Category: Tjörnes Fracture Zone

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Ongoing earthquake swarm in Tjörnes fracture zone (TFZ)

Currently there is an ongoing earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. This earthquake swarm has been going on since 05-October-2017. Over 120 earthquakes have happened so far. Largest earthquakes have had the magnitude of 3,9 (05-October), 3,5 (06-October), 3,0 (06-October). There is a good chance that in recent hours a new magnitude 3,0 earthquake has happened or is going to happen.


The earthquake swarm in TFZ as of 23:15 UTC on 06-October-2017. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The largest earthquake are felt by the local population in Grímsey Island and the magnitude 3,5 earthquake woke up the population last night (night of 06-October). No damage has happened so far in this earthquake swarm. I don’t know how far away from the population centre this earthquake swarm is happening but the distance is not that great. A 1 – 3 km at the most from the looks of it. Any large earthquakes are going to appear clearly on my geophones and they can be viewed here, the geophone station in Böðvarshólar gives the best signal if an earthquake with magnitude above 3,0 happens in TFZ.

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Article updated at 23:53 UTC. Minor text fixes.

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Earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone (east of Grímsey Island)

Yesterday (01-October-2017) an earthquake swarm took place in Tjörnes Fracture Zone east of Grímesy Island. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 2,6 all other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.


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

Around 55 earthquakes happened in this swarm that appears to be over. This part of Tjörnes Fracture Zone is highly active and has several earthquake swarm every year.

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Ongoing earthquake activity north-east of Flatey in Skjálfanda fjord (north-east Iceland)

Earthquake activity that started in March 2017 in TFZ (Tjörnes Fracture Zone) is ongoing. I don’t know yet how many earthquakes have happened so far, but at last check Icelandic Met Office reported that the mark was at 800 and that was more then a month ago. The fluid that is pressuring up at this location between fault lines is most likely a magma in my view. If that results in a eruption is harder to say, at the moment the magma seems to be stuck at 10 km depth (in or around that depth).


The current earthquake at Flatey in Skjálfanda fjord. The location is where the yellow and orange dots mix (slightly east of Eyjafjörður fjord). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The earthquake activity at this location continues with little signs of stopping. What is also interesting is the fact the magma doesn’t seems to be making any progress up the crust at the moment. With fault line already in place the path to the surface is almost direct in this area if nothing is preventing the magma from moving upwards (impossible to know). At the moment this earthquake activity is limited to minor earthquakes and this magma seems to be lacking pressure to reach the surface at the moment. At this location there are no known volcanoes.

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Earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone east of Grímsey island

Today (09-June-2017) there has been a earthquake swarm in Tjörnes Fracture Zone east of Grimsey island. This was fairly large earthquake swarm in number of earthquakes that happened. Largest magnitude that happened was 2,2 and second largest was 2,1. All other earthquakes where smaller and I think around 40 earthquakes happened in this earthquake swarm.


The earthquake swarm east of Grímsey island on TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It seems that this earthquake swarm is over, at least for now. This area of Tjörnes Fracture Zone has been showing increasing earthquake activity over the last few weeks. It is difficult to know if that keeps up as it has been doing.

The earthquake swarm off Flatey island is now entering its fifth or six week. There are no signs of that earthquake activity quieting down for now at least.

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Earthquake activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ)

For the past month (or so) there has been a constant earthquake activity close to Flatey island on the Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ). This earthquake swarm has not been strong, with majority of the earthquakes only having the magnitude of 0,0 – 2,5 and only one or two earthquakes with magnitude 2,8 – 3,0. While this earthquake swarm might not be a risk, it might suggest that something is about to give in this area.


The earthquake activity in TFZ as it is today. The activity close to Flatey island is clearly visible. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Other areas of TFZ have also been having minor earthquake swarms. I don’t think they are connected to this activity near Flatey island. None of those earthquake swarm have been big in both number of earthquakes and magnitude. TFZ is Iceland most active earthquake area with hundreds of earthquakes taking place each year. What is unusual now is the earthquake activity close to Flatey island, but this is not the first time this type of earthquake swarm happens in TFZ. Normally this type of earthquake swarm slowly die out without anything major happening.

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Please remember to support my work. I haven’t written many articles here in recent days due to lack of activity in Iceland. That lack of activity was both quiet times and due to bad weather taking place in Iceland (wind did go up to 45 – 50m/s). Thanks for the support. 🙂