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Ongoing earthquake activity in Katla volcano

There is currently an ongoing earthquake activity in Katla volcano. So far this earthquake activity has been small in terms of magnitude, with the largest earthquake only having the magnitude of 2,7.

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

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Updated image of the activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The earthquakes that I have recorded so far are low period earthquake. Suggesting that they are being created due to magma or hydrothermal change inside the volcano. So far nothing suggests that an eruption is imminent. But I find this activity in Katla volcano suspicious and something that needs to watch, since I think this might be a risky situation and it might change on short notice.

Hekla volcano

A magnitude 2,3 earthquake with the depth of 9,9 km took place in Hekla volcano system on 02-July-2014 at 23:48:57 UTC. No other activity took place following this earthquake. It is not clear why this earthquake activity is taking place in Hekla volcano.

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Article updated at 22:05 UTC.

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Earthquake in Hekla volcano, continued activity in Katla volcano

Today (30-June-2014) at 03:52 UTC a magnitude 1,0 earthquake took place in Hekla volcano. This earthquake had the depth of 0,1 km and that means it a an surface earthquake due to crust movement. No other activity has been detected in Hekla volcano following this earthquake.

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

Earthquake activity has continued in Katla volcano (see picture above). The main area of activity is close to an place in Mýrdalsjökull (Katla) that is called Hábunga. The largest earthquake in the past 24 hours is a magnitude 1,6 and it has the depth of 0,2 km. Deeper earthquake continue to happen, the deepest earthquake in the past 24 hours has the depth of 20,6 km. Shallower earthquakes have also taken place in the same area. So far nothing suggest that eruption is going to happen any time soon in Katla volcano. It is however important to monitor this activity in Katla volcano since it might be leading up to something, this activity also might not lead to nothing at all. There is no way to know currently what is going to happen in Katla volcano.

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Deep earthquakes in Katla volcano

Today (27-June-2014) deep earthquakes where recorded in Katla volcano, the earthquakes had the magnitude of 0,8 and up to 1,5 with the depth from 23,7 km and down to 25,7 km.

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The earthquakes in Katla volcano. The deep earthquakes are the ones the have the colour orange and inside Katla volcano caldera. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquakes that are taking place at this depth happen due to magma movement and possibly dike intrusion of magma at depth. This does not mean that Katla volcano is about to erupt, it however clearly shows that something is happening inside Katla volcano system. Far as I know no surface changes have been spotted due to this activity, it remains unclear of that is going to change since what happens before a large eruption in Katla volcano is currently not well known or understood.

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Post updated at 19:12 UTC.

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Magnitude 3,2 earthquake in Katla volcano

Today (18-June-2014) at 10:20 UTC a magnitude 3,2 earthquake took place in Katla volcano caldera. A swarm of smaller earthquakes did happen after the main event. Depth of the main earthquake was 2,5 km.

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The magnitude 3,1 earthquake in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Following this earthquake few minor earthquakes appeared. None of them had a magnitude above 1,0. So far things remain quiet in Katla volcano and it is difficult to know for sure if this is something more than just summer earthquake activity in Katla volcano. I am at least going to keep an eye out for activity in Katla volcano.

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The magnitude 3,1 earthquake as it did appear on my geophone in Heklubyggð. This image is under Creative Commons Licence. Please see CC Licence page for more details.

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Post updated at 14:45 UTC.

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Earthquake activity in Hofsjökull volcano

Today (13-June-2014) an earthquake activity took place in Hofsjökull volcano. The largest earthquake in this activity had the magnitude of 2,8 with the depth of 5,1 km.

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

Earthquake activity in Hofsjökull volcano is not common but it does happen once to twice a year. Everything remains quiet at Hofsjökull volcano and I don’t expect that is going to change any time soon.

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Updated at 16:47 UTC.
Updated at 17:23 UTC.
Updated at 17:39 UTC.

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Deep earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

Yesterday (6-June-2014) there was an earthquake swarm of small earthquakes in Katla volcano. The depth of this earthquakes was from 24 to 28 km. None of this earthquakes had the magnitude above 2,0 and the strongest earthquake only had the magnitude of 1,5 in the caldera rim.

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The earthquake activity in Katla volcano caldera. The earthquake swarm took place under the rim of the caldera. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Today (7-June-2014) other anomaly activity has been showing up. Few earthquakes have been showing up 10 km north-east of the Vík í Mýrdal village. All of the earthquakes in question are small. There depth is from 18,4 and down to 29,2 km. The activity is inside the Katla volcano system it self, as it stretches out to this area. But this activity is taking place on the rim of the Katla volcano system as it is known today.

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The earthquake activity 10 km north-east of Vík í Mýrdal village. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Earthquake activity at this depth is not because of stress changes in the crust. This earthquake activity is most likely due to some changes in the magma inside Katla volcano. It probably does not mean anything in terms of risk of eruption at the moment, at least not while the activity remains on the low levels as it currently is. Given the experience from the minor eruption in July-2011, earthquake activity in Katla volcano needs to be considerably higher then it currently is. It is impossible to know if this deep earthquake activity signals any change in Katla volcano activity for coming months, it’s all just wait and see, same as before.

