Earthquakes in north and south Iceland [Updated]

21 Replies to “Earthquakes in north and south Iceland [Updated]”

1. Thursday
   01.03.2012 00:38:44 64.008 -21.770 0.7 km 1.2 90.01 3.9 km E of Helgafell

2. Is there any realistic potential for volcanic activity in the area?

3. I assume these are entirely tectonic in origin? It will be interesting to see if it rattles anything loose at Krisuvik, though.

4. As I said elsewhere, the tectonic movement to the North and South of Iceland had to be creating immense stresses on the land mass. Jon was predicting the possibility of a Mag 5 a while back, it looks like that is going to be accurate. The depth and quality seems to indicate we can expect something on the surface sooner rather than later, but with so much activity, where?

   I had been watching Mýrdalsjökull, but I’m now paying attention to all areas – I need more TV’s so I can watch all the webcams at once!

5. In south Iceland, Selfoss, I haven’t felt anything. I was beginning to sleep around that time.

   1. In Reykjavik all three quakes could be felt clearly. I actually woke up by them.

6. I would guess that these EQs are more to do with the recent activity on the MAR rather than anything directly volcanic.

   Interesting to see the effect on the volcanoes in the area.

7. Earthquake activity in the UK is high for our norm at the moment see http://www.quakes.bgs.ac.uk/index.html. Any ideas what is moving to cause it all of is it coincidental that there seems a high level in multiple countries? Is a whole plate moving faster than usual? Has some event somewhere (earthquake) allowed freer movement for a while?

   1. Thank you for the link. This is the first time that I have looked at UK EQs. A guess is that it is a combination of normal activity and a ripple effect of the activity on the MAR.

      The weather is a bit warmer (within the norm for this time of year) but the last two years were cooler so any seasonal effect on the ground may have been delayed in 2010 and 2011.

      1. But interesting that there appears to have been small swarm of 9 EQs in Islay yesterday.

      2. A quick analysis of the UK EQs for Jan and Feb 2012:

         Total number of reported EQs: 23.

         http://oi40.tinypic.com/ily3ck.jpg

      3. Source: http://www.quakes.bgs.ac.uk/earthquakes/recent_uk_events.html

      4. I have a shot of one the 29/2/2012 Islay ‘quakes up in my gallery , along with other events recorded on the BGS
         network here:

         http://www.rbseismic.site90.net/1_3_BGS-helicorder-charts..html

8. Probably this is completely unrelated and very obvious to most of you posters here,
   but I just have to ask for the sake of curiosity, and naturally for the joy of learning : )
   but was this earthquake registered as the tremor seen on El Hierro seismograph too?

   Thank-you ! and I hope this link will work properly.

   http://www.ign.es/ign/head/volcaSenalesAnterioresDia.do?nombreFichero=CHIE_2012-03-01&ver=s&estacion=CHIE&Anio=2012&Mes=03&Dia=01&tipo=1

9. I’m sorry a little more detail would help….yes.
   I’m refering to the 4.2 earthquake at 1:03:06 today.
   Was this what is seen on a couple of the siesmograph
   recordings about the Canary Islands? Thanks again.

   1. Possibly, or it could be the 5.1 in Vanuatu. But most probably it is local as IGN have been stripping non-local events from CHIE.

      1. @KarenZ Thanks : )

10. Thats 11 EQ’s here in the inners hebrides area, one on the west coast of mainland (Arrochar). Quite what has sparked those off is intriguing, and that they coincide with this spurt of activity in Iceland.
    http://www.hebwx.co.uk/wxquakeUK.php

11. The earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes seems to be resuming after the break this night.

12. You might find this interesting
    Susan Joy Rennison, Astro Physicist – Lecture
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1rLNl6VDM0

13. New blog post is up about the activity on the Reykjanes Ridge.

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