SELFOSS – A strong earthquake rocked Iceland yesterday, damaging roads and buildings in one town and sending frightened residents running into the streets.
Police in Selfoss, 50km (31 miles) southeast of the capital Reykjavik, said they had received no reports of injuries and that damage to buildings in the area had been relatively minor.
The US Geological Survey said the quake, measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale, struck at 3:46pm, 10km (6.2 miles) beneath the earth’s surface.
In Selfoss, a small southwestern town near the quake’s epicentre, dozens of panicking people poured into the streets. “I didn’t know what was happening. All of a sudden, I felt the ground moving and saw the shelves shaking and walls in the store shaking,” said Kolbrun Sigurdardottir, a clothing store clerk in the town.
“I ran out into the street, which was filled with people. A pregnant lady next to me was terrified. We’re still shaking with nerves, but I’m glad everybody is okay,” she said.
Iceland is renowned for its unstable geophysical structure. It sits on a fault line and is dotted with geysers and volcanoes. Earthquakes of magnitudes up to 7.1 have shaken the island in the past.
The quake hit a day before a planned visit to Iceland by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice.
State department spokesman Sean McCormack, who was with Ms Rice at a conference in Sweden yesterday, said the visit would go ahead.
Selfoss rescue team worker Soffia Sigurdardottir said all available teams were out helping people, visiting hospitals, schools and other sites. “People are mostly shocked and scared but no one is seriously injured so far,” she said.
At the famous Blue Lagoon hot springs resort, several kilometres from the epicentre, receptionist Kristrun Bragadottir said she had experienced similar tremors before.
Residents also felt the impact in Europe’s northernmost capital. “I am in Reykjavik . . . everything was shaking. The glass in the windows shook and everybody was just really scared,” said economist Audbjorg Olafsdottir.
The Iceland Meteorological Office said yesterday’s was the strongest quake to hit the country since two large quakes in 2000, which followed 88 years of relative seismic inactivity.
“This is by far the largest since then,” said Einar Kjartansson, a geophysicist at the office. The main quake was followed by several smaller aftershocks, he said.
Iceland sits on two shifting plates far beneath the earth’s surface, known as the Eurasian plate and the North American plate, which are moving away from each other, not converging, Mr Kjartansson said. – (Reuters)