A series of large earthquakes have been rumbling through north Iceland over the weekend, some of them over a magnitude of 5, the Icelandic Met Office reports. The epicentre appears to be some 20 kilometres northeast of Siglufjörður, with tremors reportedly felt as far south as Akureyri, as far west as Skagafjörður, and as far east as Húsavík.
This region of Iceland is, like many other parts of the country, known for its tall, steep mountains looming over several communities, thus raising great cause for concern about potential landslides. Fortunately, no one was injured.
The tremors began late afternoon on June 20th, many of them measuring over a magnitude of 3. It was not long before tremors began to exceed 5, and ending up totally some 1,100 tremors by the early morning of the 21st—65 of them over 3 in magnitude.
UPDATE: All this said, natural disasters specialist Einar Hjörleifsson has told MBL that a quake or quakes with a magnitude of 7 could be expected.
These tremors are still ongoing, although mercifully at smaller magnitudes, but scientists are still monitoring the situation closely.
To provide a visual of what the weekend was like for many North Icelanders, the Icelandic Met Office posted the following video, recorded in Skagafjörður at 19:26 on June 20th—some 60 kilometres away from the epicentre. That particular tremor was a 5.6 and, as can be seen, had wide-ranging effects:
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