Month: March 2019

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Update on the earthquake swarm on Tjörnes Fracture Zone

This is a update on the earthquake swarm on Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Information in this article might get outdated quickly.

The earthquake swarm is ongoing as of writing of this article, it has now been going for a week. Since Wednesday there haven’t been any earthquakes over magnitude 3,0. Largest earthquake have reached magnitude 2,9 in last 48 hours. Total number of earthquakes in last 48 hours is around 567.


The earthquake swarm west of Kópasker village. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake swarm has been slowly getting less intense and fewer earthquakes have been recorded since yesterday than the days before. It does not mean that this earthquake swarm is over. It might increase again if a large earthquake happens (magnitude 4,0+).

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Update on the earthquake swarm on Tjörnes Fracture Zone (west of Kópasker village)

Uncertainty level has been declared in the area close to Kópasker village due to this earthquake swarm. This is the lowest alert level in Iceland.

Since this earthquake swarm started on Saturday around 1800 earthquake have taken place according to Icelandic Met Office. Largest earthquakes in the last 24 hours have magnitude 3,8 and 3,0. This might change in next few hours since this earthquake swarm is ongoing.


The earthquake swarm (green stars) west of Kópasker. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake swarm has increased the risk of a magnitude 6,0 or larger earthquake in the Tjörnes Fracture Zone. This earthquake swarm is large for this part of the Tjörnes Fracture Zone.

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Magnitude 4,2 earthquake west of Kópasker village

At 20:29 UTC an magnitude 4,2 earthquake took place in the earthquake swarm west of Kópasker village. This has increased the earthquake swarm in this area. The magnitude 4,2 was followed by a magnitude 3,3 earthquake few seconds later.


Earthquake swarm west of Kópasker (green stars). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The earthquake swarm is currently ongoing and this information might change without warning.

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Two earthquake swarms in Tjörnes Fracture Zone (TFZ)

Over the last few days there has been small earthquake swarm activity in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. The activity has been in two locations, west of Kópasker village and east of Grímsey island (ongoing swarm). Both earthquake swarms are small for now and only few earthquakes larger than magnitude 2,0 have happened. Total number of earthquakes is around 146 for the whole Tjörnes Fracture Zone when this article is written.


Current earthquake activity on the Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

The earthquake swarm east of Grímsey island is not over as it has not yet peaked based on what I am seeing. It is more difficult to know about the earthquake swarm west of Kópasker village. As of writing of this article both earthquake swarms are ongoing.

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Update on the earthquake swarm east of Grímsey island in Nafir volcano

This is a short update on the earthquake swarm east of Grímsey island in the Nafir volcano (no Global Volcanism Program profile). Yesterday (19-March-2019) a magnitude 3,2 earthquake happened. Other earthquakes both before and after it are smaller in magnitude. In total over 200 earthquakes appear to have taken place in this earthquake swarm.


Earthquake activity yesterday (19-March-2019) in Nafir volcano. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Earthquake activity has currently stopped. Based on the pattern in the earthquake swarm last year this might not be over and this might be going on for weeks until a peak is reached in earthquake swarm activity. It is impossible to know for sure what happens next in this earthquake activity in this area.

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Earthquake swarm east of Grímsey island (Tjörnes Fracture Zone)

During the night of 18-March-2019 an earthquake swarm started east of Grímsey island in a volcano called Nafir (no Global Volcanism Program profile). The only GVP profile that exists is about the volcano south of this one (GVP profile can be found here). The volcano in this area doesn’t have any documented eruption history in recent 10.000+ years. This might be wrong due to lack of research. In 2018 there was a strong earthquake swarm in this area. Articles connected to that earthquake swarm can be read here. Top of the earthquake activity on 19th of February 2018 looked like this as I wrote in a article last year. Current earthquake activity suggests a repeat of last year activity, only time is going to show if this does happen, but clues are strong in that direction. Earthquake activity in this area is complex and this is a rift valley it is taking place in.


The earthquake swarm east of Grímsey island in Tjörnes Fracture Zone. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Largest earthquake so far has the magnitude of 3,3 and other earthquakes are smaller in magnitude. Currently around 55 earthquakes have been recorded. The earthquake swarm is ongoing even if current rate of earthquakes is low.

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Earthquake activity in Presthnjúkar volcano (south Langjökull glacier)

Yesterday (16-March-2019) an earthquake swarm took place in Presthnjúkar volcano (south-Langjökull) or a volcano connected to it (there is a chance this volcano does not have a Global Volcanism Program profile). This earthquake swarm has been slow moving and only around 21 earthquakes have taken place in this earthquake swarm.


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

Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of 3,0 and other earthquakes that took place were smaller in magnitude. It is unclear why this earthquake activity is taking place, there is a chance this is just a tectonic movement. Last eruption in this volcano took place more than 5000 years ago. It appears that this earthquake swarm is now over. There is always a possibility that new earthquake swarm is going to start at the same or close to this earthquake swarm location.

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Strong earthquake swarm deep on Reykjanes ridge

Today (10-March-2019) strong earthquake swarm started deep on the Reykjanes ridge. The distance from Reykjavík is around 840 km. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw5,8 (EMSC information here). Only three earthquakes where detected and all of them where large than magnitude 5,0. There is a good chance this earthquake swarm is currently ongoing. It is not possible to know if an eruption is happening this far from the coastline. Depth at this location is 3 to 6 km. There is a good chance more earthquake are going to appear on this location in next few hours to days because of the large Mw5,8 earthquake.

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Earthquake 30 km north west of Vestmanneyjar islands

Today (5-March-2019) at 12:59 UTC a magnitude 3,2 earthquake took place 30,6 km north west of Vestmannaeyjar islands. This was a single earthquake and no aftershocks have happened since this earthquake took place.


The earthquake (green star). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

At this location there are no known fault lines or active volcanoes. This is possibly a intra-plate earthquake. They do happen every few months somewhere in Iceland and most of them are not detected or felt.

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Strong earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano (not high number of earthquakes)

This morning (4-March-2019) a strong earthquake swarm took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. Largest earthquake had a magnitude of 4,1 (at 05:52 UTC), second largest had a magnitude of 3,8 (at 05:46 UTC) and the third largest earthquake had a magnitude of 3,3 (at 06:03 UTC). Other earthquakes were smaller in magnitude.


The earthquake activity in Bárðarbunga volcano (green stars). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Total of eight earthquakes where recorded in this swarm. This earthquake swarm is slightly unusual because its only been two weeks since a magnitude 4,2 earthquake took place in Bárðarbunga volcano. This are inflation related earthquakes, since Bárðarbunga volcano has been inflating since end of the eruption in Holuhraun in February 2015. This process is going to continue until next eruption happens in Bárðarbunga volcano system. This process can be at shortest be 1 year and at the longest this can take 104 years. I base this on Bárðarbunga volcano known eruption history. Details can be found in Global Volcanism Program information website about Bárðarbunga volcano.

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