An earthquake measuring 3.7 on the Richter Scale shook the area of the erupting volcano next to the Eyjafjallajokull ice cap in South Iceland this afternoon.
The earthquake is the strongest to hit the area since seismic activity began to build at the volcano at the beginning of March.
Steinunn Jakobsdottir, an Icelandic Meteorological Office geologist told mbl.is that only very few of the regular quakes in the area since the beginning of last month have measured above 3 on the Richter Scale. Jakobsdottir added that it is not yet known if this afternoon’s quake is an important development or if it should be considered as a large but normal earth movement. The quake has not had any immediate effect on the erupting volcano – neither has it had an immediate impact on the nearby dormant Katla volcano.
Dear “marilyn”, man made drilling has no effect on earth eruptions.The earth tectonic plates movements have so much power,that if Swisserland drills or not make Z E R O differents.Go back to sleep and trust any goverment !!!
[…] Large earthquake hits Iceland volcano site […]
One correction to the article. Charles Richter developed the Richter Scale for quakes in Southern California. What is used outside of Southern California is the Moment-Magnitude scale.
[…] Grote aardbeving IJsland vulkaan site […]
This global warming thing is just another scam, thats all it is, of course we should avoid polluting the environment, but we are not causing any earthqukes or eruptions, there have always been quakes and eruptions, long before man existed.
Max keiser talks to Mark Schapiro, author of the Harper’s article, “Conning the Climate: Inside the Carbon Trading Shell Game”.
http://rt.com/About_Us/Programmes/Keiser_Report/2010-03-30/557608.html
Pictures form the volcano
http://notendur.hi.is/haa4/Eyjafjallajokull/Eruption-Eyjafjallajokull-16.04/index.htm#10
I truly hope that iceland, like Switzerlands government will do a full investigation on tremors caused by Geothermal fractures triggering volcanic activities that are paralyzing Europes air space and halting connecting flights through out the world.
http://www.cogci.dk/news/Crutzen_albedo%20enhancement_sulfur%20injections.pdf
Charly Lance:
Yes, indeed. I believe electromagnetic weapons can now trigger
remote earthquakes and volcanoes. It seems they developed a system to
inject ELF waves in the stratosphere. At the basis of this system,
they seems to have found that they can amplify ELF waves emissions using photoionization of Barium in the stratosphere. By adding soot and particles in the atmosphere, they’re blocking sunlight and believe to cool the planet. It is then most likely a anthropogenic (or man-made) experiment..
AnimeLove
Have anyone noticed that earthquake is a bit frequent these days? . Does climate change have any thing to do with earthquake?
History of Geothermal Resources in Iceland
Geothermal Technologies Program: A History of Geothermal Energy in …
Gerthermal certainly has a history. We are just starting to feel the long term effects of it.
This is a list of eruptions in Iceland the last 100 years, some of the volcanos have erupted 2 or 3 times.
http://www.almannavarnir.is/displayer.asp?cat_id=355
http://notendur.hi.is/~aj/mynd/2010/auroras_eruption/
http://notendur.hi.is/aj/mynd/2010/eyjafjallaj_1april/
so no one would be surprised if a volcano erupts in Iceland, and it does not even take a big eartquake to set it off, when Eyjafjallajokull erupted some 2-3000 small quakes per 48 hours were recorded for a few days, most of them smaller than 3 points.
Geothermal energy – Effects on the environment – Te Ara …
http://www.ox.ac.uk/media/news_releases_for_journalists/081208.html
marilyn, you claimed that depleting geothermal fluids in Iceland caused the earthquakes and volcanic activity, afair from a visit to Nesjavellir, the heat is exchanged to heat up cold water, geothermal fluids are not been depleted.
You’d wonder what caused all the earthquake and volcanic activity before 1960?
“In Basel Switzerland geothermal projects were shut down permanently after government study determined that earthquakes caused millions in damages”. “Oxford University researchers found that large earthquakes caused up to four times as many volcanic eruptions.
