Using Seismicity and Tomographic Imaging to Infer the Location and
Rupture of the Reservoir that Supplies magma to the 2021 Eruption at
Fagradalsfjall, Iceland
Abstract
Although many deep-seated magma reservoirs have been detected beneath
active volcanic systems in Iceland in recent decades, none were detected
beneath the 5 volcanic systems on the Reykjanes Peninsula (RP) before
the year 2020. This area, close to Iceland’s capital Reykjavik, was
subject to an unrest period with numerous earthquakes, beginning in
December 2019. Using this abundant seismicity to produce tomographic
images of the RP, we discovered a high Vp/Vs anomaly below the volcanic
system of Fagradalsfjall – the smallest of the 5 systems on the RP.
This anomaly is clear on images as early as May 2020 and we interpret it
as the top part of the source reservoir of the Fagradalsfjall Volcanic
System, which now supplies magma to the eruption that started there on
19 March 2021. From the tomographic images, we infer that the roof of
the reservoir is at ~10 km below the surface of the
volcanic system, but the reservoir itself extends much deeper. We
interpret the results as magma accumulation in the upper part of the
reservoir at least by May 2020, and probably earlier, resulting in a
slight magma-pressure increase and doming of the reservoir roof. The
associated stress changes in the roof triggered several earthquake
swarms throughout 2020 and into early 2021. Within the part of the roof
closest to the reservoir (between 9-12 km depth) 40 earthquakes occurred
during 2020. This number doubled again between 1 January and 19 March
2021, when the eruption began. We interpret the preceding earthquake
swarm, which began on 24 February 2021 with an earthquake of M5.6, as
being associated with the rupture of the roof of the reservoir and
dike-segment injection. We interpret the increased activity on the 14th
of March, and its location, as a second rupture and a new dike-segment
injection which ultimately lead to the eruption, which is still on-going
at the time of writing. The reservoir is the first one detected below
any of the volcanic systems on the RP. Furthermore, the reservoir
supplies magma to the first eruption on the RP for nearly 800 years and
the first eruption in Fagradalsfjall for some 6000 years.