Around 530 earthquakes were detected with the South Iceland Lowland (SIL) earthquake monitoring network of the Icelandic Met Office (IMO) last week.
This is business as usual in Iceland which lies on the divergent boundary between the Eurasian plate and the North American plate. It also lies above a hotspot, the Iceland plume, which is believed to have caused the formation of the island some 16 to 18 million years ago. Accordingly we have repeated eruptions and seismic activity, and, of course, an abundant of geothermal energy.
Of the 530 earthquakes detected by IMO, around 140 were located around Bárðarbunga caldera and in the dyke intrusion under Dyngjujökull outlet glacier in Vatnajökull glacier, another 40 earthquakes were detected around Mýrdalsjökull glacier, the home to Katla, one of Iceland’s most notorious volcano.
IMO reports that a swarm of micro-earthquakes was measured at Tungnafellsjökull glacier and volcano (in the central highlands North of Vatnajökull) on 9 and 10 July.
The strongest event of the week was magnitude 3.3 on Reykjanes ridge, but according to IMO, activity there has diminished significantly after an intense earthquake sequence in the previous week.
The SIL system
IMO’s automatic SIL monitoring network has been in operation for almost two decades. Besides evaluating source function and mechanism information carried from below by micro-earthquakes, it provides near real-time information that is used as the basis for an alert system.
Around 530 earthquakes were detected with the South Iceland Lowland (SIL) earthquake monitoring network of the Icelandic Met Office (IMO) last week.
This is business as usual in Iceland which lies on the divergent boundary between the Eurasian plate and the North American plate. It also lies above a hotspot, the Iceland plume, which is believed to have caused the formation of the island some 16 to 18 million years ago. Accordingly we have repeated eruptions and seismic activity, and, of course, an abundant of geothermal energy.
Of the 530 earthquakes detected by IMO, around 140 were located around Bárðarbunga caldera and in the dyke intrusion under Dyngjujökull outlet glacier in Vatnajökull glacier, another 40 earthquakes were detected around Mýrdalsjökull glacier, the home to Katla, one of Iceland’s most notorious volcano.
IMO reports that a swarm of micro-earthquakes was measured at Tungnafellsjökull glacier and volcano (in the central highlands North of Vatnajökull) on 9 and 10 July.
The strongest event of the week was magnitude 3.3 on Reykjanes ridge, but according to IMO, activity there has diminished significantly after an intense earthquake sequence in the previous week.
The SIL system
IMO’s automatic SIL monitoring network has been in operation for almost two decades. Besides evaluating source function and mechanism information carried from below by micro-earthquakes, it provides near real-time information that is used as the basis for an alert system.
