Seismic unrest in Iceland: M4.8 earthquake hits near Siglufjörður and Aksja volcano rattled by M3.8 quake followed by smaller aftershocks

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A M3.8 earthquake rattled Askja volcano on March 14, 2018 at 21:10 UTC. Several smaller tremors followed. This is the largest quake in the area since August 2014. It was followed this morning at 10:56 UTC by a M4.8 earthquake 20km from Siglufjörður, a small fishing town on the northern coast of Iceland.

M3.8 earthquake and aftershocks swarm Askja volcano in Iceland on March 14 2018, M4.8 earthquake iceland march 15 2018
M3.8 earthquake and aftershocks swarm Askja volcano in Iceland on March 14, 2018. M3.8 earthquake is the green star. via Vedur.is

An earthquake swarm started in Askja volcano on March 14, 2018. The region is in seismic unrest since several weeks (small tremors) already. Aftershocks continue to rattle the same region today.

Earthquake activity in Askja volcano (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

As reported by Vedur.is, this M3.8 earthquake is the strongest quake striking Askja volcano since August-2014, when a M4.5 earthquake hit due to activity in Bárðarbunga volcano and the connected dyke intrusion.

So far, there are no signs of eruption since no harmonic tremors – thus no magma movement – have been detected.

Meanwhile a M4.8 earthquake hit a small fishing village in northern Iceland. Weirdly this quake has been removed from the earthquake map on Vedur.is. Hopefully it will reappear as reported by EMSC.

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EMSC, Vedur, Jonfr

2 Comments

  1. At another time my pops took me to see and camp near a volcano. I was a kid again and when we went to hike the volcano, all the way to the top of it. I secretly put large rocks in my jacket and then In my pants pockets until they could not hold no more. When we arrived at the top of the volcano I dumped them out to show my father. I told him I was in training for building up my muscles for the next even bigger mountain to hike. Don’t remember any earthquakes while we were there.

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