4.6 M earthquake under Langjökull

A 4.6 M earthquake was 13.8 km south of the glacier Eiríksjökull, basically under Langjökull glacier at 9:48 PM last night. The earthquake was felt in all of the Western part of Iceland, north to Húnvatns county, in the Reykjavik area and all the way south to Rangárvallasýsla. A series of post earthquakes followed and according to Bryndís Ýr Gísladóttir, a specialist in natural hazards with the Icelandic Met Office, the number of earthquakes are now over twenty.

The Icelandic Met Office reported that the source of the earthquake was 3.7 km deep. No earthquakes of this magnitude have been in the area since 2015, but an earthquake over 4 M was in Geitlandsjökull on December 10th that year.

Rare to detect earthquakes of this magnitude in the area

Gísladóttir says that earthquakes rarely get this big in this area, although there is some activity felt.

The biggest post earthquake was detected at 2:30 AM last night and it was 2.9 M.

"It is not uncommon to have a series of post earthquakes, but it looks like the activity is going down now, but we will monitor this closely nonetheless," said Gísladóttir to a reporter from mbl.is.

Gísladóttir does not think this activity is out of the ordinary, even though the earthquake last night was stronger than normally felt in this area.

There is quite some time since there was a volcanic eruption in Langjökull, or 1600 BC.