Category: Tjörnes Fracture Zone

During the night of 8-August-2020 at 03:42 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw4,6 took place in Tjörnes Fracture Zone on Flatey – Húsavík fault. This earthquake was felt and did wake people up from their sleep. A second earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,7 took place at 03:52 UTC. Both earthquakes were felt. No damage happened in this earthquake. After the largest earthquakes happened a swarm of smaller earthquakes took place.

The earthquake activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake swarm is the same one that started on 19-June-2020 and has been ongoing since then. This earthquake swarm has not been as strong as it was in June at the moment. There is a permanent risk of a magnitude Mw7,0 earthquake in this area while the earthquake swarm is ongoing. There are no signs that this earthquake swarm is about to end.

Today (4-August-2020) at 15:16 earthquake with magnitude Mw3,3 took place in Tjörnes Fracture Zone in the area that has been having earthquake swarm since 19-June-2020. Before this earthquake happened an increase in smaller earthquakes happened.

The earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The earthquake swarm in this area of Tjörnes Fracture Zone is now in its second month and doesn’t show any sign of ending. Currently there is a risk of a magnitude Mw7,0 earthquake in this area while this earthquake swarm continues.

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During the night (19-July-2020) three earthquakes took place in Tjörnes Fracture Zone on the Flatey – Húsvík fault. Around midnight earthquake activity started to increase on the Flatey – Húsavík fault. The first earthquake with magnitude Mw3,0 took place at 02:54 UTC and the largest earthquake with magnitude Mw4,4 took place at 03:07 UTC and the second largest earthquake with magnitude Mw3,3 took place at 07:05 UTC. More earthquakes with magnitude above Mw3,0 can’t be ruled out and there remains a risk of earthquake with magnitude of Mw7,0 is going to happen in this area.

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

This is the largest earthquake since 8th July 2020 when a magnitude Mw4,2 earthquake took place in this area in the rift valley that is also active during this earthquake swarm. Over 14.000 earthquakes have been recorded since start of this earthquake swarm on 19th June 2020. This earthquake swarm is ongoing at the writing of this article.

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Yesterday (8-July-2020) at 17:41 UTC an magnitude Mw4,2 earthquake took place in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone. This earthquake was closer to land than other earthquakes and was felt over a wide area. The fault line that created this earthquake has almost north to south direction. The earthquake swarm that started on 19-June-2020 is ongoing but the amount of earthquakes that have been happening has dropped over the last few days to just around 300 earthquakes over 48 hour time period.

The current earthquake activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The risk of a strong earthquake with magnitude Mw6,0 to Mw7,0 remains in the area and is going to do so for a while after this earthquake activity ends.

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This is the last update on the earthquake swarm activity until something more happens in Tjörnes Fracture Zone.

Current earthquake activity is getting smaller at the writing of this article and few earthquakes over magnitude Mw3,0 are happening now. Over the last 48 hours only 5 earthquakes have reached magnitude Mw3,0 and larger and only around 650 earthquakes have happened in the last 48 hours. Largest of this earthquakes had a magnitude of Mw4,1 today at 04:52 UTC.

The earthquake activity on the Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The risk of magnitude Mw7,0 to Mw7,4 earthquake remains in Tjörnes Fracture Zone after this activity and there is still a warning in place for it. The fault that moved on Sunday 21st June in the Mw6,0 (USGS/EMSC. IMO reports MW5,8) earthquake seems to have been 20km to 30km long based on the earthquake activity along the fault rupture in north-south direction about 33 km west-south-west of Grímsey island. At the writing of this article there have been over 7000 earthquakes been detected by Icelandic Met Office.

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This is a short update on the earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. The earthquake swarm continues but most earthquakes are smaller now and not many earthquakes with magnitude above Mw3,0 has happened. At the writing of this article around 1000 earthquakes have happened over the last 48 hours. Warning is still in place for the risk of Mw7,0 earthquake.

Current earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake activity suggests that most north-western part of the Flatey – Húsavík fault line has now become active (small earthquakes along the fault). In the year 1755 it is estimated that fault had a magnitude Mw7,0 or stronger earthquake. Then a earthquake with a unknown magnitude happened in this area in the year 1260.

Other than this there has been little chance in activity in the western part of Tjörnes Fracture Zone since last article about this activity.

Science papers and information Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Earthquakes in North Iceland (Icelandic/English, pdf)
Jarðskjálftavirkni á Norðurlandi (Icelandic, summary in English, pdf)

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This is a short update about the Mw5,8 (USGS/EMSC have magnitude Mw6,0) earthquake in Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ) that happened yesterday (21-June-2020) at 19:07 UTC. The Mw5,8 earthquake that happened yesterday was further out in the ocean and that resulted in the earthquake being less felt than if it would have been closer to populated areas. Currently there is a risk of Mw7,0 earthquake in this area according to Icelandic Met Office. It is not possible to know when such a earthquake might happen.

The activity is now along all of Eyjafjarðaráll rift valley. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake activity remains dense. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

If a large earthquake happens I’ll try and publish update soon as possible.

Icelandic Met Office has put up an English article. It can be read below.

A strong earthquake swarm offshore North Iceland (vedur.is).

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I am waiting on the technical details of the earthquake that happened at 19:06 UTC on 21-June-2020. Those are going to be in a article tomorrow. This article is about pictures of the earthquake that I managed to get as it was happening. There is clearly something going because this trace was different from the Mw5,2 and Mw5,6 earthquake that happened earlier.

The earthquake as it happened.

The earthquake as it happened.

The earthquake as it happened.

The earthquake as it happened.

The earthquake on my Hvammstangi 1 station in greater details.

The earthquake on my Hvammstangi 2 station in greater details.

There is real high activity in TFZ currently and over 100 magnitude Mw3,0 earthquakes have happened. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There is real high activity in TFZ currently and over 100 magnitude Mw3,0 earthquakes have happened. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

I have a working day tomorrow from 08:00 to 16:00 and that limits my ability to post updates on social media if anything major happens until after 16:00. This earthquake activity is far from over.