Monday Ice: The Post House was doing some serious shaking!

Ok an update for today, I originally posted a video advert of Gillette and the Human Polar Bears but since uploading, the video has gone private so no one can access it.

Instead I will tell you about the recent earthquakes we  experienced this past weekend.  Only an hours drive from Saudárkrókur and very close to Siglufjörður a town that I have visited and written about quite often experienced a weekend of significant seismic activity with tremors being felt all around north Iceland.

Siglufjörður

Over a 48hr period this area has been subject to 2-3 hundred earthquakes many under 3 on the Richter scale but over 40 were recorded above, the highest being 5.6.  Of those 40 odd, I felt 6 of the higher magnitude ones here in the old post house, the building did some serious shaking but the old girl is solid and no damage or cracks have appeared.  It was the strongest earthquake in north Iceland in 34 years but no major damage has been reported and in Siglufjörður just a  few broken objects which jumped off shelves and some cracked windows.  The magnitude of 5.6 is the largest since 1976 when a 6.2 was reached in the same Tjörnes fissure zone.  You can see updated information from the Icelandic Met Office.

I have only once before felt a similar size trembling and that was in 1968 with the Meckering earthquake in Western Australia which had a magnitude of 6.9 and devastated the small town 130km east of the capital Perth.