Norway's biggest quake hits Svalbard archipelago

Thu Feb 21, 2008 5:38am EST

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By Aasa Christine Stoltz

OSLO, Feb 21 (Reuters) - An earthquake of 6.2 magnitude -- the biggest in Norwegian history -- jolted the thinly populated Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic on Wednesday night, the Norsar seismic research institute said on Thursday.

Norwegian media reported no one was hurt by the quake and no damaged had been reported in the islands, about 1,000 km (600 miles) from the North Pole.

"This is the biggest earthquake on Norwegian territory in history," the institute said in a statement.

"The earthquake happened at sea about 10 km below the surface, and was felt strongly in (the town of) Longyearbyen."

Norsar said it registered several aftershocks, and predicted there would be more.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and other leaders will be in Svalbard next week for the official opening of a seed vault which will store frozen crop seeds from round the world in case crops are wiped out by a future disaster.

The quake was reported at 0246 GMT on Thursday and its epicentre was about 140 km (85 miles) southeast of Longyearbyen.

The last big earthquake struck the archipelago, which is roughly the size of Ireland, on Jan. 18, 1976, and measured 5.5 on the Richter scale, the research institute said.

Norway has sovereignty over Svalbard, which lies north of mainland Europe and east of Greenland, in the Arctic Ocean. (Additional reporting by Wojciech Moskwa; editing by Tim Pearce)



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