Category: Reykjanes

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Magnitude 3,5 earthquake on the Reykjanes peninsula

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Today (7-January-2014) at 12:11 UTC an magnitude 3,5 earthquake took place on the Reykjanes Peninsula. This earthquake was part of an swarm that has been taking place in this area of Reykjanes peninsula for past two weeks.

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

I am not sure how this earthquake swarm is going to evolve, but there is a risk of more earthquakes in this area. But most of them are going to be minor, or less then 3,0 in magnitude.

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Minor earthquake swarm on Reykjanes peninsula

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Yesterday (31-December-2013) an earthquake swarm took place on Reykjanes peninsula. This was an minor earthquake swarm with largest earthquakes having the magnitude of 2,5. The depth of this earthquake swarm was around 5 km.

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

This earthquake swarm took place close to a mountain named Fagradalsfjall. I do not know (or remember) if this a cinder cone or some other type of volcano in this area. More details of this earthquake can be found here on Icelandic Meteorological Office website.

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New earthquake swarm on Reykjanes peninsula and Reykjanes ridge

Today (15-October-2013) at 01:43 UTC a new earthquake swarm started on Reykjanes peninsula and Reykjanes ridge. So far the largest earthquake has the magnitude of 2,5. At the moment no larger earthquakes have taken place. This earthquake swarm is currently ongoing, but the rate of earthquakes has dropped over the day and is currently low.

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

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge. It’s just off the coast. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This area of the Reykjanes has been seeing a lot of activity in recent days and its possible that more earthquake activity is going to take place at this location in next few days to months.

Blog post updated at 21:42 UTC.

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Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes peninsula

Today at 01:11 UTC (13-October-2013) an earthquake swarm started on the Reykjanes peninsula. Early in this earthquake it was just minor earthquakes until 07:34 UTC an earthquake with magnitude 4,8 took place on the Reykjanes peninsula. Before the strongest earthquake took place, an magnitude 3,4 and 3,5 took place. Several earthquakes with magnitude above 3,0 took place following the main earthquake. The strongest earthquake was felt over an wide area, from Vík í Mýrdal to Hólmavík in north-west Iceland. Far as I know no damage did take place following this earthquake.

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The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes peninsula. Green stars mark earthquakes with magnitude above 3,0. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

This earthquake did appear clearly on all of my geophone stations in Iceland. They can be viewed here.

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The magnitude 4,8 earthquake on the Eyrarbakki geophone station. The earthquake signal is strongest on this geophone station and clearly tops the sensor it self, it can be seen how the signal goes above the maximum line on the geophone image. This image is released under Creative Commons licence. Please see CC Licence page for more details on this licence.

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The magnitude 4,8 earthquake at Heklubyggð geophone station. This image is released under Creative Commons licence. Please see CC Licence page for more details on this licence.

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The magnitude 4,8 earthquake at Böðvarshólar geophone station. This image is released under Creative Commons licence. Please see CC Licence page for more details on this licence.

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The magnitude 4,8 earthquake at Skeiðflöt geophone station. The earthquake did appear clearly even if the noise level is high on that station. This image is released under Creative Commons licence. Please see CC Licence page for more details on this licence.

It is impossible to know for sure if this earthquake swarm is going to increase again. For the past few hours activity has been dropping, there is however nothing that says activity is not going to increase again. Such activity is common in this area, but it’s impossible to know for sure what happens next. At the moment there is nothing to suggest that volcano activity is the source of this activity. That might change but I think it is unlikely to be the case at the moment, regardless of what the future has in store.

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Magnitude 3.1 earthquake on the Reykjanes peninsula

At 00:41 UTC on 25.01.2013 an magnitude 3.1 earthquake did take place on Reykjanes peninsula. This earthquake was felt in Reykjavík, Hafnarfjörður and few other nearby populated areas. Two aftershocks did follow this earthquake. Both had the magnitude 1.5. It is impossible to know if this earthquake activity is going to start an earthquake swarm in this area. Sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn’t.


The green star marks the location of the magnitude 3.1 earthquake. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

No further earthquake activity has so far taken place in this area during the past two to three hours. This earthquake activity does not appear to be volcano related. But this is normal tectonic movements of the rift zone that makes up Reykjanes peninsula.

Icelandic news about this earthquake. Please use Google translate and hope for the best.

All snarpur skjálfti á Reykjanesskaga (Rúv.is)
Jarðskjálfti fannst á höfuðborgarsvæði (mbl.is)
Jarðskjálfti við Keili (Vísir.is)

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Earthquake swarms in Brennisteinsfjöll volcano and TFZ

Over the past few days there has been continued earthquake activity in Breinnisteinsfjöll volcano. The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of ML2.5. It is possible that this earthquake swarms have there orgin in SISZ. Rather then Breinnisteinsfjöll volcano. But at current time is hard to be sure on this detail.


Earthquake activity in Breinnisteinsfjöll volcano during the past few days. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Tjörnes Fracture Zone

Earthquake activity has also been taking place east of Grímsey Island. This earthquake activity has mostly been small. But this are earthquake swarm did not have any earthquake that was above 3.0 in magnitude.


Earthquake swarm on TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of ML2.8. More earthquake activity should be expected in this area. As this is one of most active areas in Iceland when it comes to earthquake swarm.

