Earthquake swarm continues 47 km east of Fonti in Eastern Iceland

During the night and today (18. December 2022) the earthquake swarm around 47 km east of Fonti in Eastern Iceland continued. Largest earthquake at the writing of this article had magnitude of Mw3,3 but another and few smaller earthquakes, but with magnitude of Mw3,1 took place in the same location. Several earthquakes with magnitude above Mw2,5 also took place.

A earthquake map showing in details the earthquakes 47 east of Fonti in Eastern Iceland. This map shows the earthquakes by colour and their age, few a lot of red dots showing one day old earthquakes. Total of 369 earthquakes have taken place according to this map.
Earthquake information from Skjálfta-Lísa on Icelandic Met Office website. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.
Green stars on the far eastern part of Iceland out in the ocean. Showing the location of were this earthquake swarm is taking part off the coastline in Eastern Iceland, far from location known as Fonti.
Earthquake activity in Eastern Iceland. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is a inner plate earthquake activity. This type of earthquake activity happens infrequently in Iceland. When it happens it can get rather strong and long period of earthquake activity can take place. It is not known what is in this area. Its either an extinct volcano (re-activated faults connected to that extinct volcano) or an old fault zone that is now re-activated for some time. The crust in this area is 15 million to 24 million years old and possibly older.

I am expecting more earthquake activity in this area. This earthquake activity might stop as quickly as this earthquake activity started.