20 thousand earthquakes since the beginning of the seismic swarm

Almost 20 thousand earthquakes have occurred on the Reykjanes peninsula since the earthquake swarm began on the island on 25 October.

In the last 24 hours or so, there have been 1,200 earthquakes, most of them between Mt. Þorbjörn and Sýlingarfell. Since midnight, there have been about 570 earthquakes, the largest of which was 3.4 around 1:30 am.

“This is similar to what has been,” says Bjarki Kaldalón Friðriksson, a natural-hazard specialist at the Icelandic Met Office.

Live feed

Here below is a live feed from our camera on Mt. Þorbjörn facing Svartsengi powerplant and the Blue Lagoon, the area where the most seisimic activity has been detected since the seismic swarm started on October 25.

Still at 4-5 km depth

He says the seismic activity and magma are still at a depth of 4 to 5 kilometers and the earthquake is continuing at a similar rate.

We can expect a spasms of seismic activity while magma accumulation is ongoing, he added.

A brief meeting was held at the Met Office this morning to review data, including satellite imagery and seismic activity. There are no signs of magma moving furter up.