Hear the angry roar of Iceland's intense seismic activity
Hear the angry roar of Iceland's intense seismic activityEel under the Rock - Nov 20, 2023
Terrifying, but strangely relaxing.
Iceland's geology is particularly changing at the moment. As the Fagradalsfjall volcano prepares for an imminent eruption, hundreds of earthquakes shake the Reykjanes Peninsula every day. Thanks to Northwestern University's Earthtunes app, it's possible to hear the creaks and rattles of the deep seismic forces currently acting beneath the island.
The latest collection of sounds was recorded last week, in early November 2023, by the Global Seismographic Network station (called BORG), located north-northeast of the capital Reykjavík.
This seismic activity usually cannot be heard by the human ear, but researchers transform seismic frequencies into audible pitches. It actually involves translating the sinuous lines of a seismometer into sound data.
“What you hear is 24 hours of seismic data, filled with earthquake signals. The vast majority of these earthquakes are associated with magma intrusion into the crust of the Fagradallsfjall-Svartsengi-Grindavik region of the Reykjanes Peninsula,” Suzan van der Lee, a seismologist at the university, said in a statement. Northwestern, which co-developed Earthtunes.
Iceland experiences intense volcanic and seismic activity because it is located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the North American and Eurasian plates are separating, allowing magma to rise from the mantle. It is also located at the top of a hot spot (that's the current scientific term) where the magma is particularly close to the surface.
Right now, the situation is particularly hot. On November 12, the Reykjanes Peninsula experienced a thousand earthquakes and many suspect an imminent volcanic eruption from Fagradalsfjall. The risk is so high that Icelandic authorities had the fishing town of Grindavík dug up after giant cracks formed along its roads.
“The activity is great, exciting and scary,” remarked Mr van der Lee.
After centuries of calm, eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula have resumed in 2021, ushering in a new era of intense seismic activity. It is likely that Iceland's southwestern peninsula now faces decades of volcanic instability.
