Category: Reykjanes Ridge

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Minor earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge

Yesterday (29-January-2015) a minor earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes Ridge. Total number of earthquakes was something around twenty or close to it.

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquakes in this swarm had magnitude of 3,2 and the second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 3,0. More earthquakes like this can possibly happen in next few days to weeks. This area often has high amount of earthquake activity.

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Minor earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge

Today (16-December-2014) there was a minor earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge. Only one earthquake had the magnitude of 2,9. Other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

It appears that this earthquake swarm is over for now. It might start again in next few hours to days, such activity is not uncommon on this part of the Reykjanes ridge.

Notice on updates: I had planned on starting regular updates today. That won’t happen due to bad weather preventing me getting a computer table that I need. I don’t know how long the delay is going to be since there is heavy snow in Iceland at the moment.

Article updated at 15:27 UTC.

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Minor earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge yesterday (04-November-2014)

Yesterday (04-November-2014) an minor earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes ridge. Around four earthquakes where recorded.

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge on 04-November-2014. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is the same location that had a minor earthquakes swarm on 27-October-2014 that I wrote about here. Largest earthquake had the magnitude of 3,3, other earthquakes had smaller magnitudes.

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Minor earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge

Last night (27-October-2014) a minor earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes Ridge. Around 10 earthquakes where recorded and the largest one had the magnitude of 3,7.

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

No further earthquake activity has been detected today besides this earthquake activity around midnight. This does not rule out future activity, since earthquake swarms are common on the Reykjanes Ridge and they often can get big and last for few days to week when they happen.

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Powerful earthquake activity deep on the Reykjanes ridge

During the weekend there was an earthquake activity deep on the Reykjanes ridge. Largest earthquake in the swarm had the magnitude of 5,5 (EMSC information here). Second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 5,4 (EMSC information can be found here), the smallest detected earthquake had the magnitude of 4,6 (EMSC information can be found here).

This activity took place some 1000 km away from Iceland closest point. For that reason it is impossible to know what is happening at this location. It might an eruption that nobody is going to see or notice, or this might just be a earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge, such activity is common along the Reykjanes ridge and happens regularly.

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New study finds signs of new eruptions deep on the Reykjanes Ridge

In the Icelandic news today there is a article about new study on the deep Reykjanes Ridge. According to that that study an eruption took place deep on the Reykjanes Ridge sometimes in the past 20 years. Following this eruption a sharp and strong earthquake activity took place at this same location. No signs of this eruption where visible on the surface of the ocean. At this location the depth is around 2 to 3 km. The unnamed volcano is at around the location at 61N degree north, this makes the location around 400 to 500 km from land. The study did compare scans of the ocean floor at this location taken in the year 1994 to new ones taken in the year 2013. This newer scans clearly showed that eruptions had taken place in the time period between those scans of the ocean floor. It is not known when this eruptions took place or how large they where, or for how long they lasted. There have been earthquakes swarms at this location in the past 20 years. I don’t know if that is a sign of new eruptions at this location. It is also extremely difficult to confirm any new eruptions at this location if such event took place after last scientific study into this area.

More information in Icelandic

Sjá merki um eld­gos á Reykja­nes­hryggn­um (mbl.is, map of volcano, Icelandic)
Áður óþekkt eldgos á Reykjaneshrygg (Rúv.is, Icelandic)

Updated at 14:48 UTC.
Updated at 15:09 UTC.
Updated at 15:11 UTC.

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Magnitude 3,8 earthquake on the Reykjanes Ridge [Updated]

Today (11-May-2014) at 01:57 UTC a magnitude 3,6 earthquake took place in the Reykjanes volcano on the Reykjanes ridge. Depth of this earthquake was 11,6 km and there have not been any reports that this earthquake was felt.

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The magnitude 3,6 earthquake is the green star closest to land on this map. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

There has been constant earthquake activity in this part of the Reykjanes ridge for the past two weeks (about 17 days so far). This activity has however remained minimal with few earthquakes reaching the magnitude above 2,0. There has been increase and decrease in the during this time as expected. I reported an earthquake swarm in this area on 27-April-2014, on 13-April-2014 an minor earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes ridge (no earthquakes above 3,0), I wrote about it here.

