Earthquake swarm in Iceland
By Denise
@petatonicsca (7070)
Japan
June 21, 2020 8:02pm CST
Iceland is situated on top of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the divergent plate boundary between the European and North American plates. A divergent plate boundary means that the earth is getting stretched at that point, so magma comes out to make new land (most of it is ocean floor except for Iceland). Iceland gets a lot of earthquakes every year, but right now they are feeling magnitude 5s up in the north part of Iceland. Having that many larger quakes is unusual for them.
On the other side of the island nation, and on the other side of the plate boundaries, the volcano Grimsvotn (the o should have an umlaut) is thinking about erupting. It usually erupts once every 5 to 10 years and its last eruption was in 2011, so it wouldn't be surprising.
Iceland is a very interesting place seismically and volcanically. I'd love to go there someday and see it for myself.
4 people like this
5 responses
@rebelann (117226)
• El Paso, Texas
22 Jun 20
It all sounds so scary to me, I am terrified of earthquakes and volcanoes among other things.
@rebelann (117226)
• El Paso, Texas
22 Jun 20
Yes, I agree with you about tornadoes @petatonicsca I've never been near one and I don't want to ever be near one.
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
22 Jun 20
If you don't go too near a volcano (like in its crater or within 3 km of the crater in the case of active volcanoes) watching from afar is fine. Usually the ones that erupt catastrophically (like for instance send out large pyroclastic flows that cover lots of ground) have given warning signs (increased gases, increased volcanic earthquakes and tremors, and inflation measured by GPS). Most people who have been hurt near volcanoes have been too close for the smaller events, which don't mess with people a distance away. Earthquakes, well, yes, can't quite know when one will strike. Me, I avoid tornado alley!
1 person likes this
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
22 Jun 20
Most of the time they don't hurt anybody here. Our buildings are good. I'd take an earthquake over a tornado any day. (I grew up in tornado country and those things are nasty.)
@Alexandoy (65302)
• Cainta, Philippines
22 Jun 20
Incidentally, one post now said that they had an earthquake in the south of Manila.
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
22 Jun 20
I'm not surprised. Plate boundaries do that. Here in Tokyo too!
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (382068)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Jun 20
The earth continues to evolve too, doesn't it? Like everything else on the planet.
@petatonicsca (7070)
• Japan
22 Jun 20
If your buildings are built to earthquake code you probably will not have a problem, but I'm pretty sure a lot of them are not. Even in Japan where there are strict building codes, several years ago they found over 250 buildings in downtown Tokyo that are not up to standard. Yuck. I don't mind little or medium sized earthquakes but the 9.0 in 2011 was really scary.
