Shake, Rattle, and Roll, is Iceland About to Blow Its Top?

 More than 10,000 what their geologists are calling micro-quakes have been keeping Icelanders in the vicinity of Reykjavik awak.

Of course everyone knows that Iceland is very geologically active hence all the geothermal power not to mention the vast lava fields, but the country has never in recorded human history seen this level of activity.

Geologists in Iceland and elsewhere say it is just a matter of time before there is a major eruption but the quakes seem to be centered on an area near the capital and that is an area of previous slow lava flows more like you see in Hawaii than like Vesuvius.

Although these are being described as microquakes, many are in the range of 3.8 to 4.5 and even higher - as high as 5.7, enough to shake vehicles and easily enough to wake people.

The southwest of Iceland has been volcanically quiet for 800+ years but the 18,000 recent quakes have people expecting an eruption - not necessarily frightened, but certainly on edge since they can't get a night's sleep.

https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/us6000dkmk/map?historic-seismicity=true&shakemap-intensity=false

Live webcam in area.

http://myndavel.hve.is/mjpg/video.mjpg


Comments

Uluru said…
Spectacular visual displays during the new eruption. However, SW Iceland has been active more recently than 800 year ago, with the offshore eruption of Surtsey during the Cold War, and the eruption on Westman Island off the SW coast to the south. The latter was elegantly described by John McPhee in the first chapter of his book The Control of Nature. Uluru
March 23, 2021 at 4:09 AM
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