Sunday, March 25, 2018

Bárðarbunga Dude, Strong Earthquakes Going Off At the Volcano

Strong that is as far as volcano earthquakes go. Swarms—over, say, 72 - hours—tend to run in the 2-3 magnitude range when a volcano is stirring. This year''s Bárðarbunga quakes have been in the magnitude 4 range.
All from Iceland Monitor:
March 22
Earthquake measuring 4.3 in Bárðarbunga
Last night an earthquake of the magnitude 4.3 was detected in the southern part of the Bárðarbunga caldera followed by several aftershocks. No signs of volcanic eruption says the Iceland Met Office.
The smaller aftershocks measured between 2.4 and 2.5.
Bárðarbunga last erupted for six months in 2014- 2015.

January 31
Strongest earthquake in three years
An earthquake of magnitude 4,9 on the Richter scale was measured on the north side of the caldera Bárðarbunguaskja at 7.24 pm last night. The quake is the stongest one to be measured since the volcanic eruption in the lava field Holuhraun ceased on February 28th, 2015. The eruption had been ongoing since August 31st, 2014.
Bjarki Kaldalóns Fries, specialist of natural disasters at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, said to mbl.is. "On October 27th last year we measured two earth quakes, each of  magnitude 4,7, and they were at the time the stongest ones that had been measured in Bárðarbunguaskja since the end of the eruption".
Kaldalóns Fries says they are monotoring the area even though it's unlikely there will be another eruption. 
Earlier last night three earth quakes were measured on the north-east side of Bárðarbunga, of magnitude 3,7, 2,9 og 3,8 on the Richter scale. Around 20-30 afterquakes have been measured in the area since the spate began right before 6 pm last night.

December 20, 2017
Two earthquakes over 4 detected in Bárðarbunga
Two earthquakes occurred at Bárðarbunga last night, both at a magnitude of over 4 on the Richter scale. The first occurred at 04:57 and measured 4.1 and the second at 05.29 measuring 4.4 . They were followed by several aftershocks.
According to the Iceland Met Office there are no signs of an eruption however.
So a lot of Bárðarbunga action but nothing like Berlusconi's Bunga-bunga.

Related:
August 2014
Iceland Volcano Bárðarbunga set to erupt (and it's bigger than Eyjafjallajökull)
Here's the BBC's Guide to Icelandic Pronunciation. Pity the poor newsreaders....

December 2014
Iceland's Bárðarbunga Volcano Continues Erupting, Scientists Getting Bored

Laki: How A Volcano Swallowed Europe

August 2014
Bárðarbunga--How to Short a Volcano (hint: this time it's probably not the airlines)