The 2000 Iceland earthquakes struck southern

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its ...

on June 17 and 21. There were no fatalities but three people suffered minor injuries and there was considerable damage to infrastructure. The two earthquakes were the first major seismic activity in Iceland for 88 years. The recorded magnitude of both of the main quakes was 6.5 .

Tectonic setting

Iceland lies on the spreading axis of the

Mid-Atlantic Ridge The Mid-Atlantic Ridge is a mid-ocean ridge (a divergent or constructive plate boundary) located along the floor of the Atlantic Ocean, and part of the longest mountain range in the world. In the North Atlantic, the ridge separates the North A ...

(MAR) where it is influenced by the

Iceland hotspot The Iceland hotspot is a hotspot which is partly responsible for the high volcanic activity which has formed the Iceland Plateau and the island of Iceland. Iceland is one of the most active volcanic regions in the world, with eruptions occu ...

, a major

mantle A mantle is a piece of clothing, a type of cloak. Several other meanings are derived from that. Mantle may refer to: *Mantle (clothing), a cloak-like garment worn mainly by women as fashionable outerwear **Mantle (vesture), an Eastern Orthodox ve ...

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 the zone is the South Iceland Seismic Zone (SISZ), which has a west–east trend and is about 20 km wide. Most earthquakes in this zone are associated with movement on north–south trending right lateral

strike-slip In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock across which there has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movements. Large faults within Earth's crust result from the action of plate tectonic ...

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.

Earthquakes

The first of the earthquakes occurred at 15:40 UTC on 17 June at a depth of 6.3 km. The magnitude estimated by the

Icelandic Meteorological Office Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO; is, Veðurstofa Íslands) is Iceland's national weather service and as such a government agency under the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources. It is also active in volcano monitoring, esp. volc ...

was 6.4 , assuming a single fault, although such a model did not fit all the available data. The extent of aftershocks defined a 16 km long north-south fault rupture, continuing down to 10 km. The causative fault was the Árnes Fault and a large number of surface fissures were mapped along this structure in the days following the event. The second earthquake occurred at 00:51 UTC on 21 June at a depth of 5.1 km. The extent of aftershocks defined an 18 km fault rupture down to 8 km depth. The causative fault was the Hestfjall Fault. Surface fissures were developed over a distance of about 25 km.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:2000 Iceland earthquakes

Earthquakes in Iceland

Earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

June 2000 events in Europe Earthquake clusters, swarms, and sequences

Tectonic setting

Earthquakes

See also

References

External links