Today (26. June 2023) an earthquake swarm took place in Reykjanes volcano. This earthquake swarm is in a location in Reykjanes volcano that has been having repeated earthquake activity over the last few months. This strongly suggest that at this location there’s an active dyke that might erupt in the future.
Earthquake swarm in Reykjanes volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Largest earthquake in this swarm at the writing of this article had a magnitude of Mw3,0. Other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude. I am unclear on how many earthquakes have happened in Reykjanes volcano at the writing of this article. This earthquake swarm is ongoing at the writing of this article.
Today (24. June 2023) an earthquake swarm started in Katla volcano. Largest earthquakes had magnitude of Mw3,8 and Mw3,3. Other earthquakes have been smaller. This earthquake swarm is ongoing but has slowed down since this morning.
Earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
At the writing of this article there is no clear sign that an eruption is about to happen. That might change without a warning. This earthquake activity might stop and nothing more is going to happen until next time. That is what has been going on for the last few months and years.
This month of June 2023. Bárðarbunga volcano has had it second earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,1. This is a normal inflation earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano.
Green star in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
This is normal inflation earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano. It is going to be a long time until next eruption happens in Bárðarbunga volcano (expected, anything can happen).
In rather unusual activity, there have been earthquakes in Eyjafjallajökull volcano since yesterday (7. June 2023). It started with a small earthquake of magnitude Mw1,1 at 20,5 km depth. Earthquakes are few, so there’s clearly no risk for an eruption at the moment.
Earthquake activity in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
It would be highly unusual if Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupts now, since it looks like that volcano is on ~200 year cycle when it comes to eruptions and between those cycles it remains quiet with no earthquake activity, or at most few earthquakes each years. This has been true since end of the eruption in 2010 in Eyjafjallajökull volcano. There however is the question is something has changed. I don’t have any answer yet, but this is something to keep an watch for. This might turn out to be nothing, as is the case most times.
During the night of 6. June 2023 at 03:17 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,0 at the depth of 15,8 km, took place close to Surtsey island. This was just a single earthquake and only one smaller earthquake with magnitude of Mw1,1 took place at 03:20 UTC, it is possible that few smaller earthquakes took place at this same location without having been recorded because of distance from seismometers that Icelandic Met Office has.
Earthquake next to Surtsey island. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
No other earthquakes have happened in this location today. This is just one off earthquake activity currently and I don’t expect that to change.
The regular once to two month earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano took place today (5. June 2023) at 00:04 UTC. This time the earthquake magnitude was Mw3,4. Few smaller earthquakes happened before the main earthquake took place. There has been minimal earthquake activity after the main earthquake.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
This is regular earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. There is no risk of eruption from Bárðarbunga volcano at the moment.
During the night of 3. June 2023 an earthquake swarm took place in Reykjanes volcano, at location called Reykjanestá. Largest earthquake in that swarm had a magnitude of Mw3,0. Other earthquakes where smaller. This earthquake swarm suggests a magma movement, but it is difficult to be sure if that is what happened now.
Earthquake activity in Reykjanes volcano and Fagradalsfjall volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Its been ten months since last eruption took place in Fagradalsfjall volcano. It is likely that a new eruption is going to happen soon, but it is impossible to know when. In last few weeks earthquake activity has been increasing in Fagradalsfjall volcano and that suggests that magma pressure inside the volcano is increasing. It just has not reached the levels to start a new eruption.
Today (30. May 2023) an earthquake took place in Krýsuvík volcano in Kleifarvatn lake. This earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,1. I don’t know if this earthquake was felt, it is possible. This earthquake is the second earthquake in this magnitude range in last few days.
Earthquake activity in Keifarvatn lake. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
This seems to be normal earthquake activity, it doesn’t seems to be connected to any magma movement in Krýsuvík volcano. Effects of inflation in other volcanoes (Fagradalsfjall volcano) is something that might be starting to create earthquakes. This is difficult to see in the data at the moment, but that might change in next few weeks if that is happening.
Yesterday an earthquake swarm started in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano. This earthquake swarm doesn’t appear (it might be connected, but it is difficult to know currently) to be connected to the inflation that is happening at Fagradalsfjall volcano. Largest earthquake in this earthquake swarm had a magnitude of Mw3,0. This earthquake swarm took place just south-west of Kleifarvatn lake.
Earthquake activity in Krýsuvík volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
This earthquake swarm doesn’t seems to indicate an magma movement. There has not been any indicators (clear) that Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano has gone active. It remains a dormant volcano.
Yesterday (23. May 2023) at 19:22 UTC an earthquake swarm started east of Grímsey island. Largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,8 at the writing of this article. This earthquake swarm is ongoing. The largest earthquake was felt in Akureyri and other nearby towns.
Earthquake activity east of Grímsey island. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Around 130 earthquakes have happened in this earthquake swarm so far. This area of Iceland has frequent earthquake activity. This earthquake swarm might increase, as they sometimes do in this area. It is impossible to know when this activity is going to stop. It took me a little longer to write this article, because this is a frequent earthquake area and I was also trying to get a little break (I also have to do other things outside of this) in next few days from geology. How that goes is to be seen.
I also want to point people out that I have set-up a website that shows Icelandic Met Office harmonic tremor charts and other information for that area.
I also have a webicorder website with an earthquake recording that I run. I am trying to figure out how to install and run seismometer in Iceland again. Its a slow work in progress for me because of the technical problems I am dealing with.
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