An earthquake measuring 3.8 on the Richter scale hit more than 80 kilometers east of the uninhabited island Kolbeinsey, which marks Iceland’s fishing limits to the north and lies 74 kilometers to the northwest of Grímsey, at 5:40 am this morning.
Grímsvötn. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
The tremor was registered by the Icelandic Meteorological Office’s automatic indicator; earthquakes are quite common in this area, ruv.is reports.
In other news, the flooding caused by the Grímsvötn volcano in Vatnajökull is subsiding after having peaked around 1 pm yesterday. The flow in the Gígja river has remained steady after a burst on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
Geophysicist Oddur Sigurdsson at the Icelandic Meteorological Office flew over the crater yesterday afternoon. Although disturbances have been registered by indicators nearby, Sigurdsson told ruv.is that he believes all of the water that had accumulated in Grímsvötn has now drained out.
No one was harmed in the flooding and the only damages were to a large wooden mast which snapped when it was hit by an iceberg. Data has yet to be compared with previous flooding in Grímsvötn, the last of which took place in 2004.
However, Sigurdsson told ruv.is that he cannot predict whether a volcanic eruption will follow the flooding or not. Eruptions in Grímsvötn are frequent and usually insignificant.
According to Morgunbladid there are no signs of an eruption.
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