Home-page - Icelandic Meteorological Office

Updated April 8, at 16:15 UTC

Deformation measurements clearly show that uplift beneath Svartsengi is ongoing. The current uplift rate is faster than that observed following previous eruptions. This may be explained by the large volume of magma — around 30 million cubic meters — that was released from the system during the most recent event.

However, it is still too early to predict how the rate of magma accumulation will develop. Past events have shown that accumulation rates typically decline as more time passes between eruptions. At least a week, and possibly several weeks, will need to pass before we can evaluate if — and how — the rate of accumulation will change.

Updated 25. March at 15:00 UTC

GPS deformation data shows that magma continues to accumulate beneath Svartsengi, although the pace of land uplift has slightly decreased in recent weeks. Despite the slower uplift, experts still consider it likely that a magma intrusion and/or eruption will occur along the Sundhnúkur crater row.

At around 14:30 yesterday (12 March 2025), a rather intense earthquake swarm began offshore Reykjanestá. The swarm was most intense at the beginning when about 50 – 60 earthquakes were recorded in the first few hours. As the day progressed, the activity decreased but then increased again shortly before midnight when an earthquake of magnitude 3.5 occurred. When the activity increased again in the evening, it shifted slightly westward as the image shows (blue circles indicate the location of earthquakes that occurred at the beginning of the swarm yesterday, while yellow and red ones show earthquakes from late last evening and night).

A southerly storm or violent storm is expected later today and tomorrow, with very strong wind gusts, widely 35 – 45 m/s and especially near mountains, but locally exceeding 50 m/s. Considerable or heavy rain is expected in the south and the west regions of the country. More details can be found here.

The year 2024 was remarkably cold compared to temperatures of this century. The national average temperature was 0.8 degrees below the 1991 to 2020 mean, and it was the coldest year since 1998. Lowest relative temperature was inland in the North, while it was warmer along the southern coast. The summer was wet across the entire country, but other months of the year were relatively dry. Overall, the year was drier than average in the eastern, southern, and southwestern parts of the country, but wetter than average in the North and West, which experienced heavy rain during summer. The sea level pressure was unusually low from June through August, and the summer was characterized by frequent low-pressure system passage and unfavourable weather. During other seasons, the weather was relatively calm, and annual mean seal level pressure and wind speed were around average.