Earthquake swarm 3 km north of Grindavík town

Today (19. December 2022) and yesterday (18. December 2022) an earthquake swarm took place 3 km north of Grindavík town in the Reykjanes volcano. Largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw2,9 and was felt in Grindavík. Earthquakes with magnitude Mw2,0 are felt in Grindavík, possibly even smaller earthquakes. At the writing of this article, this earthquake swarm is ongoing but weather is blocking almost all of the automatic earthquake detection.
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Magnitude Mw3,1 earthquake in Katla volcano

Today (16. December 2022) at 21:44 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,1 took place in Katla volcano. This seems to be a single earthquake at the writing of this article.

Green star in Katla volcano caldera along with two yellow and two blue dots showing smaller earthquakes.
Earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity seems to be normal and there is nothing to suggests that more is going to happen in Katla volcano at this time.

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.

Strong earthquake swarm in Öræfajökull volcano

Today (23-November-2022) at 10:04 UTC an earthquake with magnitude Mw3,1 took place in Öræfajökull volcano. According to the news and Icelandic Met Office, this is the largest earthquake in Öræfajökull volcano since the year 2018. This earthquake was felt on nearby farms. There is no town close to Öræfajökull volcano. A smaller earthquake with magnitude of Mw2,6 was also felt in the nearby area. A swarm of smaller earthquakes also took place inside Öræfajökull volcano caldera. Bad weather in south Iceland is preventing detection of all the earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano.

Red dots and a green star in Öræfajökull volcano in south part of Vatnajökull glacier. This is the most southern part of Iceland in south-east Iceland.
Earthquake activity in Öræfajökull volcano. Picture from Icelandic Met Office.

Öræfajökull volcano last time had this type of earthquake activity in the years 2018 and 2019 when it started to quiet down again. There are signs that magma is moving inside the volcano. When and if that is going to result in a eruption is impossible to know.

Earthquake swarm in Kolbeinsey island (north of Grímsey island)

Today (22-November-2022) an earthquake swarm took place in Kolbeinsey island. This is far north of Grímsey island. Largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,1 and total of four of those earthquakes happened. More than dozen smaller earthquakes have happened. Because how far this activity is from Icelandic Met Office SIL network only the largest earthquakes are being measured.

Green stars far north on the map, north of Iceland. This is the location of Kolbeinsey island. There are dots all over Iceland showing smaller earthquakes.
Green stars show the earthquake activity in Kolbeinsey island. Picture from Icelandic Met Office.

What is going on is unclear. This might just be normal tectonic activity for this area. There is only poor monitoring of this area since its out in the ocean and remote.

Deep earthquake activity in Hekla volcano

This started on Monday (14-November-2022) with an earthquake of magnitude Mw2,0 at 25,6km depth. This depth is as deep as the crust goes in this location of Iceland. This earthquake activity has been followed by two micro-earthquakes of magnitude of Mw0,5 and Mw0,6 at 11,5 km depth.

Red dot at Hekla volcano in south Iceland. With few blue dots showing smaller older earthquakes.
Earthquake activity in Hekla volcano. Picture from Icelandic Met Office.

There are no clear or obvious signs that Hekla volcano is about to do anything. But this deep earthquake activity suggests magma movements at depth or pressure changes maybe. This is clearly not a big activity and at the writing of this article I don’t expect anything to happen.

Possible dyke intrusion in Fagradalsfjall volcano

Early morning today (10-November-2022) an swarm of earthquakes took place slightly north of the place where the eruption in August 2022 took place in Fagradalsfjall volcano. This possible dyke intrusion was small and only lasted for about 1 hour before it stopped. Depth of the earthquakes was from 5 km to 7 km.

High resolution image of the earthquakes in Skjálfta-Lísa interactive earthquake map from Icelandic Met Office. It shows the dots line up in a fissure like location.
Skjálfta-lísa high resolution map of the earthquake activity. From Icelandic Met Office website.

This activity might give a clue on in what area next eruption is going to take place in Fagradalsfjall mountain. Based on earlier eruption there won’t be any warning before an eruption earthquake swarm starts. In August that eruption started with a minor earthquake swarm, created from a dyke intrusion that was happening. In the hours before an eruption starts there’s going to be a strong earthquake swarm, based on what happened just before the eruption in August. It is interesting if the eruption activity moves north-east, rather than south-west. Why that happens, if it does so, is not something I am clear on why happens.