Overview of Earthquake activity

The Icelandic Meteorological Office's automatic earthquake monitoring system recorded around 6,000 earthquakes in May 2025, of which more than 3,800 have been reviewed. A strong earthquake swarm began approximately 10 km east of Grímsey on May 13, with nearly 2,000 earthquakes measured there within a single week. Of those, 14 earthquakes were larger than magnitude 3.0. On the first day of the swarm, two earthquakes of magnitude 4.7 were recorded, and on the second day, the largest quake of the swarm was measured at magnitude 5.0, making it the second-largest earthquake of May 2025. The largest earthquake of the month was magnitude 5.1 and occurred on May 24, about 26 km southwest of Reykjanestá. This earthquake was part of a fairly intense swarm during which nearly 600 earthquakes occurred in just under three days, including 40 earthquakes around or above magnitude 3.0.

Further overview of earthquake activity can be seen at  Skjálftalísa

In April 2025, a total of 13,561 earthquakes were detected across the country, of which 4,489 have been manually reviewed. The vast majority of these earthquakes—10,881 in total—were measured on the Reykjanes Peninsula.

The largest earthquake of the month was a magnitude 5.3 event located offshore near Reykjanestá on April 1st. It was felt widely across the southwest corner of the country. A magmatic intrusion and volcanic eruption occurred in the Sundhnúkur crater row on April 1st, during which 2,419 earthquakes were measured in a single day. Intense seismic activity followed the formation of the new dike and continued throughout the month.

Tremor was recorded in the Torfajökull area on the evening of April 6th, visible across the entire central highlands and lasting for about two hours. Considerable microseismic activity has since been observed in the Torfajökull caldera in the aftermath of the tremor episode.

About 2,100 earthquakes were located by the natural hazards specialists at the Icelandic Meteorological Office in January, representing a slight increase compared to the past three months. The highest activity was observed on the Reykjanes Peninsula, followed by Grjótárvatn and Bárðarbunga. The largest earthquake of the month was measured at M4.9 in Bárðarbunga on January 14. A total of 30 earthquakes exceeded M3.0 in magnitude, with 21 of them occurring in Bárðarbunga.

For more details on seismic activity, see: Skjálfta Lísa.