Askja Volcano

 

The Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) instruments detected continuing expansion that began in early August last year.

The expansion is currently located at the western rim of Öskjuvatn with a vertical accumulation of 2.5 cm per month. The ground has been uplifted by 30 cm since the beginning of August 2021. This suggests that a flux of magma may rise within the volcano at 2 km depth according to model calculations.

Satellite images from early September depicted the extent and center of the landmass, but current satellite images seem not to be reliable due to the presence of snow and ice. New sat images are expected to come at the end of this month.

"Askja is an active volcano and there are regular earthquakes, but the last eruption was in Askja in 1961. Regular measurements also showed landslides in the years 1970-1972, but those measurements were interrupted and when regular measurements began again in 1983, land had subsided. Since then, a steady landslide of 1 cm per year had been measured until now. When it comes to Askja, there is no way to predict in advance how such activity periods will develop, but it is most common for such periods to end without an eruption.", says Benedikt G. Ófeigsson, a specialist in crustal movements at the Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Source: Icelandic Meteorological Office volcano activity update 21 June 2022