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Ongoing earthquake swarm in Breinnisteinsfjöll volcano / SISZ

Since yesterday (02.09.2012) there has been ongoing earthquake swarm in Breinnisteinsfjöll volcano / SISZ (south iceland seismic zone). It is impossible to know how this earthquake swarm is going to proceed. But from what I can tell. It does not seem like it is going to be over any time soon. It is also an possibility that current earthquake swarm is part of an larger stress change in the area. But for now it is too early to know for sure what it means in the long term. Current earthquake activity is ongoing. With almost no breaks or stops. Most earthquakes have the magnitude of 0.1 and up to 2.0. But no larger earthquakes have been detected so far. The first earthquake in this earthquake swarm had the magnitude of ML4.4. Depth of this earthquakes is from 3 to 7 km (in that range).


The earthquake activity in Breinnisteinsfjöll volcano. The earthquakes align them self on an fault line that almost directly north-south direction. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is impossible to know what is going to happen next in this earthquake swarm. But strong earthquake should not be ruled out for now. This might also activate nearby fault lines if the activity intensifies. As that sometimes happens in Iceland. Whatever happens next in this area. It is worth keeping an eye on the progress of this earthquake swarm.

Icelandic news about this earthquake swarm

Enn skelfur undir Bláfjöllum (mbl.is)
Enn skelfur í Bláfjöllum (Rúv.is)

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Magnitude 3.2 earthquake on the Reykjanes peninsula

Today (01.09.2012) at 16:33 UTC there was an earthquake with the magnitude of ML3.2. The depth was 7.6 km. Following this earthquake there was an swarm of smaller earthquakes following the first earthquake. None of those have been above magnitude 2.0. The earthquake took place in the Reykjanes volcano most likely. But it appears tectonic in nature. Rather then volcanic.


The magnitude ML3.2 earthquake on the Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is hard to know for sure if this activity is going to continue. But since this earthquakes. Activity in this area has stopped. But it might resume at later time.

Icelandic news about this earthquake

Jarðskjálfti á Reykjanesskaga (Rúv.is)
3,2 stiga skjálfti við Grindavík (mbl.is)

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Earthquake in Brennisteinsfjöll volcano / SISZ earthquake zone

Today (30.08.2012) at 11:59 UTC there was an earthquake with the magnitude of ML3.8 (4.2Mw) in Brennisteinsfjöll volcano / SISZ. But SISZ overlaps this area to some extend. So large earthquakes do happen in this area of Iceland on regular basis. This earthquake was felt in Reykjavík area, south Iceland and some part of western Iceland.


The earthquake location and the following aftershocks. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

In around 30 aftershocks have been detected in the area. More aftershock activity in this area cannot be ruled out. This earthquake did appear clearly on my geophones all over Iceland.


The earthquake at Eyrarbakki geophone station. This geophone is the closest to the earthquake. The most movement in this earthquake was on an N-S and E-W fault according to my geophones. This picture is released under CC Licence. See licence page for more details.


This is the earthquake as it was recorded on Heklubyggð geophone. It is the second closest geophone station to this earthquake. This picture is released under CC Licence. See licence page for more details.


Here is the earthquake as it did appear on Skeiðflöt geophone. This picture is released under CC Licence. See licence page for more details.


Here is the earthquake as it did appear on Hvammstangi geophone. This picture is released under CC Licence. See licence page for more details.

It is impossible to know for sure what this earthquake activity means. But earthquake activity in this area of Brennisteinsfjöll volcano did stop around 15:49 UTC. No aftershocks did go above 2.0 in magnitude. More earthquakes in this area should not be ruled out in the next few days to weeks.

Icelandic News about this earthquake

Alltaf von á eftirskjálftum (Rúv.is)
Skjálftinn á enda stórs misgengis (Rúv.is)
Verra ef safnið hefði skemmst (Rúv.is)
Skjálftinn hápunktur – ekki fyrirboði (Rúv.is)
Jörð skalf í dag (Rúv.is. Afternoon radio show about this earthquake in Icelandic)
Jarðskjálftasvæðið undir smásjá sérfræðinga (Vísir.is)
Má búast við nokkrum eftirskjálftum (Vísir.is)
Fólk hljóp á dyr í Litlu Kaffistofunni (Vísir.is)
Jarðskjálftinn var 4,6 stig (Vísir.is)
Á þriðja tug eftirskjálfta hefur mælst (mbl.is)
Jarðskjálfti upp á 4,6 stig (mbl.is)
Snarpur jarðskjálfti á höfuðborgarsvæðinu – Stærsti skjálftinn í 3 ár (Pressan.is)
Jarðskjálftafræðingur: Ekki búið að losa um neina spennu að ráði (Pressan.is)

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Deflation stops in Krýsuvík volcano

According to Rúv News today. Deflation has stopped in Krýsuvík volcano. But this is the latest chapter in inflation and deflation episodes that have been taking place in Krýsuvík volcano during the past three years. It is unclear what happens next in Krýsuvík volcano. But an new inflation episode should not be ruled out at this point.

Lat inflation episode started earlier this year (2012) and stopped in May. Then an deflation episode started. It stopped sometimes in August 2012. It is impossible to know for sure when an new inflation episode starts in Krýsuvík volcano. But it is my opinion that is going to be soon. But how soon exactly is impossible to know. Inflation episodes in Krýsuvík volcano have been followed by strong earthquakes swarms. So that are the signs of an inflation period having started in Krýsuvík volcano.

Icelandic news about this

Landsigið er hætt í Krýsuvík (Rúv.is)