Earthquake activity has been increasing on Reykjanes peninsula as inflation continues after the end of the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain. New eruption can start on Reykjanes peninsula without much warning in Fargardalsfjall mountain. The current activity is now north-west of Grindavík town in a volcano named Reykjanes.
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Earthquake activity north of Grindavík town
Yesterday (14-February-2022) at 17:27 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,0 took place north of Grindavík town. This earthquake is in Reykjanes volcano, but might also be part of inflation related earthquakes that happen because of inflation in Fagradalsfjall volcano.
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Strong earthquake activity in Katla volcano
At 19:10 UTC today (02-February-2022) an strong earthquake swarm started in Katla volcano. Strongest earthquakes so far had a magnitude of Mw4,0 (19:10 UTC) and Mw3,4 (19:44 UTC).
At the writing of this article it is unclear if this is going to result in an eruption. The chances are good, but this activity might still slow down and stop before any eruption, small or large happens in Katla volcano.
This article is going to be updated if needed or new article is going to be written if the situation changes enough from what it is now.
Strong earthquake close to Húsafell
Today (1-February-2022) at 00:05 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,7 took place close to Húsafell. This earthquake was felt in Reykjavík. This earthquake swarm is ongoing, it is slow moving and often stops A second earthquake with magnitude Mw3,0 took place at 01:15 UTC. During the last 48 hours a total of 107 earthquakes have happened in Húsafell area.
Largest known earthquake in this area has a magnitude of 5,5 in the year 1974. That is all I know about this earthquake, that earthquake was also slightly more north then current swarm. Why this earthquake activity is happening is unclear since there are not any known volcanoes in this area or earthquake faults. There is a low (as in degrees of hot water) hydrothermal area in this area and recent news articles have suggested that this earthquake activity might be connected to that area. That is at best speculation and nothing has been proved so far. The existence of this low hydrothermal area shows that magma is in the crust in this area at shallow depth and has been for a while. For hydrothermal area to form, both cracks in the crust needs to be open and magma needs to reach 1 to 2 km up in the crust to warm up ground water in the crust.
Earthquake swarm south of Grímsey island
During the night of 29-January-2022 an earthquake swarm started south of Grímsey island. This earthquake swarm is rather strong at the writing of this article.
Earthquake swarm south-west of Langjökull glacier
Since December 2021 an earthquake swarm has been ongoing south-west of Langjökull glacier. This area is not part of any known fault zone or any volcano. This is just tectonic earthquakes and is outside of main earthquake areas. This intra-plate earthquakes happens sometimes in Iceland. Why that is remains unknown, but best idea is this happens because of stress changes because of tectonic movement. Earthquake magnitude can go up to Mw5,5 or larger. But such events are extremely rare, but do happen.
This is the second earthquake with magnitude Mw3,3 in this area, with the earlier one happening on 18th January 2022. The hill this earthquake swarm is happening in is called Húsafell.
Felt earthquake on South Icelandic Seismic zone
During the night of 30-December-2021 at 04:16 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,0 was felt in Selfoss town and Hveragerði town. This earthquake was part of a swarm in the area that is ongoing at the writing of this article.
There are no volcanoes in this area so this is only a tectonic activity. It is not possible to know when this earthquake swarm ends. This might be a aftershock activity after the Mw6,3 earthquake in SISZ that took place in this location in the year 2008. I expect this earthquake swarm to continue to few more days to weeks and then just end quietly.
Earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano
Today (29-December-2021) at 14:46 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,6 (Icelandic Met Office) or magnitude of mb4,5 (EMSC website information here).
This earthquake activity is normal and is because of inflation that is now happening in Bárðarbunga volcano. Eruption is not going to happen now. It might be few more years or few more decades until that happens.
Strong earthquake activity in Fagradalsfjall mountain, Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano
This information is going to get outdated quickly.
There is now a constant earthquake swarm activity in Fagradalsfjall mountain, part of the Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano system. More than a dozen of earthquakes have been larger than magnitude 4,0 and it doesn’t look like this earthquake activity is doing to stop soon. Largest earthquakes in last few hours had a magnitude of Mw4,8 and Mw4,5. The earthquake north of Grindavík town appears to be a tension breaking earthquakes because of magma inflation in Fagradalsfjall mountain.
This earthquake swarm is close to Grindavík town, this is a similar situation that happened earlier in the year 2021. Just before the eruption in Fagradalsfjall mountain. This earthquake activity is going to continue to grow until an eruption starts. This earthquake activity also happens in a wave, resulting in it lower earthquake activity between powerful earthquake activity. I am expecting more strong earthquakes in next few days, unless an eruption starts in Fagradalsfjall mountain or nearby area.
Update on activity in Krýsuvík-Trölladyngja volcano in Fagradalsfjall mountain, eruption is going to happen soon
Information here are going to get outdated quickly.
The earthquake activity in Fagradalsfjall mountain continued on 22-December and on 23-December-2021. Largest earthquake in last few hours had a magnitude of Mw4,9 and was felt over a wide area. No property damage has yet happened because of this earthquake activity so far.
There are now three centres where the earthquake activity is happening. The first one is north of the large crater, the second one is under the main crater and the third one is in Nátthagakrika (about south-west of the large crater). This is the area where people used to walk up the eruption on walking paths A and B.
This earthquake activity is not going to stop until an eruption starts. When that happens is not possible to know. If a new crater opens up that is going to result in ever growing and stronger earthquakes. If the crater that is already in place starts erupting again, that is going to result in some earthquake activity. What is known is that the magma is going to go the path of least resistance, whatever that path might be. At the writing of this article, over 6000 earthquakes have been recorded and around 50 to 100 of them have been larger than magnitude 3,0.