Category: Reykjanes Ridge

Today (18-January-2020) at 12:38 UTC an earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes ridge close to Eldeyjarboða island. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw4,0 according to Icelandic Met Office. Both USGS and EMSC are reporting this earthquake as a mb4,5 in automatic detection. Second largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,8.

Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge not far from Eldeyjarboða island. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude. This earthquake swarm appears to be over but it is possible that this is just a limited stop in earthquake activity before it starts again. That is a common feature of earthquake swarms in this area. Earthquake can reach magnitude of Mw5,5 in this area of Reykjanes ridge.

Update on 19-January-2020

Icelandic Met Office updated the earthquake magnitudes yesterday and it now shows two Mw4,5 earthquakes taken place at 14:07 UTC and 14:17 UTC and one Mw4,0 earthquake having taken place at 15:52 UTC.

Updated earthquake map of the earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge on 18-January-2020. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

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During the night (29-September-2019) a small swarm of earthquake took place not far from Eldeyjarboði on Reykjanes ridge. Largest earthquakes had the magnitude of Mw3,1 and Mw3,3. This earthquake swarm is far from Iceland and recording of this earthquake swarm is poor because due to distance from the SIL network.

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

This earthquake swarm seems to be over and no earthquakes have been recorded for the last few hours. Detection is smaller earthquakes is limited and that might be giving the wrong impressions about this activity.

During the night of 30-August-2019 an earthquake swarm took place on Reykjanes ridge. Close to 69 earthquakes took place and largest earthquake had a magnitude of 3,0. Other earthquakes were smaller in magnitude.

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

Earthquake swarms are common in this area. This might result in a bigger earthquake swarm later or a new one at nearby location, that is also happens sometimes in this part of the Reykjanes ridge. This earthquake activity doesn’t appear to be connected to any volcano activity.

On Saturday (13-July-2019) earthquake swarm started off the coast of Reykjanes peninsula on Reykjanes ridge. The earthquake swarm is located 2 – 4 km south-west of Geirfulgadrangur rock. It is unclear if this earthquake swarm is over. Largest earthquakes in this swarm had a magnitude 3,1. Other earthquakes had smaller magnitude.

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

Activity in this area has the pattern of stopping and then starting again few hours to week later. This might result in stronger earthquake swarm next time this activity starts up again. There is a volcano in this area that last erupted in 18th or 19th of century. This volcano is not listed in Global Volcanism Program I think. I do not think this earthquake activity is volcano related but that is difficult to know fore sure due to how remote this area is and poorly known as such.

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Today (10-March-2019) strong earthquake swarm started deep on the Reykjanes ridge. The distance from Reykjavík is around 840 km. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw5,8 (EMSC information here). Only three earthquakes where detected and all of them where large than magnitude 5,0. There is a good chance this earthquake swarm is currently ongoing. It is not possible to know if an eruption is happening this far from the coastline. Depth at this location is 3 to 6 km. There is a good chance more earthquake are going to appear on this location in next few hours to days because of the large Mw5,8 earthquake.

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During the week there has been a small earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge, mostly close to the coastline. The first earthquake swarm is closer to the coastline and largest earthquake so far had a magnitude of 3,0 at 14:31 UTC just 7,6 km off Eldey Island (its more of a rock standing up from the ocean). The second earthquake swarm had a magnitude 3,0 earthquake at 04:32 UTC and was 17,5 km away from Geirfugladrangi (also a rock that just stands up from the ocean). All other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude.

Two earthquake swarms on the Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Both earthquake swarms appear to be ongoing when this article is written.

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