Iceland, Reykjanes Peninsula

Earthquake Swarm on the Reykjanes Peninsula, 4th July 2023 to 5th July 2023.

An earthquake swarm started on the Reykjanes Peninsula, Iceland, on 4th July 2023. It is still on progress at the time of writing.

Fig 1: Earthquake swarm on the Reykjanes Peninsula. Source: https://www.vedur.is/skjalftar-og-eldgos/jardskjalftar/reykjanesskagi/

Local volcanologist have said that the likelihood of an eruption in a matter of hours or days has increased. The aviation alert level has been increased to orange.

So we have plotted the published earthquakes from https://skjalftalisa.vedur.is from 28th June 2023 to 5th July 2023 20:16 to see what is going on.

Fig 2: Geoscatter plot by the author of earthquakes occurring in the current swarm on the Reykjanes Peninsula. © Copyright remains with the author; all rights reserved, 2023
Fig 3: Scatter plot by the author of earthquakes occurring in the current swarm on the Reykjanes Peninsula. © Copyright remains with the author; all rights reserved, 2023
Fig 4: Geodensity plot by the author of earthquakes occurring in the current swarm on the Reykjanes Peninsula. © Copyright remains with the author; all rights reserved, 2023

It certainly looks like a magma intrusion close to the sites of the recent Fagradalsfjall eruptions. Time will tell whether or not and where lava emerges with the current swarm.

Our thanks go again to the Icelandic Met Office, IMO, https://www.vedur.is/, for the raw earthquake data. For updates, please visit IMO.

Armchair Volcanologist

© Copyright remains with the author; all rights reserved, 2023