Earthquakes in Iceland, 2017–2026

2023 had the most magnitude 4.5+ earthquakes: 44 of the 166. 18 came in the 30 days after a magnitude 5.3 on November 10, 2023 (3 km SSE of Vogar, Iceland), within 150 km of it. NOAA lists one significant eruption of one volcano in or off Iceland. The deadliest was Reykjanes on December 18, 2023, which killed one person by NOAA’s count.

• December 18, 2023EruptionReykjanes · one death (NOAA)NOAA NCEI · Wikipedia
• February 24, 2021Earthquake · M 5.66 km SE of Vogar, IcelandUSGS
• October 20, 2020Earthquake · M 5.611 km SW of Álftanes, IcelandUSGS
• June 21, 2020Earthquake · M 6.027 km NNE of Siglufjörður, IcelandUSGS
• June 20, 2020Earthquake · M 5.715 km N of Siglufjörður, IcelandUSGS
• June 20, 2020Earthquake · M 5.415 km NE of Siglufjörður, IcelandUSGS

• An event counts for Iceland when it began inside its borders, or at sea within 100 km of its coast (so one can count for two neighbours), or further out, up to 300 km, where Iceland is the nearest country.
• USGS counts are its ComCat catalogue’s earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or more, aftershocks included.
• NOAA lists significant events only: earthquakes that killed, did about $1 million of damage, reached magnitude 7.5 or intensity X, or raised a tsunami, and eruptions and tsunamis by like measures. Magnitudes before 1900 are its estimates from written accounts.
• Deaths are NOAA’s total for each event, wherever people died, its tsunami and fires included. A tsunami counts the dead its runup records give for this place: NOAA’s total for a tsunami includes its source quake’s.
• A tsunami from elsewhere counts where one of its runups killed or rose a metre or more.
• The map frames the box around Iceland, its neighbours’ quakes included, so its count runs higher than this page’s.
• Counted to October 19, 2026, as is the map. The last 30 days ask USGS again.

How the layers work, where their data comes from and what they can’t tell you: Earthquakes, live, The world through history