Yesterday (12-October-2021) an earthquake swarm took place in Reykjanes volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw3,3 and the earthquake swarm was out in the ocean not far from the coastline.
Earthquake activity out in the ocean on Reykjanes ridge. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
It is impossible to know for sure if this earthquake activity is directly connected to magma movements in this area. It is possible, but there have been some sign of magma moving in the crust in this area. The magma is moving but is not erupting or starting an eruption. Earthquake activity seems to be growing in this area of Reykjanes peninsula and Reykjanes ridge after the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain stopped.
During the night and today on 5-Augustu-2021 an earthquake swarm took place in the Reykjanes volcano.
Earthquake activity in Reykjanes volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw3,0 and other earthquakes at the writing of this article have been smaller. That can change without warning. Currently there is a possibly that this earthquake swarm is over.
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Early morning of 11-July-2021 an earthquake swarm took place north of Grindavík town. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw2,5. Most of the other earthquakes had a magnitude of Mw0,0 to Mw1,0. There was also an earthquake swarm on Reykjanestá area that is part of Reykjanes volcano.
Earthquake activity on Reykjanes peninsula in Reykjanes volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
It is difficult to know for sure what this earthquake activity means for this volcano. Since it has already been proven that eruption activity can start on Reykjanes peninsula without any warning or earthquake activity. Currently there are no clear indicators that suggest anything is about to happen but that can change without warning.
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Yesterday (20-April-2021) at 23:05 UTC an earthquake with magnitude Mw4,1 took place and was felt over a wide area and in Reykjavík. At 21:20 UTC and earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,1 took place and at 23:29 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,2 took place. Earthquake activity has continued today with smaller earthquakes and several earthquakes with magnitude above Mw2,0.
Earthquake activity in Reykjanes volcano not far from Grindavík town.
This earthquake took place in the volcano Reykjanes based on location on the map. The map is slight unclear on the location of the Reykjanes volcano and what volcano is exactly there but this is based on best possible assumption that I can do. More earthquake activity in this area or close to it is a high possibility.
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At 04:30 this morning (19-March-2021) an earthquake swarm started just off the coast of Reykjanestá. This activity looks tectonic in nature for now but it is highly focused in one location. This earthquake activity did start on 24-February-2021 when the Mw5,7 earthquake happened. This activity was only going on for short period of time on 24-February-2021 before it stopped until now.
Earthquake activity in Reykjanes volcano off the coast of Reykjanestá in the far left corner of this image. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Largest earthquakes in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw3,7 but in total of 10 earthquakes with magnitude above 3 took place in this earthquake swarm. Around 100 earthquakes where recorded at the writing of this article but after 06:00 this earthquake swarm slowed down from its peak activity around 05:50. This earthquake swarm might increase again without warning.
New measurements of the situation in Fagradalsfjall volcano show that the dyke intrusion continues to grow and as at its shallowest point at 1 km depth. Possible eruption is expected at the south end of the dyke intrusion (closest to Fagradalsfjall mountain). Earthquakes are going to happen at the south-west end of the dyke and north-east of the dyke because of the inflation the magma is creating in the area.
The earthquake areas at the ends of the dyke intrusion, shown in gray areas on this map. The dyke is shown within the line with dot lines. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
There are going to be quiet times between high period of activity according to the news about this activity. There is also ongoing risk of a earthquake with magnitude of Mw6,5 in Brennisteinsfjöll volcano and according to Icelandic Met Office that risk has not been reduced in recent days. Outside of the Fagradalsfjall volcano magma dyke, no magma movement has been detected in Reykjanes (Svartsengi?) volcano and in Krýsuvík volcano.
Fagradalsfjall volcano has not erupted since Pleistocene. When last eruption took place is not listed or not known. This the first magma movement in Fagradalsfjall volcano in 11700 years.
*This might also be a different volcano known as Svartsengi (no Global Volcanism Profile). There is no agreements between maps on this detail for now. Reykjanes volcano might only extend into Reykjanestá and then is mostly under ocean and might not extend into Reykjanes peninsula as sometimes is shown on maps.
Krýsuvík volcano has quieted down a little in the last 24 hours. Eruption risk is lower for now in that volcano.
Largest number of earthquakes detected in one day was over 3000 earthquakes.
