Category: Earthquakes

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Strong earthquake in Hengill volcano

Today (9th February 2020) at 07:24 UTC a earthquake with a magnitude of Mw3,7 took place in Hengill volcano. This earthquake was felt over a wide area.


The earthquake activity in Hengill volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is not connected to anything that is happening close to Grindavík town. Since the effects of that activity don’t reach that far east on the Reykjanes peninsula.

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Earthquake activity update for 4th February 2020 for Reykjanes volcano

Today (4th February 2020) there has not been a huge change in activity in Reykjanes volcano. Today’s earthquake activity has only been minor earthquakes and around 100 have happened today. There is no change in harmonic tremor on nearby SIL stations so magma is not moving towards the crust. Current inflation is around 55mm to 60mm. The only noticeable change in last few hours is that area of earthquake activity seems to be pushing it self a little more north-east. There has not been any change in the south-west part of the active area.


Earthquake activity in the Reykjanes volcano today (4th of February 2020). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There is a possibility that this is going to be a long process before an eruption happens. It is a long time since an eruption last took place (but no time at all in geological time scale) in this area. It also takes the magma a while to get to the pressure levels needed for an eruption and at current amount of magma it might not be enough to start an eruption in this area.

While there is no major change between days or earthquake activity I am going to have fewer updates since too many articles about the same thing is not good and I know this from experience when Bárðarbunga volcano erupted in 2014 to 2015.

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Moving back to Iceland

I move back to Iceland next week. That might result in limited updates the days that I am moving (14th to 18th of February) if something happens on the Reykjanes peninsula in that time. I’ll try to update best I can during this time. Normal updates start soon as I get all my belongings back from transport by the start of March. At the same time I’ll fix errors with my geophone so I can start recording earthquakes again and provide updates of earthquake activity in Iceland in more details.

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Earthquake update for Grindavík town (Þorbjörn) on 3rd February 2020

Yesterday (2nd February 2020) a magnitude Mw3,3 earthquake took place north of Grindavík town at 19:04 UTC. It was felt in Grindavík and nearby area as all earthquakes of this magnitude. Today (3rd February 2020) the day has mostly been quiet and there have only been minor earthquakes in the Þorbjörn mountain area and the area close to Grindavík town. The volcano that is now active is called Reykjanes and this is the second volcano of two in this system. The first volcano is mostly under the ocean and is possibly active but exact status remains unknown. Since around 10:00 UTC there have been small earthquake activity, since around 18:00 UTC earthquake activity has started to increase again and is ongoing as the writing of this article. Inflation is now at 50mm to 55mm.


Current earthquake activity close to Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Current earthquake activity rate close to Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There doesn’t seems to be any change in activity since this started on 21st of January 2020. Earthquake activity is going to continue until this inflation stops or an eruption happens. I don’t know what is going to happen with this.

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Earthquake activity update for Grindavík town 2nd February 2020

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Earthquake update for 2nd February 2020

Earthquake activity close to Grindavík town continues as before. Largest earthquakes since midnight had the magnitude of Mw3,3 and Mw3,0. A lot of smaller earthquake activity is currently happening and don’t always appears to be visible on the automatic map on Icelandic Met Office website. Over 200 earthquakes have taken place since midnight. Over 1200 earthquakes have taken place since 21st January 2020 when this started. Inflation remains the same and is now close to 50mm (GPS information can be viewed here). Rate of inflation seems to change slightly between days and I don’t know why that is happening. Most inflation seems to be happening close to the blue lagoon. Most of the earthquake activity is on a fault that is south-west to north-east direction and is south-east of highest point of the inflation. That makes a sense in terms of crust stress factors. What is missing is a earthquake swarm north of the main inflation area.


Earthquake activity in the Grindavík town area for the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


All the earthquake activity in this area since 21st of January 2020 to 2nd February 2020. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.


Surface image of the area that is now having earthquake swarms. Copyright of this image belongs to Google.


The earthquake activity in the last 48 hours. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There are no signs of the magma that is now injecting it self into the crust at 3 to 6 km depth that has started to break up the surface. It is possible that pressure is not enough for that to happen just yet. What happens next is impossible to know for sure but earthquake activity is going to continue in this area until inflation stops or an eruption starts.

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Strong earthquake swarm north-east of Grindavík yesterday (31. January 2020)

Yesterday (31. January 2020) a strong earthquake swarm started north-east of Grindavík village. This earthquake swarm lasted only around 12 hours but it made over 800 earthquakes in this time. The activity was so high it was too much for the SIL network and that resulted in a lot of ghost earthquakes all over Iceland. Largest earthquakes in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw4,3 and Mw4,0. There were 8 to 9 earthquakes with magnitude larger than Mw3,0.


The earthquake swarm north and north-east of Grindavík town. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Higher resolution map of this earthquake activity from this website here (Icelandic Met Office).


Earthquake activity in the area of Grindavík town for the last 7 days. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

GPS inflation data shows that there has not been a lot of change in the last 24 hours. The GPS inflation data can be viewed here (I don’t have permission to post those images to my website). Inflation is still ongoing and that is going to result in more earthquake swarm activity in this area and nearby areas.

