A magnitude 5.4 earthquake hit central Iceland at 05:36 UTC on July 28, 2026, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The epicenter was about 113 kilometers south of Akureyri, at 64.6849 degrees north, 17.6544 degrees west, and the rupture was shallow, 10 kilometers down.
One person filed a Did You Feel It? report with the USGS. The maximum shaking intensity came out at 7.5 on the Modified Mercalli scale, which the tracker labels severe. The USGS PAGER system issued a green alert, meaning no significant casualties or damage were expected. The event was detected by 102 seismic stations.
Akureyri, the nearest populated place, has 18,925 residents. Local time was about 4:36 in the morning.
Where it sits
The epicenter lies on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, where the North American and Eurasian plates pull apart by 18 to 25 millimeters a year, helped along by the Iceland mantle plume. A quake of this size releases energy comparable to roughly 2 kilotons of TNT, and fault-scaling estimates put the rupture length at about 3.2 kilometers.
The largest earthquake on record in Iceland was the M6.6 South Iceland quake of June 17, 2000, so this one was far smaller.
After the shock
Aftershock sequences from a magnitude 5.4 quake can run for days to weeks and fade gradually. The USGS keeps monitoring them.