In the last 24 hours 12 earthquakes with magnitude above Mw3,0 have happened. Most of them are felt in nearby populated areas.
No harmonic tremor has been detected since it ended during the night on 4-March-2021.
During the last 48 hours over 3300 earthquakes have been recorded by Icelandic Met Office.
New! Magma is now estimated to be at 5 to 6 km depth but might be as shallow as 2 km depth.
Heavy earthquake activity on Reykjanes peninsula in three volcanoes. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Maps of possible eruption areas has been made by Earth science department of University of Iceland and can be found here. University of Iceland Earth science department also made a lava flow prediction can that map can be found here. Both maps are updated daily on Facebook.
Cameras and links might go offline without warning.
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Article updated at 16:53 UTC. Article updated at 21:13 UTC.
Fagradalsfjall volcano has no document eruption history over the last 10.000 years and the main volcano location is unknown if it exists.
Updates from the last few hours
Small rift valley has started to form between Keili mountain and Fagradalsfjall mountain. This is part of the rift zone that is Reykjanes peninsula.
Harmonic tremor stopped this morning and as Icelandic Met Office has been telling the news the origins of this harmonic tremor was earthquake activity that was so dense it created this harmonic activity. In the morning the activity dropped a little.
Magma continues to move in the Fagradalsfjall volcano system.
Earthquake activity is now between the volcanoes Reykjanes, Fagradalsfjalls and Krýsuvík. Why that is unclear but magma movement for now is only in Fagrdalsfjall volcano system.
Largest earthquake in last 24 hours had a magnitude of Mw4,5. Over the last 48 hours total of 72 earthquakes with magnitude over Mw3,0 have taken place. There is no sign of activity slowing down.
Heavy earthquake activity on Reykjanes peninsula in several volcanoes. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
It is currently impossible to know for sure what happens next since this situation is extremely complicated because of all the volcanoes interactions and earthquake activity.
This is a short update on activity in Reykjanes and Krýsuvík volcanoes.
There has not been a lot of change in the earthquake activity in Reykjanes volcano. There has been a slight increase in earthquake activity compared to yesterday (28-Febrary-2021) but that increase is not a lot and only from 800 earthquakes to 1000 earthquakes for a 12 hour time period according to the news. Largest earthquake in last 24 hours had a magnitude of Mw4,9 and was felt over a wide area in West Iceland and was clearly felt in Reykjanes area.
The earthquake activity on Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
There have now been two earthquakes outside Reykjanestá out in the ocean. A swarm of earthquakes started to appear at that location few hours ago. It is unclear what this earthquake activity means for now. This earthquake activity is something that needs to be watched since it seems to be connected for some unknown reason to the main earthquake activity on Reykjanes peninsula.
Update at 16:57 UTC
The newest earthquake has the magnitude of Mw5,1 at 16:35 UTC. This earthquake was felt over a wide area in western Iceland and all over Reykjanes peninsula.
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Article updated at 16:58 UTC.
Article updated at 23:35 UTC.
I have now switched to daily update for the earthquake swarm in Reykjanes and Krýsuvík volcanoes.
The situation in the earthquake swarm on Reykjanes peninsula in the volcanoes Reykjanes and Krýsuvík remains the same. During the last 24 hours the largest earthquakes have had magnitude of Mw4,7 and a lot of earthquakes with magnitudes above M3,0. No magma movement has been detected so far but University of Iceland – Earth science department warned that detection of magma is only limited to the first 5 km of Earth crust and any magma movement below 5 km might not be detected by seismometer. It also issued that signs of magma might be getting lost in all this earthquake activity that is currently taking place and no clear sign of magma have been detected. The whole thing can be read on Facebook here. Text in English is provided by Eldfjallafræði og náttúruvárhópur Háskóla Íslands about this.
Current earthquake activity on Reykjanes peninsula. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Some of the earthquake activity has migrated closer to the mountain Keilir. Other earthquake activity appears to be located at the same place as before. That location is close to Fagradalsfjall mountain and Krýsuvík volcano. If that changes anything when it comes to this earthquake activity I don’t know but the risk is there. Icelandic Met Office is now hoping that the earthquake swarm ends next week.
If anything major happens I’ll post new article soon as possible.
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