Category: Bárðarbunga

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Light sized earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (21. February 2023) at 08:41 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,9 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is because of inflation that is now happening in Bárðarbunga volcano and has been going on since end of Holuhraun eruption in 2015. Earthquakes with this type of magnitude are going to happen once or twice a year until Bárðarbunga volcano is ready for next eruption and that can take decades. There are going to be smaller earthquakes between larger earthquakes. According to the news, this earthquake was felt in Akureyri.

Green star and red dots in Bárðarbunga volcano inside Vatnajökull glacier. Few dots in other volcanoes in this part of Iceland.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Last time this happened it took 112 years between eruptions in Bárðarbunga volcano. With the quiet period between 1902 and until 2014. Shortest time between eruptions seems to be around 40 years, but most eruptions happen between 90 to 112 years from last eruption. Based on the data from Global Volcanism Program on Bárðarbunga volcano. There is a lot of uncertainty in this data, so this might be shorter from what it looks like in the data.

I’ve switched to using standard definition for earthquake magnitudes, as shown here (Wikipedia). This is for clarification and simplification when I am writing about earthquakes.

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Small earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (7. February 2023) an small earthquake swarm took place. This earthquake swarm started at 11:21 UTC with a magnitude Mw3,2 earthquake and lasted until 12:05 UTC. Other earthquakes were smaller in magnitude.

Green star in the west side of Vatnajökull glacier, were the largest earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Few other red dots at the same location show the smaller earthquakes.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This shows that Bárðarbunga volcano continues to inflate at high rate. Based on what happened before the eruption in 2014 to 2015 in Bárðarbunga volcano. When the earthquake stop for long time period it means Bárðarbunga volcano is ready for an eruption. While the earthquake activity happens is it is doing today, it means inflation continues in Bárðarbunga volcano.

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Magnitude Mw3,8 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (29-November-2022) at 01:09 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,8 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is a normal inflation earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano and more earthquakes like this are going to happen in next few years.

Green star in Vatnajökull glacier in Bárðarbunga volcano. Few dots of different colours.
Green star shows the earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano. Picture is from Icelandic Met Office.

This is just regular earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. After the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano in 2014 and until 2015 it is going to be a while until next eruption happens. Until then, earthquakes like this are going to happen.

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Earthquake with magnitude Mw4,2 in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (31-October-2022) at 14:57 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,2 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is a normal inflation earthquake as Bárðarbunga volcano continues to inflate after the large eruption in 2014 to 2015.

Green star and red dots in the center of the image in Vatnajökull glacier shows the location of the earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcnao. Red dots and a green star to the north close to Herðurbreið in a differnet earthquake swarm
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano, also in this image the earthquakes from Herðubreið mountain. Image is from Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is normal and happens every few months in Bárðarbunga volcano.

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Magnitude Mw4,9 earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano

Today (24-July-2022) at 13:45 UTC and earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,9 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Before this earthquake happened, an slightly smaller earthquake took place with magnitude of Mw4,4.

Two green stars on top of each other in Bárðarbunga volcano, that is in Vatnajökull glacier.
Green stars in Bárðarbunga volcano, that is in Vatnajökull glacier. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

According to news reports, last earthquake of this magnitude took place in January 2020. This earthquake activity is because of inflow of magma and inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano. This is not going to result in a eruption, this however shows that Bárðarbunga volcano is preparing for an eruption in next few decades or sooner.

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Strong earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano during the morning

Today (29-June-2022) at 08:16 UTC an earthquake with magnitude Mw3,5 took place in Bárðarbunga voclano. This is the second large earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano in June.

Green star on top of smaller red dots in Bárðarbunga volcano in Vatnajökull glacier
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is the same activity as before with Bárðarbunga volcano. That I did explain in the article on 27-June-2022 when that earthquake took place.

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Earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano during the night

Today (27-June-2022) at 05:49 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,3 took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This is an earthquake because of continued inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano after the eruption between 2014 and 2015.

Green star and a red dot in Bárðarbunga volcano in Vatnajökull glacier
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano in Vatnajökull glacier. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano is going to continue until the day the magma chamber is filled up again and that might take 10 to 70 years. There are going to be few earthquakes like this every year in Bárðarbunga volcano, with time the earthquakes are going to get fewer and instead get larger in magnitude.

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Strong earthquake in Bárðarbunga volcano this morning

Today (28-May-2022) at 08:06 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,4 or Mw4,7 (EMSC information can be found here) took place in Bárðarbunga volcano.

Green star and red dots in Vatnajökull glacier where Bárðarbunga volcano is located in north-west part of the edge of the glacier. Red dots showing deep earthquakes to the south-east of Bárðarbunga volcano
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is because of inflation in Bárðarbunga volcano magma chamber. That was emptied after the eruption in 2014 – 2015 and that resulted in collapse of Bárðarbunga volcano by drop of some 60 meters. This inflation now is reversing that process slowly. It is going to be decades until Bárðarbunga volcano erupts again because of this collapse.

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Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano

This morning an earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This earthquake activity is because of inflation of Bárðarbunga volcano. Largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw4,1. Other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.

Green star in eastern part of Bárðarbunga volcano showing the activity. Few red dots showing smaller earthquakes in western part of Bárðarbunga volcano.
Earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is normal since the end of the eruption in Bárðarbunga volcano in February 2015 it has been inflating. This earthquake activity is going to change and longer time is going to be between larger earthquakes. This type of earthquake activity is only going to go down to 1 to 2 earthquakes a year in next few years. Then down to one earthquake every few years.