Overall Green alert Volcanic eruption for Reykjanes
in Iceland

Event summary

GREEN alert: The Reykjanes Volcanic eruption is unlikely to require external humanitarian assistance based on the exposed population and coping capacity.

GDACS ID VO 1000080
Name: Reykjanes
Lat/Lon: 63.85 , -22.566
Event Date: 27 Nov 2023 UTC
Exposed Population 30km: About 22000 people within 30km
Exposed Population 100km: About 240000 people within 100km
Max Volc. Explosivity Index VEI: 4
Population Exposure Index PEI: 4
Inserted at: 15 Nov 2023 14:05 UTC

GDACS Score

For more info on GDACS alert score click here.
Virtual OSOCC
Meteo assessment
Satellite products
Analytical products
Iceland - Volcanic unrest (ECHO 13 Nov 2023)Mon, 13 Nov 2023 11:29

  • Since 25 October, intense seismic activity related to a magma intrusion has started in the Reykjanes peninsula in south-western Iceland.
  • As of 12 November around 1,000 earthquakes - all below 3.0 M - have been recorded in the area of unrest. Most of the earthquakes are located in the region north of Grindavik Town, Reykjanes peninsula. The earthquakes are at a depth of 3-5 km corresponding to the lower part of the dyke intrusion. In addition, superficial deformation associated with the magma intrusion has been recorded in the area, this can be an indication that magma is moving closer to the surface.
  • Following this kind of activity, the civil protection has preventively evacuated all the people living in Grindavik Town, almost 3,700 residents and closed all the routes to the town. Moreover, the quakes and ground deformation caused by the magma intrusion resulted in damage to roads and buildings in Grindavik and its surroundings.
  • National authorities are continuously monitoring the area.
Volcano Reykjanes - EC/ECHO daily mapMon, 13 Nov 2023 19:07

A new EC/ECHO daily map is now available
Iceland - Volcanic unrest, update (ECHO 30 Nov 2023)Thu, 30 Nov 2023 12:40

  • The seismic activity due to magma intrusion that is affecting the Reykjanes Peninsula (south-western Iceland) since early November has continued to decrease in the last two days.
  • According to the Icelandic Met Office (IMO), as of 29 November, nearly 340 earthquakes were detected in the last 24 hours in the region of the magma intrusion, east of Sýlingarfell. Moreover, the rate of uplift is decreasing in Svartsengi area.
  • As of 28 November, the Icelandic Civil Protection reports that the building of a defense wall around Svartsengi power plant is ongoing and 3,700 people are still evacuated from Grindavik. Moreover, electricity, drinking water networks, several houses and roads have been damaged. The alert level have been downgraded from emergency to hazard phase.
  • Following the activation of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) on 20 November, five civil protection experts from Germany, Finland and Italy have been deployed.
Detailed event map. European Union, 2023. Map produced by EC-JRC.
The boundaries and the names shown on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the European Union.

Updates on volcanic activity (Smithsonian)

The Smithsonian/USGS Weekly Volcanic Activity Report provides information about global volcanism on a weekly basis. Latest Reykjanes report has been published on 08 Nov 2023 08:55.
IMO reported that increased seismicity and deformation at the Reykjanes Peninsula were ongoing during 1-7 November and indicated magma accumulation at depths of 4-5 km in an area NW of Mt. Thorbjorn. A total of 7 cm of uplift was recorded in satellite data and by the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) station near Mt. Thorbjorn during 27 October-6 November. The rate of inflation was fairly constant though it began to accelerate on 3 November. Data models indicated that the volume change associated with the uplift was double that of the four previous inflation events recorded during 2020-2022; the inflow of magma was estimated at 7 cubic meters per second, or four times greater than the highest inflow rate recorded during the previous events. Intense seismicity continued. Over 10,500 earthquakes were detected during 25 October-1 November, out of which more than 26 exceeded M 3 and the largest was a M 4.5 recorded at 0818 on 25 October. Seismicity increased for early on 3 November, and then notably decreased around 1730. The signals were located along previously known faults, aligned in a N-S direction W of Mt. Thorbjorn. There was no indication of magma migrating to the surface. During 4-7 November there were around 2,200 earthquakes, which were located between Mt. Thorbjorn and S?lingafell during 6-7 November. Source: Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO)
See the detail here

Latest media headlines

Articles: 1640 | About casualties: 1 | Last hour: 0

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Estimated casualties (PAGER)

USGS estimates the number of casualties for each earthquake for the Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response (PAGER) product.
The graph shows the current fatalities estimate.

Exposed population

Data, images, links, services and documents

For this events, GDACS has links to information from the following sources: EC-JRC (32), (2), INGV (2), WMO (1), INFORM (2),