During the weekend there was an earthquake activity deep on the Reykjanes ridge. Largest earthquake in the swarm had the magnitude of 5,5 (EMSC information here). Second largest earthquake had the magnitude of 5,4 (EMSC information can be found here), the smallest detected earthquake had the magnitude of 4,6 (EMSC information can be found here).
This activity took place some 1000 km away from Iceland closest point. For that reason it is impossible to know what is happening at this location. It might an eruption that nobody is going to see or notice, or this might just be a earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes ridge, such activity is common along the Reykjanes ridge and happens regularly.
or it might be a new island base forming which can send earthquakes
Is Reykjanes ridge in general “opening” or coming up?
Hello, it is part of the MAR , the Mid Atlantic Ridge, where from what I have learned two Plates are moving away from each other. @Caveman: There are not many islands between Reykjanes and the Azores in fact not one afaik along that ridge, I don’t know how deep it is at the point the EQ took place, maybe 800 meters? So if there is an eruption it could take while for the lava to form an island.
Thank you, Porsche. Yes, should have made my question clearer: is the MAR lifting or drifting uppart? Acc. to your answer: drifting uppart. As there are quakes all along the Ridge I was thinking about a big change. If tension is too strong, that is built through the drifting plates, they can brake uppart along the rift? Right or not? Things like that happened before?
I haven’t noticed your question until now for I am not a registered site member. A lot on this subject can be found, please do a search on this matter, on your right hand side below there is a search function on categories, you can choose ‘rift zone’ for example, a lot about it has been written already on this blog.