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Earthquake activity in Þórðarhyrna, Bárðarbunga and Kverkfjöll volcanoes

Today (03-June-2014) there was a lot of minor earthquake activity in several volcanoes in Vatnajökull glacier. This is normal earthquake activity and so far nothing to worry about. This appears to be normal micro-earthquake activity in this volcanoes and I don’t see anything suggesting that volcano eruption is going to happen soon.

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Earthquake activity today in volcanoes in Vatnajökull glacier. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Þórðarhyrna volcano

Þórðarhyrna volcano (No GVP link. It is under Grímsfjall volcano GVP information) has been having interesting activity for the past few days. It might have been ongoing longer without being noticed until now. This earthquake activity is interesting since there is normally no earthquake activity in this volcano. Last eruption in Þórðarhyrna volcano took place in the year 1902. Activity in Þórðarhyrna volcano is often connected to eruptions in Grímsfjall volcano.

Bárðarbunga volcano

Some minor earthquake activity has been taking place in the area around dike intrusion location in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is just a minor activity and nothing to worry about.

Kverkfjöll volcano

Some minor earthquake activity is taking place in Kverkfjöll volcano. This earthquake activity is just minor. It is unusual to have earthquake activity in Kverkfjöll volcano. This earthquake activity is clearly a signal of increase of activity in Kverkfjöll volcano, it however does not signal that an eruption is imminent in Kverkfjöll volcano. So far everything remains quiet and might be so for a good while longer. Last eruption in Kverkfjöll volcano was in the year 1968.

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Magnitude 2,5 earthquake south of Hekla volcano

Today (3-June-2014) a magnitude 2,5 earthquake took place south of Hekla volcano. Depth of this earthquake was 9,6 km. It did appear clearly on my geophone in Heklubyggð, it can be viewed on-line here.

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The earthquakes south of Hekla volcano. Some minor earthquake activity in Katla volcano also appears on this image. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

There was no signs of harmonic tremor or anything suggesting that volcano eruption was about to start following this earthquake. Everything is quiet for now. Some minor aftershock activity took place following the main earthquake. I am expecting minor earthquake activity to continue to take place at this location. Earthquake activity at this location has happened before in similar way as it did today. When eruption do starts in Hekla volcano, there is going to be a lot more earthquake activity then took place today. Until that happens, there is no reason to worry about this. If you are going to hike on Hekla volcano then please do go safe route, since Hekla volcano is well known for sudden eruptions with no warning at all, besides the earthquake swarm in the hour or two before a start of an eruption.

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Landslide in Fljótsdal, east Iceland

Yesterday (1-June-2014) a 300 meter wide landslide fell in east Iceland. This landslide did create minor damage for the nearby farm. The total damage is so far 250.000 ISK (1.615,93€, 1.312,13 GBP current exchange rate). The farmer thinks that at least one sheep was lost under the landslide, it is not told of any lambs where lost, 500 poles for fences where also lost under the landslide. This farmer makes them for sale. Four horses did safe them by jumping over a fence when the landslide got close to them.

The reason for this landslide is melting of snow the mountain above the farm. Summer melt has now started in Iceland and for the past few days have been warm in Iceland with temperature going up to 18C (and above) at locations. There has not been a lot of rainfall in Iceland for the past few days.

Icelandic news of this landslide

Aurskriða féll í leysingum í Fljótsdal (Rúv.is, Icelandic, Picture)

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New study finds signs of new eruptions deep on the Reykjanes Ridge

In the Icelandic news today there is a article about new study on the deep Reykjanes Ridge. According to that that study an eruption took place deep on the Reykjanes Ridge sometimes in the past 20 years. Following this eruption a sharp and strong earthquake activity took place at this same location. No signs of this eruption where visible on the surface of the ocean. At this location the depth is around 2 to 3 km. The unnamed volcano is at around the location at 61N degree north, this makes the location around 400 to 500 km from land. The study did compare scans of the ocean floor at this location taken in the year 1994 to new ones taken in the year 2013. This newer scans clearly showed that eruptions had taken place in the time period between those scans of the ocean floor. It is not known when this eruptions took place or how large they where, or for how long they lasted. There have been earthquakes swarms at this location in the past 20 years. I don’t know if that is a sign of new eruptions at this location. It is also extremely difficult to confirm any new eruptions at this location if such event took place after last scientific study into this area.

More information in Icelandic

Sjá merki um eld­gos á Reykja­nes­hryggn­um (mbl.is, map of volcano, Icelandic)
Áður óþekkt eldgos á Reykjaneshrygg (Rúv.is, Icelandic)

Updated at 14:48 UTC.
Updated at 15:09 UTC.
Updated at 15:11 UTC.