Swarm – Page 98 – Iceland geology

August 11, 2013August 11, 2013

Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge

A minor earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes Ridge during the night, it started at 04:17 UTC and ended at 08:13 UTC, there was some break in activity for few hours with each episode lasting for around 10 minutes. Earthquake swarms are common in this area of the Reykjanes Ridge. The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2.9, other earthquakes were smaller in magnitude.

The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge, the earthquakes scattered around wrong locations by the automatic SIL system. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake swarm did appear clearly on my geophone network in Iceland. It can be viewed here. I do not know if this means more activity is coming on the Reykjanes Ridge, it is all just wait and see what happens in this case.

August 1, 2013August 1, 2013

Earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Yesterday (31-July-2013) a earthquake swarm started in TFZ, the south end of it, not far from a village named Kópasker. This earthquake swarm was small most of yesterday, but after midnight this earthquake swarm started to pick up in activity and magnitude of earthquakes. Around 07:09 UTC this morning (1-August-2013) a magnitude 3.7 earthquake took place, this earthquake was felt in Kópasker along with few magnitude 3.0 earthquake that took place after it. The epicenter of this earthquake swarm is out in the ocean, so no population is any major danger if this earthquake swarm continues as is.

The earthquake swarm in TFZ today. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake swarm is currently ongoing and there are no signs that is going to end soon, current activity is not continuous, it drops regularly and then it resumes again. It is impossible to know for sure how long this earthquake swarm is going to continue. The largest earthquakes appear clearly on my geophone and can be seen here.

Blog post updated at 18:11 UTC on 01-August-2013.

July 22, 2013

Minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

During the night (22-July-2013) a minor earthquake swarm took place in Katla volcano. Most of the earthquakes where shallow, with the depth of 1 km, one earthquake had the depth of 12 km. This earthquake swarm took place in the central area of the caldera. I am not sure what did create this earthquake swarm, it might have been a dike intrusion, or it simply might just be a pressure changes in hydro-thermal areas in this location.

Minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake swarm is probably just part of normal summer activity in Katla volcano, at least there is nothing that suggests otherwise at present time. It is possible to watch the activity in Katla volcano here from my geophone at Skeiðflöt farm, just outside Katla volcano.

July 15, 2013

Strong earthquake swarm north of Iceland

Since early night there has been a strong earthquake swarm north of Iceland, around 300 to 500 km away from Iceland coastline. All of the earthquakes in this swarm (that have been detected) have had the magnitude of 4.4. More smaller earthquakes appears also to have taken place, but where not properly detected by the SIL network or my geophone network.

Magnitude 4.4 earthquake between Iceland and Jan Mayen. Copyright of this image belongs to EMSC.

More earthquakes from this swarm can be found on EMSC web site here.

The earthquakes on Icelandic Meteorological Office earthquake map. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I have been having connection issues with my Böðvarshólar geophone station, it can be viewed here. The reason is poor UMTS (3G) signal in the area where the station is. I am going to resolve that issue in December by installing a external antenna to the 3G modem that I am using, it should give me a stronger and more stable signal. For the moment there is little that I can do, other than just to hope the signal improves and gets more stable then it has been today.

Donations

I wanted to remind people that donations help me. Currently I have less then 60DKK to live what remains of July. That is not a good status for me to have at present time. Thanks for the support.

June 21, 2013June 22, 2013

Minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

Today (21-June-2013) there was an earthquake swarm in Katla volcano, this earthquake swarm took place in the same area where the minor eruption in the year 2011 (July) took place and created a minor glacier flood down Múlakvísl river. So far there is nothing that suggest a eruption is about to take place in Katla volcano, this activity needs to be monitored closely since things can change quickly in Katla volcano.

Earthquake activity in Katla volcano on 21-June-2013. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake activity in Katla volcano starts around the same time as it did two years ago (2011), but then earthquake activity started on 17-June-2011 and continued until July-2011 and did not end until November-2011. This type of earthquake activity did also take place in June-2012, but no eruption did take place that summer. I expect this earthquake activity to continue in Katla volcano for the time being, sine most earthquake activity always happens during the summer in Katla volcano. It is unclear that is creating this earthquake swarm, it can be anything from pressure changes in hydro-thermal zones in this area, or magma injections at depth, I do not think any dike intrusions have taken place so far in Katla volcano.

Currently there is nothing that suggests eruption is going to take place soon in Katla volcano.

Blog post updated at 22:06 UTC on 21-June-2013.

June 21, 2013June 21, 2013

Fresh dike intrusion into Bárðarbunga volcano

Interesting earthquake activity continues in Bárðarbunga volcano. There is also interesting earthquake activity taking place in Hamarinn volcano. The source of this activity is magma dike activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. It is most likely not going to result in a eruption, but might be a sign of more activity in the future.

Activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

There has also been activity in Hamarinn volcano, I do not know if it is connected with the activity in Bárðarbunga volcano. I find it unlikely to be the case, but I cannot rule it out at current time. It is unclear if this is new earthquake activity, it might be as simple as new SIL stations in the area, or this could be real activity increase in the area close to Hamarinn volcano. I am currently not clear on this detail as is. Last eruption in Hamarinn volcano was in July 2011, I did write about it here. It is worth keeping a eye on this activity in the Hamarinn volcano, it has proven to be a unpredictable volcano and it appears that magma is at shallow depth in it.

Blog post updated at 23:32 UTC on 20-June-2013.

June 18, 2013

Minor earthquakes in Katla and Bárðarbunga volcanoes

There has been minor earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and Katla volcano for the past few days. This is just a short overview of this earthquake activity.

Bárðarbunga volcano

A minor dike intrusion took place in Bárðarbunga volcano on 18-June-2013. This was a small earthquake swarm, with largest magnitude at 1.2, the most depth in this earthquake swarm was at 24.3 km. So this was most likely a magma dike formation.

The magma dike earthquakes form a nice line on this IMO map. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Katla volcano

A minor earthquake activity has been taking place in Katla volcano for the past few days. So far it does not mean anything, this is most likely a summer related earthquake activity as glacier weight gets less on Katla volcano during the summer. Some deep earthquakes have been taking place in Katla volcano, it is unclear if they are sign of anything at this stage. This is most likely a some magma dike intrusion at depth, it happens commonly in Katla volcano without resulting in a eruption.

Activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Other then minor activity, it is rather quiet in Iceland at the moment. With no special activity taking place currently.

June 4, 2013

Interesting earthquake swarm south of Grímsfjall volcano

Interesting earthquake activity took place in Vatnajökull glacier today (03.06.2013). This earthquake activity took place just south of Grímsfjall volcano, that last erupted in the year 2011.

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

This earthquake activity is interesting, since it started after the eruption in Grímsfjall volcano at that area. It has been suggested that this activity is due to stress changes in this are, following the eruption in Grímsfjall volcano in the year 2011.

Earthquake activity in the same area in week 21 in the year 2011. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

I am not sure what is going on in this area, no volcano is known, or volcano fissure is known in this area. But that might well just be because this area is covered with a thick glacier. What makes this also interesting is the fact this area has been having earthquake activity since the year 2011 and there doesn’t seems to be any end in sight. This is clearly something worth keeping a eye out for, even if nothing happens in this area for a long time.

May 31, 2013

Minor earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge on the 29th of May

On the 29th of May (2013) a minor earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes Ridge. The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2.3, the depth range in this earthquake swarm was about 5.5 to 12 km. This was just a minor earthquake swarm, it also did not last long.

The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge on 29th of May 2013. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This area of the Reykjanes ridge is highly active, only about three weeks ago there was a strong earthquake swarm in this area. This might just be a aftershock activity from that, it is however difficult to know for sure. I am expecting more earthquakes in this area in next few weeks to months.

May 10, 2013May 11, 2013

Strong earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge

Last night a earthquake swarm started on the Reykjanes Ridge, this earthquake swarm started slowly with just few minor earthquakes. It however did pick up later today with stronger earthquakes and more activity. Strong earthquakes in this swarm so far have had the magnitude 4.5 and 4.7 according to USGS/EMSC. There have been over 10 magnitude 3+ earthquakes, there is also a chance of more earthquakes with the magnitude above 4.0+ in next few hours to days. According to Icelandic Meteorological Office, there have been over 310 earthquakes in this area today (my counter is still offline, more on that later in this blog post).

This earthquake swarm has been showing the pattern of stopping and then continue for few hours, and repeating this pattern. This sometimes happens in earthquake swarms on the Reykjanes Ridge, why that is I do not know. Last eruption in this area was sometimes on the 18th or 19th century I think. If this activity is connected to volcano activity it is too early to know at the moment, at the moment there is nothing that suggest that is the case. That might however change without a warning if that is the case. This volcano is located out in the ocean, so it is poorly monitored so current status of it is impossible to know for certain. Currently there are no harmonics being detected, just normal earthquake activity and nothing else.

Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Trace showing how the evolution of the earthquake swarm has been for the past few hours.Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is difficult to know for sure what happens next in this earthquake swarm. It is clear for the moment that this earthquake swarm is in full force as is, so more earthquake activity is to be expected. This earthquake activity can be monitored here, on my webicorder web site. It is updated every 5 min.

Other

I am sorry for this late blog post, but I always use some time to see how earthquake swarm evolve and what happens in them before I write, unless there is a really big earthquake with magnitude 50 or larger.

I have also been busy today trying to get my server computer back up and running, it has been working somewhat but I had to start from scratch again due to technical issues with few things. I am running FreeBSD on my server computer now. Since I am moving away from Linux solutions and it has been more of a challenge then I expected. I hope to have everything worked out now, so I hope to have my server computer up and running properly tomorrow. Since I know what I did wrong first time around and I did avoid it this time around, so I am not expecting any problems in setting up FreeBSD properly this time around.

I also want to point out that donations help me running this blog, since my financial status is not as strong that I wanted it to be. Thanks for the help.

Blog post updated at 13:26 UTC on 11. May 2013.

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