At the moment there is heavy earthquake activity taking place in TFZ. With earthquakes taking place every second. Strong earthquakes taking place every 2 to 10 minutes. One earthquake has at least reached the magnitude 5.0 and more earthquake with that magnitude is currently taking place on TFZ.
This earthquake activity can be monitored live (5. min, delay) on my geophone network web page here. I am going to post more information when I have more details.
Update 1: According to USGS the largest earthquake had the magnitude of M4.8. I do not know if this is reviewed data or not. USGS data can be viewed here.
Blog post updated at 01:02 UTC on 21.10.2012.
Boy, it’s really shaking up there.
This is really heavy earthquake activity in TFZ. The largest and strongest that I have seen in many years now.
Is there any volcanic activity around where those earthquakes are now?
I have also been following the earthquakes inIceland for some years now, and i have never seen such high and strong earthquake activity around TFZ.
No volcano activity. This is a fault zone. So just tectonic activity.
Yesterday and today from EMSC
2012-10-21T01:03:49.000Z
Magnitude: : 4.5000 mb, Depth(Km): : 12.0000, Latitude: : 65.94710, Longitude: : -18.02090
2012-10-21T00:40:24.600Z
Magnitude: : 3.6000 ML, Depth(Km): : 1.0000, Latitude: : 66.25240, Longitude: : -18.50950
2012-10-21T00:34:19.000Z
Magnitude: : 4.1000 ML, Depth(Km): : 7.0000, Latitude: : 66.32410, Longitude: : -18.79030
2012-10-21T00:30:42.700Z
Magnitude: : 3.8000 ML, Depth(Km): : 18.0000, Latitude: : 66.30420, Longitude: : -18.67980
2012-10-21T00:20:29.800Z
Magnitude: : 4.5000 ML, Depth(Km): : 1.0000, Latitude: : 66.28710, Longitude: : -18.63010
2012-10-21T00:10:35.000Z
Magnitude: : 4.6000 mb, Depth(Km): : 10.0000, Latitude: : 66.34650, Longitude: : -18.63000
2012-10-20T22:54:25.000Z
Magnitude: : 3.9000 ML, Depth(Km): : 1.0000, Latitude: : 66.27350, Longitude: : -18.70890
2012-10-20T22:50:40.300Z
Magnitude: : 3.3000 ML, Depth(Km): : 1.0000, Latitude: : 66.39400, Longitude: : -18.76120
Sourced from EMSC
New strong earthquake on TFZ. This earthquake is the strongest so far.
Jon, is it magmatic or fracturing?
This is a fracture zone. No volcano activity in this area of Iceland.
New M5.6 @ 1:25 UTC
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/usb000d9x3#summary
Due to heavy earthquake activity in TFZ. The SIL system is not locating earthquakes properly according to the newest news. So the IMO earthquake page is not updating properly at the moment (at 01:30 UTC at least. Might be fixed now).
My geophone page is however updating properly at the moment. I am seeing hundreds of small earthquakes. So many in fact that I do not save them all. Since it is impossible for me to do so.
Comment updated at 02:14 UTC on 21.10.2012.
This is the first time Isee Iceland over USGS EQ reports. Twice!
Couldn’t this trigger some volcanic activity elsewhere, Jón?
Two quakes show up nicely on my seismometer in Oslo, the last one even on my geophones. USGS claims it was 5.7, but it doesn’t look that strong from here.
The estimated magnitude is now Mb5.2. I did not record it here in Denmark on my geophone (too small and soft soil did prevent it).