Posted on by Jón Frímann

A ML3.6 earthquake in Krísuvík volcano (automatic size)

At 21:12 UTC on 3. January 2012 an earthquake with the automatic size of ML3.6 did happen in Krísuvík volcano. I do not yet know if this earthquake was felt in the nearby area. But I assuming that it has done so.

This earthquake did appear clearly on my geophones. Both in north and south Iceland. They can be viewed here. I am going to update this blog post as I know more. But this seems to be an start of earthquake swarm in Krísuvík volcano.

Update 1: It has been confirmed that this earthquake was felt in Reykjavík and nearby area. The automatic depth of this earthquake was 14.2 km according to Iceland Met Office.

Update 2: Earthquake swarm has started in Krísuvík volcano. The largest earthquake in this earthquake swarm after the main earthquake is ML1.1 in size. Larger earthquakes however might happen at any time in this earthquake swarm. But that is at least the experience so far.

Update 3: Here are the traces of the earthquake. Sorry. But for the moment there are no high resolution pictures available as my main earthquake computer is offline until I move back to Denmark. See this blog post here for more details on that.


The location of the ML3.6 to ML3.7 earthquake in Krísuvík volcano. Copyright of this picture belongs to Iceland Met Office.


The ML3.6 earthquake as it did appear on Eyrarbakki geophone. This picture is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see the CC Licence web page for more detail.


The ML3.6 earthquake as it did appear on the Heklubyggð geophone. This picture is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see the CC Licence web page for more detail.


The ML3.6 earthquake as it did appear on the Hvammstangi geophone. This picture is released under Creative Commons Licence. Please see the CC Licence web page for more detail.

Blog post updated at 21:38 UTC.
Blog post updated at 21:45 UTC.
Blog post updated at 22:15 UTC.

10 Replies to “A ML3.6 earthquake in Krísuvík volcano (automatic size)”

  1. It was felt fairly clearly in Reykjavik. I noticed it (nothing significant however).

    Plenty of people reporting feeling it on facebook and such.

  4. Magnitude ML 3.4
    Region ICELAND REGION
    Date time 2012-01-03 21:46:31.8 UTC
    Location 66.53 N ; 17.43 W
    Depth 12 km
    Distances 338 km NE Reykjavík (pop 113,906 ; local time 21:46:31.8 2012-01-03)
    98 km N Akureyri (pop 16,563 ; local time 21:46:31.8 2012-01-03)
    51 km NW Kópasker (pop 144 ; local time 21:46:31.8 2012-01-03)

    http://www.emsc-csem.org/Earthquake/earthquake.php?id=249969

  5. This has been update as:

    Tuesday
    03.01.2012 21:12:42 63.885 -22.089 4.7 km 3.4 99.0 1.2 km WSW of Krýsuvík

  6. I can’t keep up:

    Tuesday
    03.01.2012 21:46:31 66.534 -17.429 11.5 km 3.4 90.02 25.7 km E of Grímsey
    Tuesday
    03.01.2012 21:43:42 66.522 -17.433 4.8 km 2.9 90.02 25.6 km E of Grímsey

      1. This is not connected. It is just random chance. But I do think that they earthquakes in Krísuvík volcano where tectonic as before. This is highly active area, so earthquakes are common in it.

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