Category: TFZ

Earthquake swarm started on TFZ on 27-July-2015. At the moment this earthquake swarm is minor with no earthquake reaching the magnitude of 3,0. That might change without warning.

The earthquake swarm on Tjörnes fracture zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Iceland Meteorological Office.

Largest earthquakes so far have reached the magnitude of 2,7, depth is typical of fracture zone earthquake swarm. I expect this earthquake swarm to continue for the next few days at least. There is a risk of larger earthquake in this area, since it does happen that one earthquake swarm starts a new one on a nearby faults. TFZ is the fastest moving fracture zone in Iceland (see picture here).

Sudden plan changes: Due to rather unfortunate results of reality I won’t be moving back to Denmark next year. That is a great disappointment to me. There is however nothing that I can do while I am just on social welfare in Iceland. I don’t know for how long I am going to be living in Iceland, this might take few more years until I manage to move back to Denmark. The reason for this is the tax system and how it treats people on social welfare that move between the Nordic countries. This is due to complex treaties between Iceland and Denmark this did happen. There is nothing I can do about it while I am on social welfare. This means that my next mission is to stop being on social welfare and then move back to Denmark.

Böðvarshólar geophone station: Since I am not moving to Denmark in nearby future. I am going to restart the geophone station in Böðvarshólar. It should go on-line sometimes next weekend I hope. This means that I am going to be able to see earthquakes on TFZ mostly clearly and other nearby activity.

Since yesterday (27-April-2015) at least there has been earthquake swarm taking place in Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ). This earthquake swarm had a peak in activity during the night. Total of 64 earthquakes have been recorded so far, it is unclear of this earthquake swarm is over at this moment.

The earthquake swarm in TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquakes in this swarm had the magnitude of 2,8 and 2,9. Depth of the earthquakes in this swarm was around 13 km. This does look like a tectonic activity and there is nothing suggesting this is a earthquake swarm of volcanic origin. Earthquake activity in this part of Iceland is common.

Article updated at 13:58 UTC.
Article updated at 16:12 UTC.
Article updated at 16:15 UTC.

During the night and today there has been a minor earthquake swarm activity on the Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ). Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 3,1, so far 59 earthquakes have happened.

The earthquake swarm in TFZ for the last 48 hours. Green star shows the location of the magnitude 3,1 earthquake. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

TFZ is highly active area of Iceland in terms of earthquake activity. It has now been a while since major earthquake swarm took place in TFZ. Earthquakes in TFZ can go up to Mw7,0*.

* This is just a historical note that I am making here.

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Yesterday (26-April-2014) and today (27-April-2014) an minor earthquake swarm took place on TFZ not far from an island named Flatey. This was a small earthquake swarm and largest earthquakes had an magnitude around 2,0.

The minor earthquake swarm on TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is difficult to know if this earthquake activity is going to continue. Earthquake activity at this location is only tectonic based, this area of Iceland is volcano free.

Today (26-February-2014) at 08:06 and 08:12 UTC two earthquakes with the magnitude of 3,4 took place in TFZ. This earthquakes where felt in Ólafsfirði. This earthquake activity started on Monday and is continuing.

The two 3,4 magnitude earthquakes on TFZ. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

Historical and newest earthquake activity in this area of TFZ.Image is from here (Icelandic). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

The earthquake activity in TFZ is ongoing. I am expecting more earthquakes in this area as is. When they might take place is impossible to know as of now. It is possible to monitor for earthquake activity in TFZ here (and here, Icelandic Meteorologist Office website). Any earthquake larger then magnitude 2,0 is going to appear on here. The larger the earthquake, more clearly it is going to appear on my webicorders.

Today (24-February-2014) at 06:49 UTC an earthquake swarm started on TFZ. Largest earthquake in this swarm had the magnitude of 3,0. No other earthquake has so far been larger.

The earthquake swarm in TFZ. It is aligned in north-south direction. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It is possible to monitor for earthquakes here with 5 minute delay. The activity appears most clearly on Böðvarshólar and Bjarghús geophone stations. This appears to be an continued activity from the earthquake swarm that started back in October 2012. I am expecting more earthquakes in the area since I don’t expect this activity to be over yet. Quiet times between earthquake activity should be expected. For some unknown reason that is how this area behaves and it is not known why that is.

On 14-October-2013 (Monday) an earthquake swarm started in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. This earthquake swarm has so far just been a minor one, with the largest earthquake being magnitude 2,5. The earthquake swarm appears to be currently ongoing.

Earthquake swarm in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Meteorological Office.

It’s hard to know for sure if this earthquake swarm is going to continue, but this area of TFZ has seen earthquake activity over the past few months. So there is a chance of more earthquake activity in the next days to weeks even months in this area.

Blog post updated at 23:25 UTC on 15-October-2013.