Two earthquakes with a magnitude of 4 and 4.6 were strongly felt in Akureyri and Húsavík yesterday afternoon.
This earthquake is only one in a long ongoing series of earthquakes in the north of Iceland, which started in June this year.
According to the Icelandic Meteorological Office, almost 830 earthquakes were measured with the Office’s automatic SIL measuring system this week. This marks an increase compared to last week, when about 750 earthquakes were measured.
The earthquake series both in Reykjanes and to the north of the country are still on-going. There were also reports that earthquakes had been detected in Ólafsfjörður on September 9th and in the Greater Reykjavík area on September 12th.
Einar Hjörleifsson, one of the experts at the Meteorological Office told RÚV in an interview that tension changes at the Tjörnesbrotabelti fault line resulted in the tension releasing at Húsavík and Flatey.
According to a report by Vísir, volcanologist Ármann Höskuldsson encourages Húsvík residents to consider earthquake protection in their homes.
He is quoted saying, “This fissure moves every hundred years and the last movement around Húsavík was towards the end of the nineteenth century. So this is the time and most people in Húsavík now know this.”
According to Ármann, it is suspected that the largest earthquakes in the cluster at the end of the nineteenth century were around 6 in magnitude. “This needs to be taken into account when there are so many and large earthquakes that move ever closer to Húsavík.”
This may also pose a risk for older buildings that have not been built by modern standards allowing for earthquakes, as well as for furniture.
A guide line of recommendations for earthquake protection by the Civil Protection can be found here.
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