Earthquake swarm in Reykjanes volcano close to Grindavík town

Yesterday (9-July-2020) an earthquake swarm took place north-east of Grindavík town in the Reykjanes volcano. Largest earthquake in this swarm had a magnitude of Mw3,3 and the reason for this earthquake swarm was a magma injection at 4 to 6 km depth into a sill that is forming north-east of Grindavík town, close to what seems to be a old fissure in that area.


The earthquake swarm in the Reykjanes volcano yesterday. Copyright of this image belongs to Icelandic Met Office.

There is a chance that the magma that is pushing this activity might be as shallow as 3 km but currently it is difficult to know for sure but deformation that can be monitored by GPS data is going to give more clear picture in next few days. Currently there doesn’t seems to be enough magma in the higher level of the crust to start and eruption or the magma is blocked by some other unknown factors in the crust.