Posted on by Jón Frímann

Earthquake swarm on Reykjanes peninsula

Today (15-December-2019) an earthquake swarm started this morning at 07:10 UTC and the strongest earthquake had a magnitude of Mw3,5 and other earthquakes have been smaller in magnitude. Around of 190 earthquakes have happened in this earthquake swarm that appears to be over or at least has stopped for now.


Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes peninsula today (15-December-2019). Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

This is a tectonic earthquake swarm from the looks of the earthquakes that I have recorded on my geophone. This is probably a rift valley activity in this area. It is not possible to know if this earthquake activity is over or not. It is common that earthquake activity stops for few hours and then resumes at higher activity then before. Sometimes this type of earthquake swarm just stops and doesn’t resume.

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5 Replies to “Earthquake swarm on Reykjanes peninsula”

  1. Back and stronger. Reykjanes peninsula right now:

    Earthquake count:
    Magnitude less than 1 in all: 166
    Magnitude 1 to 2 in all: 222
    Magnitude 2 to 3 in all: 41
    Magnitude more than 3 in all: 8
    Total: 437

  3. Over 1200 quakes now and counting:

    quote:
    “Specialist remark

    An earthquake swarm is onging by Fagradalsfjall on Reykjanes peninsula. The swarm started at 07:59 on the 15th of December with a M3,5. At 19:48 and again at 19:57 (same day) two M3,6 earthquakes were registered. More earthquakes followed with roughly 10 events with magnitude around 3. Over 1200 earthquakes have been detected in the swarm. IMO has received felt reports from e.g. Grindavík, Keflavík, Reykjavík area and Akranes.”

    link: https://en.vedur.is/#tab=quakes

  4. Do we know the depths? “Tectonic”-so, for Iceland at this location, what’s the depth look like? Not magmatic.

    1. The depth is 7 to 2 km from the overview of the earthquake activity. The crust is around 10 km thick at this location but can be slightly thicker in the mountains on the Reykjanes peninsula.

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