Two Earthquakes Felt In The Capital Area Last Weekend

Earthquakes originating from the southwestern end of Kleifarvatn were felt in Reykjavík this weekend.

The first one was about twenty minutes before noon on Saturday and measured 3.1 in magnitude but the second one was just before half past one and measured 3.0.

Hitting too close to home

An employee of the Meteorological Office told Fréttablaðið that the earthquakes simply seemed bigger because they were closer to the capital area than the earthquakes that came from the eruption site.

She says the Meteorological Office does not interpret the earthquakes as a sign of some change in the magma chamber.

Photo by Art Bicnick

“No, this is naturally quite far away from the eruption. Both earthquakes occurred at Kleifarvatn and the magma chamber is about ten kilometres west of this place,” she says.

The Meteorological Office’s expert says that before the earthquake began at the beginning of the year, enormous tension had accumulated in the earth. When the magma inlet came up, it was like “the grain of sand that fills the meter and kicks everything off”.

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