Tjornes Fracture Zone
Iceland · oceanic transform · 253.3 km of mapped active fault in 7 traces
unknown as of 7 November 2026.
no baseline good enough to compare against; the catalogue holds too few events on this system to say what normal is
| Window | the last 30.0 days |
|---|---|
| Earthquakes counted | 0 at M4.5 or above |
| Expected in that window | 0.00 |
What this system normally does
From 1995 to 2025 the catalogue holds 11 earthquakes of M4.5 or larger attributable to this system: about 0.37 a year. That figure is what "elevated" on this page is measured against.
Confidence in that rate is low: the catalogue holds too few events here for the average to carry much weight, and this system is never called elevated on the strength of it alone.
The fault itself
| Mapped length | 253.3 km |
|---|---|
| Traces | 7 |
| Tectonic setting | oceanic transform |
| Slip types | Spreading_Ridge, Dextral_Transform |
| Depth attributed to it | down to 50.0 km |
| Extent | 65.68 to 67.06 latitude, -19.10 to -16.51 longitude |
Recorded history
NOAA's hazard records hold one significant earthquake attributed to this system since 1976.
The strongest earthquake on record here was magnitude 6.4, on 13 January 1976 (Iceland: Kopasker).
| Date | What | Where | Toll |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 January 1976 | magnitude 6.4 earthquake | Iceland: Kopasker | damage $1 to 5 million |
A dash means NOAA recorded no number, not that nobody died. Older entries are fewer because fewer were written down, not because less happened.
Recorded history: NOAA NCEI hazard databases, public domain, retrieved 2026-10-22.
Who to listen to if you live here
Almannavarnir, Icelandic Civil Protection is the agency that tells people on this system what to do. https://www.almannavarnir.is/ (in Icelandic)
Other systems in Iceland
Where these numbers come from
Fault geometry, length and segment counts: GEM Global Active Faults Database (GEM GAF-DB), GEM Foundation, https://github.com/GEMScienceTools/gem-global-active-faults Licence: CC-BY-SA-4.0. Figures derived from it here are offered under the same licence. Earthquake counts, magnitudes and depths: United States Geological Survey, public domain. The activity judgement is ours, computed from those two inputs, and is not a statement by either agency.