Strong Iceland Earthquake Hits Near Reykjavik

A strong earthquake occurred in Iceland today, about 30 miles southeast of Reykjavik at 11:46 EST, reports IceNews. The earthquake was felt in Reykjavik but nothing fell down from walls, according to the news agency.

"Police in Selfoss closed a local tunnel as a precaution. It is not yet known if anybody was hurt, but there appears to be little or no damage to the capital, Reykjavik.

"It is the strongest earthquake to hit urban areas in Iceland since 17 June 2000. It is said the only reason nobody died that day was because 17th June is Icelandic independence day, and most people were outside celebrating at the time," reports IceNews.

USGS provides the following details about the earthquake in Iceland.

Magnitude 6.2
Date-Time Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 15:46:00 UTC
Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 03:46:00 PM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones

Location 64.019°N, 20.916°W
Depth 10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region ICELAND
Distances 55 km (35 miles) ESE of REYKJAVIK, Iceland
115 km (70 miles) NW of Vik, Iceland
230 km (145 miles) SW of Akureyri, Iceland
260 km (160 miles) SSE of Isafjordur, Iceland

Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 4.2 km (2.6 miles); depth fixed by location program
Parameters NST=242, Nph=242, Dmin=84 km, Rmss=0.9 sec, Gp= 40°,
M-type=moment magnitude (Mw), Version=7
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)

Here is the report in European metrics from Radio Netherland about the earthquake in Iceland.

Iceland has been struck by an earthquake registering 6.1 on the Richter Scale. The epicentre lay 50 kilometres southeast of the capital Reykjavik. Noone was injured, although in the town of Selfoss, close to the epicentre, several buildings were damaged.