More earthquakes should be expected on the Reykjanes

The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes has slowed down considerable since it did start yesterday. But it is still ongoing in my opinion. Even if there are no earthquakes currently taking place at the moment. There are several reasons for this. The biggest one is that this area seems to be getting more active now then it has been for many decades now. The fissure that is currently moving is connected to Krýsuvík volcano, but this was reported in the news. I do not know every fault line in this area and how they are connected (plus, my volcano map is in an box until I move back to Denmark) together. But I do know that

During the past 2 to 3 years the volcano Krísuvík has been showing more activity. With inflation and deflation episodes that lasts from few days to weeks at the time. Followed by an earthquake swarms both before and after each episode of activity. This activity seems to be increasing, at least that is my opinion on what is happening at the moment.

While this earthquake swarm is still ongoing. It might have long periods of no activity at all. This is common for faults that have not moved in an long time. As seems to be the case in Helgafell mountain and nearby area. But the fault lies close to that mountain or under it (I am not sure). But this started this year with an magnitude ML3.2 earthquake in this area earlier this year.

It is hard to know exactly when next episode of this activity is going to continue. But I am sure that it is going to be soon.

Earthquakes in north and south Iceland [Updated]

This evening has been busy in Iceland. There was an ML3.5 earthquake just outside an area called Gjögurtá (part of TFZ). Followed by an ML3.2 aftershock. Earthquake activity seems to have stopped there for the moment. This took place at 22:06 UTC on 29.02.2012. The largest earthquake was felt over an large area that was closest to its location.


The location of the earthquake in the TFZ. Copyright of this picture belongs to IMO.

At 00:29 UTC on 01.03.2012 there was an earthquake on the Reykjanes. It happened in an mountain called Helgafell. Early results suggest that this earthquake had the size of ML3.2. It was felt over an wide area in south Iceland. Aftershocks are currently taking place, and more large earthquakes in this area cannot be ruled out at the moment.


The earthquake location on the Reykjanes. Copyright of this picture belongs to IMO.

There is an chance for more earthquakes in Reykjanes. As earthquake swarms in this area of Iceland can often be tense and make many earthquakes that have magnitude 3.0 and stronger.

This earthquake activity appears clearly on my geophones in Iceland. They can be viewed here and are updated every 5 min.

Update 1: More strong earthquake activity is taking place on the Reykjanes at this moment. The largest earthquake so far is ML3.9 according to the automatic data from IMO.

Update 2: Here is the image from Iceland Met Office of the area where this earthquake activity is taking place.


The current earthquake activity on the Reykjanes. Copyright of this picture belongs to IMO.

Update 3: The size of the second earthquake has been upgraded to ML4.2. Some minor damage has already been reported according to new from Rúv.

Blog post updated at 01:14 UTC on 01.03.2012.
Blog post updated at 01:39 UTC on 01.03.2012.
Blog post updated at 01:52 UTC on 01.03.2012.

Icelandi News about the earthquake in north Iceland. All news are in Icelandic.

Jarðskjálfti upp á 3,5 út af Gjögurtá (mbl.is)
Snarpir skjálftar fyrir norðan (Vísir.is)
Skjálfti út af Eyjafirði (Rúv.is)

News about the earthquake on the Reykjanes. All news are in Icelandic.

Skjálftakippur á höfuðborgarsvæðinu (Rúv.is)
Jarðskjálfti fannst vel á höfuðborgarsvæðinu (Vísir.is)
Jarðskjálfti við Helgafell (mbl.is)