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Fresh earthquake activity north of Grindavík town

Today (31-January-2020) an earthquake swarm started again north of Grindavík village in the volcano of Reykjanes (both). Largest earthquake so far had the magnitude of Mw2,5. Other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude but that might change without warning. Inflation today is close to 45mm and continues to increase by each day. The source of this information can be found here.


The latest earthquake swarm in the volcano Reykjanes. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The fault lines that are now active are three based on current earthquake pattern. This fault lines might just make an earthquakes and might not erupt. At the writing of this article there is no sign that magma has started to move towards the surface. Stronger earthquake swarms can happen without warning and they don’t have to be close to the area that is now inflating. Since the inflation is changing the stress levels in nearby crust that is going to break once the crust stress level has been reached. When that happens is not something that is possible to know.

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Earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,5 north of Grindavík

Today (29-January-2020) at 04:31 UTC a earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,5 took place north of Grindavík town. A second earthquake took place at 04:59 UTC and that earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,2. There has been a lot of minor earthquake activity during the night both before and after the largest earthquakes took place. Latest news on the inflation is that yesterday (28-January-2020) a pause took place in the inflation. Why that happened is unclear but there are no signs of this activity slowing down.


The earthquake activity in the Grindavík town area and close to Þorbjörn mountain. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There are no signs that magma has started to push it self into a dyke or towards the surface. There has not been any change on the nearby SIL tremor plots that Icelandic Met Office has. Area of activity can be considered large and is now whole of Grindavík town and but what is important is that the activity is aligned in south-east and north-west as is the direction of faults and older eruption fissures in this area.

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Earthquake activity continues in Þorbjörn area

Today (27-January-2020) at 18:53 UTC an earthquake with the magnitude of Mw3,1 took place just north of the town of Grindavík. This earthquake activity is in a volcano inside the volcano system of Reykjanes in its fissure swarm.


The earthquake activity north of Grindavík town and north of Þorbjörn mountain. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

More earthquake activity can be expected in this area for next few days to months. Current inflation is around 4mm/day and shows no signs of slowing down according the news and GPS measurements.

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The volcano Reykjanes (Þorbjörn) information and history

The current inflation that is now happening on the Reykjanes peninsula below the tuff mountain called Þorbjörn is in a volcano system called Reykjanes in the Global Volcanism Program. Last eruption is registered having taken place in Mars 1831 at Eldeyjarboði but given the location and distance on the Reykjanes ridge that area possibly is part of a different volcano system and is not connected to the Reykjanes volcano system that now has become active. Part of this volcano is below sea level. Maps of this area can be found here and here (image). Last eruption in this system was maybe in the year 1583. There is a possibility that the eruption in the year 1583 belongs to a different volcano system that is completely under the ocean. Last confirmed eruption in this system was in the year 1240 (780 years). More information on the volcano can also be found here.

The volcano that is now active doesn’t have any special name so for clarity I am just going to call it Þorbjörn. This volcano is rather large and erupts in the form of fissure vents. Þorbjörn is inside a fissure zone of the volcano called Reykjanes and that volcano might be the main volcano in this system and it can happen that both volcanoes can erupt at the same time. I don’t know if that is going to happen this time around but there has been a earthquake activity in the main volcano called Reykjanes and part of it is below ocean and eruption that would result in ash cloud with limited distribution. This earthquake activity suggests that both volcanoes are now getting active. The volcano called Reykjanes is less dangerous because its out in the ocean and not close to any populated area. Þorbjörn is close to populated area and important infrastructure on the Reykjanes peninsula.

I have written about this area earthquake activity in last few weeks here (28-July-2017), here (15-December-2019), here (17-December-2019), here (19-December-2019), here (20-December-2019), here (22-January-2020). I do think this is all of the earthquake activity in this area since July 2017 until January 2020.


Current activity in Þorbjörn and nearby area. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I am going to continue to monitor this situation and continue to update as best I can. Since I am currently moving back to Iceland delays may happen in the days when I move (middle of February) back to Iceland.

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Uncertainty level declared because of magma intrusion in mountain named Þorbjörn on Reykjanes peninsula

Icelandic Met Office has declared uncertainty level because of inflation in the mountain called Þorbjörn (no Global Volcanism Profile) that started on 21st of January 2020. This inflation has been followed by earthquake swarm activity that is ongoing at the writing of this article. The inflation has been 2cm today (26-January-2020) and the estimated volume of magma is 0,001 km3 and that is possibly too small to erupt at the moment. The inflation is 3mm to 4mm a day at the writing of this article. This active area is just north of the village of Grindavík.


The active area (red dots). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I’ll update this as best I can but I am currently in the progress of moving back to Iceland. But I don’t expect anything major to happen just yet. At least I hope that is what is going to happen. I plan on having my geophone network back by early March when I can fix the rollover problem the GPS clocks I am using are having.

Icelandic Met Office article in Icelandic

Möguleg kvikusöfnun undir svæðinu við fjallið Þorbjörn á Reykjanesi (vedur.is, Images)

English article by Icelandic Met Office

Possible magma accumulation beneath Mt. Thorbjorn on Reykjanes peninsula

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