Category: Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Yesterday (20-June-2020) at 19:26 UTC a magnitude Mw5,6 earthquake took place on the Tjörnes Fracture Zone. This earthquake was felt over a wide area and all the way to Kópavogur in south Iceland and all the way to Ísafjörður in west Iceland. Where I am located this earthquake was clearly felt but due to distance no damage happened. This earthquake created a lot of rock slides and possible landslides There is now a warning about being close and in mountains if a large earthquakes happens for this reason. In the Flatey fault there is now a risk of a large earthquake with magnitude up to Mw7,1 since there has not been a earthquake of that size since 1755 in that area. At the writing of this article there have been 72 earthquakes with magnitude larger than Mw3,0. Over 2000 earthquakes have been recorded since Friday 19-June-2020 when this earthquake swarm started. Activity happens in strong swarms with a drop in between. At the writing of this article there seems to be a low in the earthquake activity. Last large earthquake in Tjörnes Fracture Zone took place in eastern part of it in 1976 and last strong earthquake in the western part of Tjörnes Fracture Zone was in 1963.

Earthquake activity remains strong even if there is a minor drop in activity when this article is written. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The earthquake activity remains dense as can be seen here. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The magnitude Mw5,6 earthquake as it aooeared on my geophone (Hvammstangi 1).

The magnitude Mw5,6 earthquake as it appeared on my geophone (Hvammstangi 2).

The Mw5,6 earthquake as it appeared on my live computer that I use to monitor earthquakes.

It is impossible to know how this earthquake swarm is going to evolve and change over the next few hours but the risk of a larger earthquakes remains high for now and that won’t change until this earthquake swarm ends if a larger earthquake doesn’t happen in the earthquake swarm that is now ongoing.

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Today (20-June-2020) at 15:05 a magnitude Mw5,2 earthquake took place on Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ). Information in this article is going to go outdated quickly.

Earthquake activity in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The earthquake activity is dense and there is a lot of earthquakes happening every minute. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The earthquake as recorded by my geophone (Hvammstangi 2).

The earthquake as recorded by my geophone (Hvammstangi 1).

The earthquake as it appeared in the program I use to monitor earthquakes.

According to the news rock fall happened in mountains when the largest earthquake took place. There is also a risk of stronger earthquake due this earthquake swarm location according to Icelandic Met Office. If a stronger earthquake happens the risk of rock fall is high.

Yesterday (19-June-2020) a strong earthquake swarm started off Gjögurtá in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone. This are tectonic earthquakes and not connected to any known volcano. The area that is having this earthquakes might be a rift valley and that in it self is interesting. The rift valley seems to be connected to Kolbeinsey island and a volcano to the north. The rift valley is also connected to a slip-strike fault (Flatey fault) that is in this area and is connected to Flatey island to the east. That fault line is a transform fault according to Icelandic Met Office. This earthquake swarm is not over even if there is a bit of a quiet period in it now. Largest earthquake at the writing of this article had a magnitude of Mw3,8 at 03:47 UTC. More than 400 earthquakes have happened according to Icelandic Met Office.

The earthquake swarm as it was at 13:00 UTC. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Reviewed earthquakes in this earthquake swarm. Larger circles means larger earthquake. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake swarms in this area known to go on for several weeks. This earthquake swarm might go on for a while even if it drops down in activity every few hours.

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Today (27-March 2020) an earthquake swarm took place this morning east of the village of Kópasker. This earthquake swarm seems to be mostly over now at the writing of this article. Largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,1. Other earthquakes were smaller in magnitude.

Earthquake activity west of Kópasker village (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This are normal tectonic earthquakes and don’t have any magma activity connected to them. This area of Tjörnes Fracture Zone has been seeing activity in recent months.

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Today (21-October-2019) at 12:25 UTC the earthquake swarm at Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ) seems to have stopped rather quickly. Why that is I don’t know since this is unusual end to a large earthquake swarm. Close to 500 earthquakes were recorded in this earthquake swarm.

The earthquake swarm as of this evening. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquakes in this earthquake swarm had a magnitudes of 3,5 / 3,2 and 3,1. Other earthquakes were smaller in magnitude. There are reports of the largest earthquakes being felt in Húsavík village according to the news in Iceland. The end of this earthquake swarm does not mean activity is over in this area. This earthquake activity was tectonic in nature and no signs of magma being the reason for this earthquake activity.

Early this morning (27-July-2019) a new earthquake swarm started north of Siglufjörður village. This earthquake swarm is in a different location than the magnitude Mw4,3 earthquake took place on 24-July-2019. This earthquake swarm is slightly more north of that location. That means this is a different fault that is creating this earthquake swarm. It is unclear if this is connected to the magnitude Mw4,3 earthquake that happened on 24-July-2019.

The earthquake swarm (green star) on Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The largest earthquakes at the writing of this article have the magnitude of Mw3,2. There is a lot suggesting that this earthquake swarm is ongoing as of writing of this article. Last earthquake to happen was at 20:07 UTC and had a magnitude of Mw2,7 (automatic). The risk of new earthquake swarms happening without warning and being bigger than what has happened so far remains high. The location of those earthquake swarm is going to be random and might be on land or out in the ocean. There is not any way to know were the next earthquake swarm is going to happen next.

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Yesterday (24-July-2019) at 23:40 UTC and 23:42 UTC a magnitude Mw3,3 and Mw3,6 earthquake took place on the TFZ about 39 km west of Grímsey island. The two largest earthquakes were followed by a swarm of smaller earthquakes. Largest of those earthquake had a magnitude of Mw2,5. This earthquakes were not felt due to distance from populated areas.

The earthquakes 39 km north-west of Grímsey island. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It is unclear if this earthquake activity is connected to the earthquake with the magnitude Mw4,3 that happened on 24-July-2019.

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Today (24-July-2019) at 00:55 UTC an earthquake with the magnitude of 4,3 took place 20 km north-north-west of Siglufjörður village. The magnitude of the earthquake was downgraded from Mw4,6 to Mw4,3. This earthquake was felt over a wide area and minor damage was reported in Siglufjörður village, it was just items fallen off shelf. Largest aftershock had a magnitude of 2,7. There have been no major aftershocks at the writing of this article. This area had a earthquake swarm in 2012 with at least one earthquake with magnitude of Mw5,6 and one with magnitude of Mw5,5.

The Mw4,3 earthquake close to Siglufjörður village (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The earthquake as it appeared on my geophone in Böðvarshólar. Copyright Jón Frímann Jónsson.

The vertical (Z) movement on my geophone. Copyright Jón Frímann Jónsson.

There is a chance that a earthquake activity is increasing in Tjörnes Fracture Zone overall. Since its been a while since it had a major earthquake activity. With that I mean earthquakes with magnitude above Mw6,0.

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Since yesterday (6-July-2019) there has been a ongoing earthquake swarm in south part of the Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ). The number of earthquakes recorded is close to 170 when this article is written. This number is going to go quickly outdated. Exact largest magnitude is not clear since automatic magnitude is not always correct.

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

At this location there is a volcano that erupted in the year 1868 for about a month (December 1867 to January 1868) according to historical documents. Global Volcanism Information can be found here. There are no sign of this earthquake activity being connected to a volcano activity. I don’t know if that is going to change.

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