Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge close to Eldeyjarboða islands [updated]

Today (18-January-2020) at 12:38 UTC an earthquake swarm took place on the Reykjanes ridge close to Eldeyjarboða island. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw4,0 according to Icelandic Met Office. Both USGS and EMSC are reporting this earthquake as a mb4,5 in automatic detection. Second largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,8.


Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge not far from Eldeyjarboða island. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude. This earthquake swarm appears to be over but it is possible that this is just a limited stop in earthquake activity before it starts again. That is a common feature of earthquake swarms in this area. Earthquake can reach magnitude of Mw5,5 in this area of Reykjanes ridge.

Update on 19-January-2020

Icelandic Met Office updated the earthquake magnitudes yesterday and it now shows two Mw4,5 earthquakes taken place at 14:07 UTC and 14:17 UTC and one Mw4,0 earthquake having taken place at 15:52 UTC.


Updated earthquake map of the earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge on 18-January-2020. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

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