“marilyn says
Ice land is one of many regional countries that are depleting geothermal fluids for energy causing the land to sink and tilt side ways causing earthquakes and Volcanic activity. These eruptions will just escalate as long as these countries continue drilling.”
What you are saying is silly, you should read more about the subject.
Grimsvotn volcano in Vatnajokull glacier is ready to erupt, according to the pressure build-up, there was a small eruption in 2004
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3982273.stm
Katla is very likely to erupt also, as she has done 16 times since settlement in 930, she erupts every 40-80 years, its been 92 years since last time, so its not far away,
when the Eyjafjallajokull fissures started erupting the earth simply ripped open, there were no major earthquakes,
Katla has always followed Eyjafjallajokull, and she is likely to do that this time as well.
Iceland is a volcanic island, so earthquakes, eruptions and floods are something we have grown used to, Katla will probably not cause major damage, or Hekla, who is also due to erupt, but both of them are capable of making major changes to the planet and done that in the past, very large systems like Yellowstone park can block out the sun for 10.000 years, causing a ice age and killing most of the planets life, Katla, Eldgjá, Laki and Grimsvötn are a huge volcanic system, and very active,
but not likely to erupt all at the same time, so we will probably survive what ever happens, there is no point in worrying about this, as there is nothing we can do to affect any of this, global warming is not causing any of this, or the use of geothermal energy.
Hydrogen Sulfide volcanic gas has a strong rotten egg odor. This gas impairs neurological abnormalities in first episode Psychoses. Evidence of major psychosis gene has been found in Ice land.
Either the geothermal fluid does not leave the area or a closed loop system is used.
Reykjavik doesn’t smell so strong of rotten eggs anymore:)
Ice land is one of many regional countries that are depleting geothermal fluids for energy causing the land to sink and tilt side ways causing earthquakes and Volcanic activity. These eruptions will just escalate as long as these countries continue drilling.
The 3.7 on the Richter Scale is not so much but considering the location and the on and underground volcanic movement needs consideration. Beneath the surface of the earth nothing controlls. Beware.
newer mind – I watched webcam yesterday afternoon and saw the qauke the area moved from side to side on the screen
While 3.7 is not large by earthquake standards, it is the largest
to date in this area which could indicate bigger and more violent
eruptions from here or Katla or even Laki.
Katla and Laki pose very dangerous risks,
Katla from melting glacial snowpack and Laki
from it’s usual nasty gases and chemicals
which in todays populations could kill millions of Europeans
and cause massive famine in North America.
I have only seen 2 earthquakes in Myrdalsjokull in the last 2 weeks, so Katla still seems to be sleeping trough this eruption, according to history the time difference between the eruptions is from some weeks up to 2 years, Katla usually goes on for a few weeks and the damage is mostly by floods and enormous amounts of ashes blasted into the air, so she may stop air traffic for some weeks in Iceland and probably in Europe and cool us down by ca 0.5- 1 degree,
what makes her so special is not just the 4 km wide crater and gigantic power, but also the fact that Eldgjá and Laki are a part of the same system, all 3 of them are huge volcanoes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_volcanoes_in_Iceland
Some geologists are saying the lava in Eyjafjallajokull eruption is coming straight from the earths mantle, if that is correct its very unusual.
http://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes
/myrdalsjokull/
Hi guys,
Thanks for being so on the ball! I have changed the picture.
But as far as describing it as a large earthquake: 3.7 is of course not a big earthquake – but at this time and in this location it probably can be considered big. It is, after all, the single biggest earthquake since seismic activity began there at the beginning of last month and it could potentially prove an important event.
Thanks for reading IceNews!
Alex, editor
nice…. only… volcano Katla is under the other glacier
not where the map shows it.
I believe Katla is underneath the Mýrdalsjökull, the map in this article shows Katla @ Eyjafjallajökull (arrow).
Is 3.7 a large earthquake?
3.7 is not a large earthquake.