Overview of Earthquake activity

Earthquake activity throughout the country is described in a weekly summary that is written by a Natural Hazard Specialist. The weekly summary is published on the web every Tuesday. It covers the activity of the previous week in all seismic areas and volcanic systems in the country. If earthquake swarms are ongoing or significant events such as larger earthquakes have occurred during the week, they are specifically discussed.

Weekly overview

Weekly Overview 20. - 26. November 2023 (Week 47)

Approximately 4800 earthquakes were measured this week, and of those, about 600 have been manually reviewed. Seismic activity is still ongoing at the Reykjanes Peninsula due to the dike intrusion that formed on November 10th, north of Grindavík. However, seismic activity and the inflow related to the intrusion are gradually decreasing. The uplift that began again near Svartsengi after the intrusion started has continued, and rising about 18 cm at a GNSS station in Skipastígshraun. However, following the formation of the intrusion on November 10th, the station subsided by roughly 40 cm. More information about the volcanic unrest near Grindavík can be found in a regularly updated news on the front page.

The largest earthquake of the week was M3.4 and occurred near Húsmúli in Hengill, where a swarm of earthquakes was measured from November 24th to 26th, in total around 160 earthquakes.

Weekly overview, 15. – 22. November - week 46.

About 12000 earthquakes were detected last week by the IMO's SIL system of which about 1350 earthquakes have been manually reviewed. Continued seismic swarm due to a dike intrusion that formed on the 10 November. The seismicity and magma inflow to the dike has however reduced. it should however be noted that the magma inflow to the dike could still be greater than prior to the eruption in Fagradalsfjall in 2021. Uplift resumed in Svartsengi after the dike formed and is faster than in previous uplift. The largest earthquake of the week was a M3.7 located about 3 km west of Klefiarvatn.

Weekly overview, 16. – 22. October - week 42.

Nearly 500 earthquakes were detected last week by the IMO's SIL system. This is rather quiet compared to the past three weeks which all have counted over 700 earthquakes. Seismic activity was rather distributed over the countries most active areas, although the activity on Reykjanes peninsula was most noticable, whilst activity in Grímvötn and Bárðarbunga were also noticable, as it has been for the past weeks. No earthquake measured at a magnitude above M3.0 this week and the largest event was a M2,6 on Reykjanes ridge.

Other interesting activity this was an earthquake M1.7 in Esjufjöll and two minor earthquakes on on the Selvogur continental shelf.

Weekly Overview 9. - 15. October 2023

Around 900 earthquakes were detected on the Met Office seismic network during the last week. Approximately 700 earthquakes have been manually reviewed. The week was less active than the previous week 1100 events were detected. The main activity was as usual on the Reykjanes peninsula. The largest event of the week was a M3.6 in Bárðarbunga in Vatnajökull on October 14^that 16:13. Three minor earthquakes were detected in Hekla, all smaller than M0.6.