An earthquake measuring 6.2 (USGS) to 6.3 (IGS) on the Richter magnitude scale is reported to have occurred in Iceland.

The United States Geological Survey plotted the quake’s epicentre at approximately 30 miles South East of Iceland’s capital city Rekjavik at a depth of 10 kilometers

At the moment it is reported that none of Iceland’s 300,000 population have been injured but some buildings are thought to have been damaged near the epicentre.

An earthquake 8 years ago measured 6.6 on the Richter magnitude scale caused damage to buildings but no casualties.

Data report for seismic event us2008sqba from USGS

• 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)

• Event ID us2008sqba

Some more on this Earthquake:

According to the USGS, it was a magnitude 4.7 (Richter) earthquake centred approximately 30 miles south of Kingston-upon-Hull.

A link to full USGS details is here

Update 2:36am: Alternatively, according to the BGS, it was a 5.1, possibly 5.3 Update: Later revised back to a 5.2 in a BGS press-release. The BGS wesbite is here but go easy on clicking, they seem to be down under the load just now.

The thing is, as I can tell from various web forums, the quake was felt over pretty much the whole of England and some parts of Wales. Pardon me for being in awe, but that’s a lot of mass-in-motion

Apparently, it was felt strongly in Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham. Unfortunately, some sheeple from distant parts of the country are already phoning their favorite TV stations in the customary state of feigned distress and the news outlets are gearing up for a “The Day The Earth Shook” style newsgasm or two. No doubt there’ll be a couple of comparisons to other far, far, larger earthquakes due to various newscaster’s failure to grasp that the Richter scale is logarithmic rather than linear.

It’s not readily apparent if there has been any damage or injuries but most if not all UK structures should withstand a magnitude 4.7 earthquake assuming they’re properly designed (although I can think of a conservatory or two which might have fallen down ).