Southwest Iceland Continues to Tremble
The source of many of the earthquakes has been near Keilir mountain. mbl.is/Íris Jóhannsdóttir
The swarm of earthquakes on the Reykjanes peninsula, Southwest Iceland, continues, but much fewer quakes in excess of magnitude 3 hit overnight than the previous night.
The largest earthquake hit the area at 2:12, measuring 4.1. It was the first one in excess of magnitude 3 since about a quarter past noon yesterday. A total of four earthquakes in excess of magnitude 3 have hit the area since midnight, compared with 16 the previous night.
“This keeps continuing,” Elísabet Pálmadóttir, natural hazards specialist at the Icelandic Met Office, tells mbl.is. She states that about 650 tremors have registered on the Reykjanes peninsula since midnight, which is about as many as the night before. “There are just fewer ones of magnitude 3 or 4,” she notes.
She adds that it is not uncommon during such swarms of earthquakes for the activity to decrease and then pick up again. Specialists from the Icelandic Met Office will be meeting with the Scientific Council of the Department of Civil Protection and Emergency Management today to review the situation.
