Month: September 2020

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Earthquake swarm in Krýsuvík volcano

Yesterday (7-September-2020) an earthquake swarm took place in Krýsuvík volcano early morning. The largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw3,3 and the second largest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw2,8. Other earthquakes where smaller in magnitude.


The earthquake swarm in Krýsuvík volcano. Image used with permission and copyright belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This earthquake activity is part of the inflation in volcanoes in the volcanoes in this area because of influx of magma at 3 km to 8 km depth. While no eruption has not yet happened that is the most likely outcome of all of this activity. When this enters the eruption phase is something that cannot be predicted.

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Minor earthquake swarm in Katla volcano

Today (3-September-2020) at 12:39 UTC and earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,1 took place in Katla volcano. Few smaller earthquakes took place in this same location. No change in harmonic tremor was detected during this earthquake activity.


The earthquake activity in Katla volcano. Image used with permission and copyright belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

Katla volcano has been quiet during the summer of 2020 and it doesn’t seems like that anything more is about to happen following this earthquake activity. Since 15:53 UTC everything has been quiet in Katla volcano. This earthquake activity appears to have stopped.

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Magnitude Mw3,4 earthquake in Reykjanes volcano

Today (3-September-2020) at 10:57 UTC an earthquake with magnitude of Mw3,4 took place in Reykjanes volcano. This earthquake is part of the ongoing earthquake activity that started in this area in January 2020 and has been going on since then. This earthquake activity happens in waves and there are quiet period between high activity.


Earthquake activity in Reykjanes volcano. Image used with permission and copyright belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There continues to be high risk for stronger earthquake activity in this area because of magma injections into the crust at 3 to 8 km depth in this area. Earthquake activity is ongoing in Reykjanes volcano.

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Earthquake swarm around 42 km north of Kolbeinsey island

During the night of 3-September-2020 an earthquake swarm took place around 42 km to 50 km north of Kolbeinsey island. Because of distance from the SIL network the earthquakes that where detected do not have accurate location or magnitude.


Earthquake activity north of Kolbeinsey Island (green stars). Image used with permission and copyright belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This might just be regular earthquake activity that happens on the Kolbeinsey ridge or in Kolbeinsey island. This area is all under a deep ocean and that makes it impossible to know for sure what is going on at this location.