Category: Reykjanes

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Strong earthquake swarm north-east of Grindavík yesterday (31. January 2020)

Yesterday (31. January 2020) a strong earthquake swarm started north-east of Grindavík village. This earthquake swarm lasted only around 12 hours but it made over 800 earthquakes in this time. The activity was so high it was too much for the SIL network and that resulted in a lot of ghost earthquakes all over Iceland. Largest earthquakes in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw4,3 and Mw4,0. There were 8 to 9 earthquakes with magnitude larger than Mw3,0.


The earthquake swarm north and north-east of Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Higher resolution map of this earthquake activity from this website here (Icelandic Met Office).


Earthquake activity in the area of Grindavík town for the last 7 days. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

GPS inflation data shows that there has not been a lot of change in the last 24 hours. The GPS inflation data can be viewed here (I don’t have permission to post those images to my website). Inflation is still ongoing and that is going to result in more earthquake swarm activity in this area and nearby areas.

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Fresh earthquake activity north of Grindavík town

Today (31-January-2020) an earthquake swarm started again north of Grindavík village in the volcano of Reykjanes (both). Largest earthquake so far had the magnitude of Mw2,5. Other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude but that might change without warning. Inflation today is close to 45mm and continues to increase by each day. The source of this information can be found here.


The latest earthquake swarm in the volcano Reykjanes. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The fault lines that are now active are three based on current earthquake pattern. This fault lines might just make an earthquakes and might not erupt. At the writing of this article there is no sign that magma has started to move towards the surface. Stronger earthquake swarms can happen without warning and they don’t have to be close to the area that is now inflating. Since the inflation is changing the stress levels in nearby crust that is going to break once the crust stress level has been reached. When that happens is not something that is possible to know.

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Earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,5 north of Grindavík

Today (29-January-2020) at 04:31 UTC a earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,5 took place north of Grindavík town. A second earthquake took place at 04:59 UTC and that earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,2. There has been a lot of minor earthquake activity during the night both before and after the largest earthquakes took place. Latest news on the inflation is that yesterday (28-January-2020) a pause took place in the inflation. Why that happened is unclear but there are no signs of this activity slowing down.


The earthquake activity in the Grindavík town area and close to Þorbjörn mountain. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There are no signs that magma has started to push it self into a dyke or towards the surface. There has not been any change on the nearby SIL tremor plots that Icelandic Met Office has. Area of activity can be considered large and is now whole of Grindavík town and but what is important is that the activity is aligned in south-east and north-west as is the direction of faults and older eruption fissures in this area.

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Earthquake activity continues in Þorbjörn area

Today (27-January-2020) at 18:53 UTC an earthquake with the magnitude of Mw3,1 took place just north of the town of Grindavík. This earthquake activity is in a volcano inside the volcano system of Reykjanes in its fissure swarm.


The earthquake activity north of Grindavík town and north of Þorbjörn mountain. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

More earthquake activity can be expected in this area for next few days to months. Current inflation is around 4mm/day and shows no signs of slowing down according the news and GPS measurements.

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The volcano Reykjanes (Þorbjörn) information and history

The current inflation that is now happening on the Reykjanes peninsula below the tuff mountain called Þorbjörn is in a volcano system called Reykjanes in the Global Volcanism Program. Last eruption is registered having taken place in Mars 1831 at Eldeyjarboði but given the location and distance on the Reykjanes ridge that area possibly is part of a different volcano system and is not connected to the Reykjanes volcano system that now has become active. Part of this volcano is below sea level. Maps of this area can be found here and here (image). Last eruption in this system was maybe in the year 1583. There is a possibility that the eruption in the year 1583 belongs to a different volcano system that is completely under the ocean. Last confirmed eruption in this system was in the year 1240 (780 years). More information on the volcano can also be found here.

The volcano that is now active doesn’t have any special name so for clarity I am just going to call it Þorbjörn. This volcano is rather large and erupts in the form of fissure vents. Þorbjörn is inside a fissure zone of the volcano called Reykjanes and that volcano might be the main volcano in this system and it can happen that both volcanoes can erupt at the same time. I don’t know if that is going to happen this time around but there has been a earthquake activity in the main volcano called Reykjanes and part of it is below ocean and eruption that would result in ash cloud with limited distribution. This earthquake activity suggests that both volcanoes are now getting active. The volcano called Reykjanes is less dangerous because its out in the ocean and not close to any populated area. Þorbjörn is close to populated area and important infrastructure on the Reykjanes peninsula.

