HLJÓÐMYND – SOUNDIMAGE

Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions seem to be becoming a daily occurrence for Icelanders. It is best to notice them when such events start to bother you personally. In July I was traveling, including in Fjörður area in North Iceland. On the night of July 15, 2025, I woke up around 5am in a tent to a creaking sound outside my tent. At first I thought a silent electric car was creeping along the gravel road right behind me, but soon fell back to sleep again. The next day I heard that there had been several earthquakes in the area during the time I was there. The strongest one was close to midnight measuring 3.9 and several aftershocks up to 2.0 during the night to the morning
I myself somehow did not notice the 3,9 earthquake. Probably because there was wind and considerable noise from the beach and the large rivers in the surrounding mountains.
But later in the night, It gets calm and foggy and the ambient noise diminished during the aftershocks.
The recording proves what woke me up this night was a landslide in the mountains.
Up on the mountainside above me was a microphone set that managed to record both the rockslide and the gravel slide, but at a considerable distance.
Because of the natural noise in the background in this soundscape the recording itself is rather boring, e.g. stream-rivers in the valley at left side, and waves from the shore at the right side.
But this unpretentious soundscape is very typical in valleys that extend into the sea all around the country. So it can’t be avoided to put something like this on this blog. Under all normal circumstances, such a recording would simply go into storage with all the other 90% of similar recordings.
One thing that can be noticed in this recording is that just before the aftershock and the rockfall this morning, the birds seem to react in some way. After this first earthquake, for about 20 minutes, you can regularly hear rocks falling and gravel sliding.
Quality open headphones are recommended while listening at low to mid volume.
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  (mp3 265kbps / 55,3Mb)

Recorder: Tascam FR-AV2
Mics: Sennheiser MKH20 (AB45)
Pix: Samsung S22

Weather: Partly cloudy, 1-2 m/sec, 15°C
Location: 66.136151, -18.068340
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