Although Iceland experiences up to 500 earthquakes each week, they are typically not big
enough to be noticed by people, or they occur far from populated areas.
Large earthquakes are more rare but they can occur due to the fact that Iceland is
situated right on top of the Mid-Atlantic ridge, where the North American
and Eurasian plates meet at this divergent boundary.
There are two main types of earthquakes in Iceland, some of them are
caused by volcanic activity and the others are caused
by tectonic plate movements.
The seismicity of Iceland is shown in this map below.
Even though earthquakes are very common here, they cause little
damage due to the quality construction of buildings and homes in this region.
This is also not a highly populated country which contributes to the low incidence
of injury or death, even in a large earthquake.
There is a great deal of research and outreach on public safety,
from the Icelandic government which also helps with mitigation of damages.
References:
Icelandic Meteorological Office:
https://en.vedur.is/earthquakes-and-volcanism/earthquakes
Earthquake Engineering Research Centre:
Everything you need to know about earthquakes in Iceland
Government of Iceland
Hey Julie, first off i want to say i love the title of your post this week. I really enjoyed reading about Iceland. Its interesting that that country experiences 500 earthquakes a week. Its a good that Iceland doesn't cause much damage unlike my country India it causes big damage. Thank you for the information on Iceland
ReplyDeleteHello Julie, thank you for the great information on Iceland. Just like my country Jamaica, earthquakes are quite common, but cause little damage due to the architecture being built in preparation for disaster. Nice post!
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