I have written about this area earthquake activity in last few weeks here (28-July-2017), here (15-December-2019), here (17-December-2019), here (19-December-2019), here (20-December-2019), here (22-January-2020). I do think this is all of the earthquake activity in this area since July 2017 until January 2020.


Current activity in Þorbjörn and nearby area. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I am going to continue to monitor this situation and continue to update as best I can. Since I am currently moving back to Iceland delays may happen in the days when I move (middle of February) back to Iceland.

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Uncertainty level declared because of magma intrusion in mountain named Þorbjörn on Reykjanes peninsula

Icelandic Met Office has declared uncertainty level because of inflation in the mountain called Þorbjörn (no Global Volcanism Profile) that started on 21st of January 2020. This inflation has been followed by earthquake swarm activity that is ongoing at the writing of this article. The inflation has been 2cm today (26-January-2020) and the estimated volume of magma is 0,001 km3 and that is possibly too small to erupt at the moment. The inflation is 3mm to 4mm a day at the writing of this article. This active area is just north of the village of Grindavík.


The active area (red dots). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I’ll update this as best I can but I am currently in the progress of moving back to Iceland. But I don’t expect anything major to happen just yet. At least I hope that is what is going to happen. I plan on having my geophone network back by early March when I can fix the rollover problem the GPS clocks I am using are having.

Icelandic Met Office article in Icelandic

Möguleg kvikusöfnun undir svæðinu við fjallið Þorbjörn á Reykjanesi (vedur.is, Images)

English article by Icelandic Met Office

Possible magma accumulation beneath Mt. Thorbjorn on Reykjanes peninsula

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Earthquake swarm east of Grindavík village

Today (22-January-2020) an earthquake swarm started east of Grindavík village on the Reykjanes peninsula. Largest earthquakes in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw3,7 and the second largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,6. The third largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,2. All earthquakes were felt but the largest earthquakes were felt of a wide area.


Earthquake activity east of Grindavík village on the Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake swarm appears to be over at the time of writing but it might continue without a warning in this area or nearby area.

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Removal of advertisements

I have removed all the advertisements here. I do this because the income from them was and always has been almost nothing and I no longer want to bother with them. It is going to take few dasy to remove the advertisements from all my websites.

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Update two of the earthquake swarm on Reykjanes peninsula, east of Fagradalsfjall mountain

Today (19-December-2019) at 11:20 UTC a earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,5 took place east of Fagradalsfjall mountain. This earthquake was felt in Reykjavík and nearby area. This earthquake was a continuation of the earthquake swarm that started on 15th December 2019 in this area. The activity has dropped from what was before but it is still ongoing mostly.


Earthquake activity on Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There are no other updates about this activity so far. I have been waiting today to see if anything more would be happening and it has not. It might happen later if anything happens at all.

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If you donate with bank please update your bank information. Details can be found here.

Moving back to Iceland

Living in Denmark just isn’t working for me as I hoped and that is just how it is. That is why I am moving back to Iceland. It is either going to be in February or March depending on factors that I am looking into now (best price for moving my belongings to Iceland). I am not sure yet how I pay for this move since it is going to cost me around 1.091€ to 1.309€. I hope nothing higher than this amount. After this I won’t be moving away from Iceland. I am just going to stay there.

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Update on the earthquake swarm on Reykjanes peninsula

I am sorry for this late update.

The earthquake swarm east of Fagradalsfjalla mountain increased again yesterday (16-December-2019). According to a notice on the Icelandic Met Office over 1200 earthquakes have been recorded in this earthquake swarm. Total of 10 earthquakes had a magnitude of Mw3,0 or larger. The largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,7.


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

This earthquake swarm again seems to be over but it might start again without warning. This earthquake swarm remains tectonic in nature.

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Earthquake swarm on Reykjanes peninsula

Today (15-December-2019) an earthquake swarm started this morning at 07:10 UTC and the strongest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,5 and other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude. Around of 190 earthquakes have happened in this earthquake swarm that appears to be over or at least has stopped for now.


Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes peninsula today (15-December-2019). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is a tectonic earthquake swarm from the looks of the earthquakes that I have recorded on my geophone. This is probably a rift valley activity in this area. It is not possible to know if this earthquake activity is over or not. It is common that earthquake activity stops for few hours and then resumes at higher activity then before. Sometimes this type of earthquake swarm just stops and doesn’t resume.

Donations

Please remember to support my work with donations. I am really broke this month and that has started to create problems for me. If you support me by donating with a bank transfer please update your information since I now send everything to my Icelandic bank, rather than my Danish bank. New bank information can be found here. I do this for simplification and other reasons that I am going to go into later (when feeling less down from all this being broke).