Other dates of earthquake activity in this area are 4-April-2014 as can be seen here. There seems to have been close to continues earthquake activity on the Reykjanes ridge during the month of April and May. I am not sure why that it is, but this might be related to magma movements in this area, so far there is nothing to suggest an eruption is going to take place in this area. I expect earthquake activity to continue in this part of the Reykjanes ridge. All larger earthquakes are going to appear clearly on my geophone network, its website can be found here.

Update 1: New magnitude has been issued for the earthquake on the Reykjanes ridge that took place yesterday (11-May-2014). The new magnitude is 3,8 with the depth of 11,5 km. Two magnitude 3,1 earthquake also took place at the same time (01:55 and 01:59 UTC) at the same location.

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The green stars show the magnitude 3,8 earthquake, along with the magnitude 3,1 earthquakes at the same location. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

New earthquake activity has taken place at Reykjanes ridge today, so far no earthquake has the magnitude above 3,0 according to automatic results from Icelandic Meteorological Office. I am expecting more earthquake activity to take place at this location. Earthquake activity at this location is not continuous and has short and long breaks in them. Earthquakes larger than magnitude 2,5 appear clearly on my webicorders and can be viewed here.

Updated at 17:19 UTC.

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Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge

The earthquake swarm that has been taking place on the Reykjanes Ridge for the past few days did increase today (09-May-2014). The largest earthquake had the magnitude of 3,6 with the depth of 15,6 km. So far around 70 earthquakes have been recorded in this area. The earthquake swarm is taking place in area considerable distance from land and next populated area, so it might not be felt at all.

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge. Green star marks the magnitude 3,6 earthquake. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

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The magnitude 3,6 earthquake on the Reykjanes Ridge as it did appear on my Heklubyggð geophone. This image is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see CC Licence page for more details.

It is difficult to know for sure what is taking place on the Reykjanes Ridge. There are clues this might be due to magma movement at depth, possibly dike intrusion. So far there are no signs of eruption taking place at this location at current point in time. It is possible to see any earthquake that takes place (at least large one) here on my webicorder website. It is also possible to see earthquake activity in Iceland at Icelandic Meteorological Office website.

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New earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge

Yesterday (26-April-2014) and today (27-April-2014) an earthquake swarm started on the Reykjanes Ridge (no GVP profile) in a submarine volcano south of Reykjanes volcano (I wrote about it few days ago here). This earthquake swarm was at the same location as an earthquake swarm that took place there on 13-April-2014 and I wrote about it here. There are clues pointing towards that magma might have been the reason for the earthquake swarm on the 13-April-2014. It has not been confirmed due to remote location of this volcano, observations are also limited due to depth of the ocean at this location (about 1 to 2 km depth is at this location).

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Its difficult to know what is happening. Currently the earthquake swarm has continued, but with it stops for shorter or longer period of time at current time. I do not know why that is. So far everything has been quiet tremor wise on the closest SIL stations to this location. The closest SIL stations are some 35 to 45 km distance. I expect more earthquake activity to take place at this location in next few days to weeks. It is impossible to know if an eruption is going to take place out there in the ocean at current time.

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Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge

Yesterday (23-April-2014) an earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes Ridge (GVP link here). The largest earthquake had the magnitude of 3,4 with the depth of 9,3 km. Earthquake swarm started following the magnitude 3,4 earthquake. It lasted for a two hour period and some 28 earthquakes took place during that time. The largest earthquake was felt in nearby towns and in Reykjavík (location dependent).

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

There is a possibility of more earthquake activity in this area during the next few days to weeks. Since activity in this place often starts slowly and builds up over an long period of time when it peaks and than drops off slowly, sometimes the drop off in earthquake activity is sharp. There are no signs that suggest this earthquake swarm was connected to magma movement in this volcano.