Iceland's quake activity

After a quiet few months, I see that Iceland is seeing a fair number of earthquakes above 3 in a confined region at the North end of the island. (Those are the events marked with green stars).


Figure 1. Earthquakes in Iceland in the last 24 hours (Iceland Met Office)

A closer look shows how linear the different events have been.


Figure 2. More detailed view of the events shown in Figure 1. (Iceland Met Office).
This post was updated late in the day. (see below the fold).

UPDATE 3. By late evening Wednesday the activity was still strong, though perhaps a few less 4's. (map appended).

UPDATE 4. Friday afternoon and the activity seems to be tapering off a little - and as The Earthquake Report notes quake swarms of this type are quite frequent in the region, and usually peter out after a few days or weeks.

UPDATE 1 Well the situation has not yet stabilized, and as I go to bed, some 12 hours later, the quakes are spreading along the fault line to the mainland.

UPDATE 2. The activity is occurring along the Tjörnes Fraction Zone,, and is being followed and described by Jón Frímann over at the Iceland Geology blog.


Figure 3. The situation at 11 pm Tuesday evening (Missouri time)(Iceland Met Office)

And this is the situation at around the same time on Wednesday evening.


Figure 4. Change in the pattern late Wednesday evening (Iceland Met Office)