Some notable earthquakes in Iceland have been during earthquake swarms with several earthquakes having very similar magnitude and contributing to human injury, death and/or property damage. Accordingly, the largest earthquake may be shown on this page rather than ones that also contributed to the notability. Notable earthquakes in Iceland tend to be close to population centres and therefore do not reflect the full distribution of the high local seismic activity. This distribution includes the transform faults in the South Iceland seismic zone (SISZ) and Tjörnes fracture zone, as well as activity in volcanic rift zones.[1]
See also: Geological deformation of Iceland. Iceland lies on the spreading axis of the Mid-Atlantic ridge (MAR) where it is influenced by the Iceland hotspot, a major mantle upwelling. The active spreading axis of the MAR is moving westward with respect to the hotspot. This means that the active rifts above the hotspot have progressively jumped towards the east, causing the development of two major transform zones in the north and south of the island. To the south is the approximately wide SISZ, which is quite active for earthquakes, and this has a west–east trend. Most earthquakes in this zone are associated with movement on north–south trending right lateral strike-slip faults, although there is also evidence of WSW–ENE trending faults.
According to historical records, there have been 33 damaging earthquakes in the SISZ from the 11th century up to June 2000, with the latest being in 1896 and 1912.[2]
| Date | Location | MMI | Deaths | Injuries | Comments | Ref. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-11-10 | Southern Peninsula 63.952°N -22.346°W | 5.3 Mww | V | 1 missing | Severe damage to Grindavik with evacuations. Earthquake swarm commenced 24 October 2023 | [3] | |||
| 2022-07-31 | Southern Peninsula 63.955°N -22.35°W | 5.4 Mww | VII | Moderate damage | [4] [5] | ||||
| Southern Peninsula 63.949°N -22.285°W | 5.6 Mww | VII | 1 mild injury | Mild damage | [6] | ||||
| 2008-05-29 | Hveragerði, Selfoss 63.96°N -20.99°W | 6.3 Mw | VIII | 30 | Rockslides | ||||
| 2000-06-21 | Hesfjall, Southern Peninsula 63.98°N -20.71°W | 6.5 ML | X | Severe damage | [7] | ||||
| 2000-06-17 | Hella, Southern Peninsula 63.97°N -20.37°W | 6.6 ML | IX | 3 | Severe damage | [8] | |||
| 1976-01-13 | Kópasker 66.157°N -16.582°W | 6.4 Ms | IX | Moderate damage | [9] | ||||
| 1968-12-05 | Kleifarvatn, Southern Peninsula 63.929°N -21.954°W | 6.0 Ms | VIII | Moderate damage in Hafnarfjörður | [10] | ||||
| 1934-06-02 | Dalvíkurbyggð 65.847°N -18.839°W | 6.2 Ms | VIII | Major damage, 200 people homeless | ,[11] | ||||
| 1929-07-23 | Brennisteinsfjöll, Southern Peninsula 64.061°N -21.901°W | 6.5 Ms | IX | Around 100 minor | Moderate damage in Reykjavík | [12] | |||
| 1912-05-06 | Hekla, Southern Peninsula 64.044°N -19.633°W | 7.5 | XI | 11 | [13] | ||||
| 1896-09-05 | Southern Peninsula | 6.0, 6.5 and 6.0 | IX | 3 | Three major earthquakes with short intervals. (Around 3.000 houses or farms destroyed) | ||||
| 1896-08-27 | Skarðsfjall, Southern Peninsula | 6.7 | X | 1 | |||||
| 1896-08-26 | Rangárvallasýrsla ,Southern Peninsula | 7.0 | X | Major damage, many farms destroyed | |||||
| 1872 | Húsavík, Norðurþing | 6.5 | Heavy damage | ||||||
| 1784-08-14 | Southern (Suðurland) | X | Severe damage | ||||||
| 1734 | Southern lowland | 9 | Severe damage / Many homes destroyed | ||||||
| 1706-04-20 | Selfoss | X | 999 | Severe damage | |||||
| 1211 | Southern (Suðurland) | X | 18 | Severe damage | |||||
| 1182 | Southern (Suðurland) | X | 11 | ||||||
| 1164 | Grímsnes | X | 19 | ||||||
| 1013 | Southern (Suðurland) | X | 11 | ||||||
| Note: The inclusion criteria for adding events are based on WikiProject Earthquakes' notability guideline that was developed for stand alone articles. The principles described also apply to lists. In summary, only damaging, injurious, or deadly events should be recorded. A compilation exists, for details of Icelandic earthquakes up to 2014 as some have been without significant damage, even if high magnitude events. | |||||||||