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude 2,2 and the depth of 0,4 km. Earthquakes like this are common on Torfajökull volcano and have so far not been connected with any other activity.

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Earthquake swarm in Torfajökull volcano (to the north of Mýrdalsjökull glacier). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is possible that more activity is going to take place in this area in the next few days to weeks. It’s unlikely that it is going to be larger than what took place today.

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Earthquake swarm in Eyjafjallajökull volcano

Today (10-October-2013) an minor earthquake swarm took place in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. This is the first earthquake swarm in Eyjafjallajökull volcano since the eruption stopped in May-2010 [link, Wikipedia]. This just appears to be an earthquake swarm, currently there are no signs of new magma getting into Eyjafjallajökull volcano. I am uncertain on what is creating this earthquake activity, but this might be old magma starting to move again or just stress changes in the volcano, the reason remains unclear as is. It is also important that this earthquake activity is minor, none of the earthquakes so far has reached the magnitude 2,0. The largest earthquake recorded had the magnitude 1,0 at 4,3 km depth.

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Earthquake swarm in Eyjafjallajökull volcano today (10-October-2013). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

There are no signs that any volcano activity is about to take place in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. So far it’s just earthquakes and nothing else. If this is old magma on the move there is a slight chance it might reach the surface via old transport tubes , such events would never be anything more than just minor explosion. It would not be anything like what happened in the year 2010. The only reason why this earthquakes are being detected today is because there is now a dense SIL network around Eyjafjallajökull volcano that measure it’s every earthquake and change that takes place. At the moment I doubt this is going to be anything like what happened in the 19th century eruption of Eyjafjallajökull volcano [link, wikipedia]. Currently there are no signs of such event is about to take place at current time. There are also no signs that show an imminent or possible eruption in Eyjafjallajökull volcano.

I do not expect anything more to happen in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. It might, but I am not expecting anything at this time of writing.

Blog post updated at 23:12 UTC on 10-October-2013.

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Earthquake south of Hekla volcano

Today (08-October-2013) at 04:48 UTC an earthquake with the magnitude of 1,9 took place south of Hekla volcano, it’s depth was 7,3 km. A second earthquake took place at 04:59 UTC and had the magnitude of 0,8, it’s depth was 5,8 km. This earthquakes where not felt. It is also unclear what is creating this activity, the most likely reason is change is magma pressure inside Hekla volcano plumbing system. This does not mean an eruption is about to take place in Hekla volcano.

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The earthquake south of Hekla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquake activity in Hekla volcano has been unusually high for the past few months. Improvements have also been made on the SIL network close to Hekla volcano, this means that more smaller earthquakes have been recorded now then in the past. So far there are no signs of this connecting to an imminent eruption in Hekla volcano, the volcano has remained quiet so far and it’s unlikely to change at the moment.