A 3.5 magnitude earthquake was recorded in the Askja volcanic system shortly after 9:30 this morning, according to the Icelandic Meteorological Office. Quakes of this size are not common in the area, and no aftershocks have been detected so far.
“This does happen from time to time and doesn’t necessarily have any special significance,” said Iðunn Kara Valdimarsdóttir, natural hazard specialist at the IMO. Askja has been under close observation for some time due to ongoing uplift in the region.
“There’s continued land uplift, just as we’ve seen in recent years, and these kinds of earthquakes occur occasionally,” she added.
A similar, though smaller, quake measuring magnitude 3.0 occurred in the same area in November last year.
According to GPS measurements from 2023, the ground in Askja has risen by around half a meter since monitoring began in August 2021. Scientists believe the uplift is caused by magma accumulation at shallow depth beneath the caldera.
The Askja region also holds a unique place in the history of space exploration. Its barren, otherworldly landscapes were used in the 1960s to train NASA’s Apollo astronauts for their missions to the Moon. The story of that extraordinary connection between Iceland and the Apollo program is told at the Exploration Museum in Húsavík, which documents how Iceland’s geology helped prepare humanity for its first steps on another world.
